Illinois governor arrested on corruption charges.......
 

Seriously? He tried to sell Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder and thought he'd get away with it?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008...deral-custody/

That is just utterly insane. Illinois politics for you.

Crap, I hope I get my bid $$$ back.

Couple of other things of note:

1. The labor unions were basically buying a vote with this setup. I'm guessing that they can't get any of the union bosses on this, but one wonders if this will hurt their bargaining power going forward with bailouts like the auto industry, where union worker expenses are through the roof.

2. Obama had reportedly been lobbying for an African-American to replace him in the Senate. I wonder if this governor was ratted out by people affiliated with Obama who were pissed off at the notion of him selling that seat rather than making it a fair evaluation. I can't say I would blame them if that were the case.

You're in Delaware. Bid on your own open seat. :D

Apparently according to Red State's reading of the complaint:

BrianFaughnan’s blog » Charges Against Blago Imply Obama Camp Link ::

Blago tried to get a seat as Secretary of HHS in exchange for whoever Obama wanted for the seat, and it seems Obama's team ratted him out to the FBI for it.

How will the Senate seat get filled? Assuming Blago fights the charges, will he still get to appoint the next Senator?

Yay, we can FINALLY get his ass out.

Interesting. It didn't take much to connect the dots, but good to see that likely was the case.

If he does, the Senate can refuse to seat him or her (due to concerns they may have bribed their way on).

:+1:

It's amazing to think that Blago would practice so much corruption (this is just the tip of the iceberg) when he succeeded a governor who went to jail for corruption and racketeering. This latest attempt seems extreme even for him. What an idiot.

So he tries to get a job for himself and his wife as well. Then she in turn was linked to Rezko through work for his development company, and now works for a non-profit community group run by a former Daley official.

I wonder if the feds have his-and-her cells?

Not to be too confrontational, but did you get more confirmation of that, besides the gossip columnist?

Word.

I was just speculating when I posted it. I really don't think it's a stretch at all. I'm not an Obama supporter, but I'm a big fan of him if he rats out people who play political games. My personal opinion of Obama certainly improves if it pans out to be correct.

As an Illinoisan all I can say is... indeed. Now we're looking at nonstop coverage for the next few months, and having to see that hairdo more than is humanly necessary.

What's really crazy to me is that allegations have been flying around for a long time about corruption in his office, and instead of laying low for a while, he continues to get involved in influence peddling. It's laughable what an idiot he is, if only because he apparently thought he was untouchable. :lol:

Anothing interesting thing I noticed. The federal probe has been going on for five years according to court documents. So they've been looking into this guy the entire time he's been in office. Amazing.

For the record, Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is the Lt. Governor and will become Governor when Blagovich is impeached or resigns, which can't happen soon enough.

Somewhat ironically, Quinn was reportedly one of the people being considered (how seriously I have no idea) for Obama's old seat. And from one account I read on some blogger's site this morning, the state AG (who was also at least a possibility) really wants to be governor. Seems all rather incestuous or something.

If ever a state might want to consider a third party candidate, Illinois might be somewhere looking for an alternative.

That seems like such a high profile fraud to try and get away with. It being a senate seat, and Obama's seat. And the fact that he didn't seem to have a deal worked out for it, but just shopped it on back channels. How could he ever expect that not to get out?

It seems to me that if you are going to do fraud, you do it by selling things like the assistant commissioner for state parks or something--the kind of job that won't have the national media's attention.

Anyway, if any of this complaint is true, then good riddance.

Hmm... If he does appoint someone to the seat before he is impeached, and the Franken/Coleman race ends up as contentious as it appears to be headed, the Senate may have to spend the first few weeks deciding who should be in the Senate. Fun for Democracy nerds to watch, but probably not great for the Country.

I think this is a very poor reading of Illinois politics. Quinn's name had not come up in most discussions of the Senate seat, simply because it was likely to go to a minority or to someone to shore up Blagovich's own political chances. The AG, who is the daughter of the Speaker of the Illinois House, wanted the Governor's seat because her family and Blagovich don't get along. Whether she'll attempt to mount a primary challenge against a known reformer who is suddenly going to be the sitting Governor is a different question.

DOLA: Jon you are right though that this cries for a 3rd party since the Republicans in Illinois are even weaker than the Dems DESPITE this.

I just saw this and don't understand. Isn't this normal operations for any politicians in the position of authority and granting favors?

A couple of quotes from the documents I've seen floating around.



He's [expletive].

This wasn't a spur of the moment move -- they've obviously been wire tapping this guy for a while, probably related to his connections with Rezko. If that's the case, it would seem to indirectly clear Obama's name in relation to Rezko. Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney on the case, has balls of titanium when it comes to going after people with power and if he had the goods on Obama, he would have gone after him before the election.

Definitely sounds like they made their move now though to prevent the governor from filling the Senate seat.

In a side note, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn's Web site has crashed. Power of the Internet. Probably by a bunch of Maple Leafs fans.

I just said the guy was a possibility, didn't bother to go into how unlikely a selection he would be since he apparently didn't get along with Blag anyway. But could he/would he, as governor hypothetically, appoint himself? That's the reason I mentioned the AG thing, as it seems at least possible that he might end up _not_ being a sitting governor for longer than it would take to appoint himself. Seems as though she could end up running in a vacuum instead of against an incumbent.

Least. Surprising. News. Ever.

The fact that he got caught is surprising, IMO.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is saying the Trib broke the story and asked them about it, was asked not to publish it, and they agreed not to.

You're correct. If Quinn were to appoint himself the order of succession would make the AG the sitting Gov, a positions she's certainly indicated she's wanted. I hadn't understood at first what you were getting at. That being said, Quinn has always been a crusading "good governance" guy (he first rose to prominence arguing for a reform of the way Illinois selected its members in the house) and so seems like more of a fit as Gov than Sen

One reason why I think if you run for another office, regardless if you win or not, you should have to give up your current seat and allow the people (you know, the idea of democracy) to vote on the next person of the seat.

I am a registered Illinois Democrat and I can honestly say I've never voted for this guy. The last time he was up I voted for the green candidate. I think he got close to 5% (i'm too lazy to look it up). But what does that say about the state that we could have two governors -- from opposite parties -- in jail at the same time?

That there is a state with more corruption than New Jersey.

If Wiki is correct, it was actually a little more than 10%.

Shit, They would be better off digging up Lincoln. At least he wouldnt be corruptable

Wiki is indeed correct. I voted Green in that election as well, partially so that they might get over the 10% mark, which now confers some electorate benefits on them (signatures, money, stuff like that).

Figured that since the GOP can't challenge Democrats in the state, might as well start building another party that might. :D

BTW, I just read parts of the criminal complaint the DA filed (which is on the NYT's front page, amongst other places) and if the quotes from the phone taps alone are correct, Blago is in deep, deep trouble. What a tool. :D

There's some video/audio of him yesterday at a public appearance. Someone had asked him about the possibility of a wire tap or investigation. He yammered on about how he'd be happy to talk to anyone and that he has nothing to hide. He also mentioned how his sole purpose was to help the common man of Illinois. He said a few other things, all of which are now hysterical in hindsight given today's developments.

Even if he didn't know about the wiretap, he has known for a while that he was under investigation. What an idiot to try and do this while he knew Fitz was watching him.

OBAMA'S ILLINOIS SENATE SEAT FOR SALE - eBay (item 160303950570 end time Dec-19-08 10:00:13 PST)

:D

Now YOU TOO can be a Senator ;).

I haven't paid any attention to Illinois politics (why should I?), so this is really the first time I have gotten a look at Blagovich.

And I have to say, "Wow, you guys elected this guy?" Dude, he looks EXACTLY like an evil, smarmy politician. You couldn't cast an actor to look this part this on the dot in a movie about evil politicians. I'm surprised people didn't take one look at this guy and throw up a little in their mouths. Yech!

And, yes, this is from someone in the state of California, which elected the Terminator to be governor.

Real simple.

He played the Change Card (tm) in '02, against a Republican party who were covered in the filth of the now imprisoned George Ryan administration.

And the Republicans managed to present an even bigger turd in 06' in the form of one Judy Baar-Topinka, who I think was finally nominated from a die roll. The Republican primary for governor was utterly disgusting, even by Illinois standards.

I'm an Illinois resident and Blagojevich won by default. In his first run, people simply voted for the Democrat because Republicans were so corrupt. Now, no party is worth a lick.

The funny thing is that we all knew he was corrupt and would be arrested sometime. I thought it would be after he left office. The word around Chicago is that Rahm Emanuel pushed this through after he tried to cut a deal with the administration on a candidate. Obama wanted Schakowsky in and Blagojevich wanted something in return. When they realized he was just selling it, they sold him out.

Blago was just upholding an IL tradition.

The cynical part of me wonders how this is any different than how any other politician gets their job (except that it's somehow more direct).

Obama did well to emerge cleanly from the cesspool that is Illinois politics.

Fixed.

Nobody gets that high in Illinois politics without getting dirty. You said it. It's a freakin' cesspool.

Isn't all politics based on I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine? With so much money to dole out and re-elections to gain, how can it not work this way?

Am I out of line, though, in just judging the book by its cover? Seriously, this guy looks like a potential politician bad guy in the new '24' season. I asm thinking Rob Lowe will play him in the TV movie, and I mean the sleazy Rob Lowe of Wayne's World and Tommy Boy, not the 'good' Rob Lowe of West Wing.

That's the hilarious thing. He looked and acted liked a sleeze to begin with. There were very few illusions that he anything BUT a sleezeball. The other side still didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, thanks to Rod's future cellmate, George Ryan.

I think Obama's clean. He ran his first campaign against the machine and got clobbered. He got into the State Senate without a lot of machine help and was never very high in the in-state politics. He won the primary for U.S. Senate after the two "connected" candidates self-imploded and he won the GE for that seat without needing much help after Ryan (another Ryan) self-destructed.

I think it's altogether likely he a) never had to resort to shenanigans and b) never became indebted to anyone.

Until this year.