Feds: Ill. gov was on ‘corruption crime spree’Blagojevich allegedly put ‘for sale’ sign on naming of Obama’s replacement
NBC News and news services
updated 11 minutes ago
CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on federal charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.
A 76-page FBI affidavit says the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to use the vacant Senate seat to obtain personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
In Illinois, the governor selects a successor when there is a mid-term Senate vacancy. Obama resigned from the Senate soon after winning the Nov. 4 presidential election.
More later.
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Update: 3:45 PM EDT It was rather humorous, upon hearing about Governor Blagojevich’s arrest, to read the following article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, printed well before the arrest:
- Illinois governor turns up the heat¹
He is trying to pressure a bank into helping laid-off workers staging a sit-in.
By Rupa Shenoy, Associated Press
CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich yesterday ordered all state agencies in Illinois to stop doing business with Bank of America Corp. to try to pressure the bank into helping laid-off workers staging a sit-in at their shuttered factory.
The governor wants the bank to use some of its federal bailout money to keep Republic Windows & Doors Inc. open, resolving the protest by about 200 company workers.
The sit-in began Friday and has fast become a symbol of the sour economy’s impact on labor. The workers have promised to remain inside the plant in shifts until they get assurances they will receive severance and vacation pay.
Just this morning, Governor Blagojevich was a hero, don’t you know, with the picture shown here taking more than 15 column inches (slightly more than two columns wide by 7½ inches long) on the front page of the business section. Somehow, that particular story got taken down from the Inquirer’s “today’s newspaper” listing on the website, and I had to do a site search to find it. 
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¹ – The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, 9 December 2008, p. C-1
Wasn’t this guy under indictment anyway???
He was being investigated, but I hadn’t heard that he was under indictment.
I tried to find a YouTube of Claude Rains telling Humphrey Bogard, “I’m just a poor corrupt official,” but couldn’t.
Bulldog Fitzpatrick has this. Hope he is as thorough here like he was on the Valerie Plame leak case. Also, DRUDGE has some interesting Rezko stuff.
In the meantime:
Duhhh! Why bother?
It’s hard to say. Certainly the indictment makes Mr. Obama look clean, and there is precedent (in Harry Truman) for clean Senators from states with corrupt machines.
From Ben Smith:
I need money said Governor Rod
So if you want the Senate nod
Come up with the cash
And do it real fast
And then you can work with Chris Dodd.
Rod thought he’d get cash
for selling Barack’s old seat;
wonder what jail’s like?
Selling Barack’s old seat for cash would be an obamanation.
5 points for TPA!
Dear Governor Blagojevich,
I’m interested in the Senate seat vacated by our new President-elect. I will be moving to Illinois soon to establish residency. Will trade 1982 Toyota PU (still running), three Jose Canseco rookie cards, and a one original Marilyn Monroe Playboy Centerfold. Please respond by email, usdoj.gov/compensation/bribes/…..
To answer the title of your post
No, he just didn’t stay in Chicago politics long enough to get caught
Senator Truman came from a state where the Pendergast Mob was a truly criminal organization. Yet he seemed not to have been tainted by the corruption that swirled about him.
Truman never gained the wealth associated with corruption and he and his wife drove home from Washington in the family Ford.
Blago and wife seemed to be getting rather prosperous in what was supposed to be ‘public service’. Their greed seemed to know no limits.
The test of Obama will come later. If he is clean, then there will be no interference with justice. No U S Attorneys will be replaced to derail completion of any investigations and there will be no pardons. That ‘get out of jail free’ card for fugitive swindler Marc Ritch seemed to go for more than the bids for a Senate seat.
If there is something to hide and Obama lets the Blagos (the wife seems to be into the game up to her foul mouth) and Rezko spend some time in prison, some lips might be loosened.
It could be an interesting two years.