Blagojevich, Bush and the Boy Emperor's Little Black Rock

If you have never read a book about the history of Roman emperors, you are missing some real juicy perspectives on what power can do to the human mind.

Being Emperor of Rome was pretty heady stuff. For one, you got to pretty much pretend you were a god on earth. That meant every appetite was fair game. Some indulged. Some resisted and became great leaders.

It has been a few years since I read Roman history, but I recall that one young Emperor inherited the throne at a very young age. Either out of a need for security or because he was whacked out of his mind from the get-go the Boy Emperor took to worshipping a black stone. He made every one else in the empire worship his stone as well. He danced in front of Senators holding his stone aloft so that everyone could pay homage to the rock he thought held great powers. Some think the rock was a meteorite.

People pretty quickly got sick of worshipping the Boy Emperor's stone. The military planned a coup. They murdered the Emperor to rid the empire of a bad leader. That was also the end of worshipping the little black rock. For what does that little rock stand?

That little black rock stands for personal pride and ideology. You can't force personal desires on the populace, and you can't shove doctrine down the throats of the masses. That's what George W. Bush tried to do. He essentially inherited the Presidency, or stole it by some accords, and like a Boy Emperor pranced before the people flaunting his personal ideology. He tried to make America in his own image, and failed.

The same goes for the Boy Governor Rod Blagojevich. He's treated Illinois like a playground for his the little black rock known as pay-to-play. Now the army of state is planning to murder him in his tent.

These are two politicians who assumed too much authority when they were elected. Both are now on the way out. Bush is wising up and trying to work with other parties to repair his legacy, while Blagojevich rambles on like the Boy Emperor dancing down the street holding his Little Black Rock aloft.

We'll see which of these two has the better strategy for survival.