I think that I probably should do a post on the whole Blago thing. Ok, as I'm sure you are all aware of by now, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by the FBI yesterday on charges of corruption related to his attempted sale of Barack Obama's now vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. No, that's not a misprint, the dude actually tried to sell a seat in the United States Senate. Obviously, this isn't a very classy move and even though it appears that Barack Obama was not involved, it's not exactly an ideal scenario for the president-elect. That being said, in the criminal complaint (pdf), Blagojevich calls Obama a "motherfucker" and bemoans the fact that Obama isn't offering him anything in exchange for his desired candidate, candidate 1 (believed to be Valerie Jarrett) to which he states, "fuck him!" If I were Obama, I'd be pretty stoked that this cat hates me. It was also reported initially, that the individual that tipped off the FBI about Blagojevich's wrong doing may have been none other than Barack Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Although his office is now denying that (however, it should be noted that a federal investigation is underway, so don't look too deep into his denial). If Emanuel did indeed tip off the Feds, that is great news for Obama, and he probably has little to worry about aside from some embarrassment. Another important thing to take away from this is that it is highly doubtful that this arrest is in any way politically motivated. The U.S. Attorney for Chicago is Patrick Fitzgerald. He's the prosecutor that handled the Plame-leak investigation that led to the indictment of Scooter Libby. In other words, this dude is as straight arrow as they come. The indispensable TPM has even pointed out that Obama wants Fitzgerald to stay on in Chicago for his administration.
Needless to say, this is a sad state of affairs that further blights the name of an already famously corrupt city and state. One can only hope that Blagojevich will face serious consequences for his actions and that the fallout from this disaster will have little bearing on Barack Obama's agenda at this crucial juncture.
P.S. One of the positive elements coming out of this whole affair is that The New Yorker is already tossing around ideas for "Blagojevich! The Musical"
P.P.S. According to some of her statements in the criminal complaint, it's not unreasonable for one to draw the conclusion that Patricia Blagojevich, Rod's wife, hates the Cubs. That's change that every Milwaukee Brewers fan can believe in!
Picture courtesy of Flickr user jburwen December 9, 2008
