Blago's Crazy Hairbrush Obsession
Arrested corrupt Illinois governor Blagojevich: socially incompetent to Asperger's-like proportions, reports the NYT. Not only was he "deeply concerned about his appearance but he required a certain, special hairbrush on hand at all times:
And yet, Mr. Blagojevich, 52, rarely turns up for work at his official state office in Chicago, former employees say, is unapologetically late to almost everything, and can treat employees with disdain, cursing and erupting in fury for failings as mundane as neglecting to have at hand at all times his preferred black Paul Mitchell hairbrush. He calls the brush “the football,” an allusion to the “nuclear football,” or the bomb codes never to be out of reach of a president.
Blago's bushy black hair is outdated in a 60s-era Eastern European politican style. (Don't think he hasn't been told how hideous it looks; the Times adds that he is "particularly" concerned with "his signature black hair" and has "ignored suggestions to change it.") Yet he runs around with a pet hairbrush that he apparently considers as important as nuclear codes. It's neuroses like these that can explain a lot; Freud would certainly have something anal-retentive to say about it.