by Rick Fontes

Created on: December 19, 2008

Rod. May I call you "Rod?" You've been such a constant presence in all the media outlets lately that it seems you are a close friend. Anyway, Rod, don't blow this opportunity to make a difference and to insure your place in history.

Shakespeare, writing in his play Julius Caesar, said "There is a tide in the affairs of men which, if taken at the flood, leads on to success. Omitted, all their lives are mired in shallows and miseries." You are riding the crest of such a tide right now, my friend, and it will either wash you into the backwaters of history or carry you onto the shining beaches of fame and prosperity.

Guilty or not, you are being played up as the bad guy. Use that position to your advantage while you can. After all, bad guys become folk heroes. Everyone remembers Bonnie and Clyde but who can name the leader of the team that brought them down? John Dillinger is a household name, Melvin Purvis is not. Robin Hood is the sympathetic character rather than the Sheriff of Nottingham.

To borrow a bit of wisdom from Peanuts star, Charlie Brown, "If you can't beat them, cooperate them to death."

Mr. Fitzgerald is poised to become the enduring hero in your mutual drama. He expects to play "Elliott Ness" to your "Cleveland mob" even though you are holding all the trump cards.

Guilt and innocence are such relative terms in today's world. Madoff is a arch criminal for his Ponzi scheme while congress and their buddies are good guys for lining their own pockets, while "bailing out the economy," after their own legal version of the same scheme went bust.

Sarah Palin was pilloried for her perceived lack of experience while Caroline Kennedy, with even less experience, is receiving a coronation.

As in Orwell's 1984, truth is lies and lies are truth. You played the game according to the rules as you understood them to be. You did nothing that was different from what many others before you had done without negative repercussions. Unfortunately, "everyone else is doing it" is not a viable defense.

I know that we are only supposed to "dance with them that brung us" but, stick with that philosophy and I don't think that you will enjoy the ride home from this prom.

Hey, buddy, a lot of us are on your side. We applauded when Newman and Redford hoist the gamblers on their own petard in "The Sting." In Peckinpah's 1972 film, The Getaway," we cheered when Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw bought that clunker of a pickup truck from Slim Pickens and, loot in hand, sped off into Mexico.

We are in the era of the anti-hero and no one could be better placed for that role than you are today. You don't need a lawyer nearly as much as you need an agent.

Hell's bells fellow, I'll buy the book and see the movie. All of America's politics has morphed into one gigantic reality show anyway so why shouldn't you cash in instead of letting them cast you as the patsy loser?

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