Some of you know that and former Illinois governor, Rod Blogojevich is on trial for corruption during his tenure as governor. He wasn't the first Illinois governor to be on trial (the governor before him is in jail now), and likely won't be the last.

Interestingly, in today's Chicago Tribune (Link) the definition of "tangible" will be very important during the jurors' deliberations. Blago on tapes had said:

quote:

On one secretly recorded call to an adviser about the possibility of appointing Jackson to the vacant U.S. Senate seat, Blagojevich said there was "tangible, concrete tangible stuff from supporters." And moments later on the same call, he added: "You know, specific amounts and everything."

While admitting the words on cross examination, he said:

quote:

"I use the word 'tangible' a lot when it comes to good stuff for people, government stuff, getting things done for people," Blagojevich testified.

I think one observer had it right when he said, "He had to change the definition. the only thing he could do was a little linguistic gymnastics."

I wonder what the jury will think of that.

So, what is your definition of "tangible?" Does Blogojevich have a point? BTW, the jury is still deliberating...

It sounds to me as if he's desperately trying to make the words mean something different to what they really mean. It's possible that he doesn't know what tangible means - lots of politicians misunderstand and misuse words - but while "tangible" doesn't have to refer to money it does have to refer to something perceptible, something "real".

Me too. It kinda reminds me of President Clinton's well-known line: "It all depends on what you mean by "it." Now, of course, being a literalist myself, I completely understood his point. But not many others did.

I thought the Clinton quote was "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is".

You are correct; sorry about the typo.