Illinois Governor Arrested For Selling Obama Senate Seat

**min0 lee** · 12-09-2008, 11:38 AM

Crime: Illinois Governor Arrested For Selling Obama Senate Seat
You want your Chicago-style politics? They don't come much more Chicago-style than this: Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was just arrested, along with his chief of staff, by FBI agents. How many corrupt things can one Governor do before a new ethics law takes effect at the beginning of next year? Blagojevich was apparently trying to set some sort of record. And Rezko's involved! And Tribune Co! Let's start with Rod's charming decision to sell the Senate seat vacated by squeaky clean president-elect Barack Obama!

From the 76-page FBI affidavit:

**min0 lee** · 12-09-2008, 01:45 PM

**min0 lee** · 12-09-2008, 01:49 PM

AP: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder in what a federal prosecutor called a "corruption crime spree."

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a news conference prosecutors make "no allegations" Obama was aware of any alleged scheming.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

"We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it," Fitzgerald said Tuesday, calling the corruption charges against Blagojevich "a truly new low."

**maniclion** · 12-09-2008, 03:06 PM

If I were his lawyer I'd claim he was trying to sell the chair he sat in not the actual position, plea guilty to Conspiring to steal gov. property and wham bam thank you ma'am....

**IronAddict** · 12-09-2008, 04:31 PM

Proving corruption has no party lines...Thanks gov.Blagojevich...Now go and sell your hair care products!

**lucifuge** · 12-09-2008, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

If I were his lawyer I'd claim he was trying to sell the chair he sat in not the actual position, plea guilty to Conspiring to steal gov. property and wham bam thank you ma'am....

lol, unfortunately (for Blago) they have him on tape saying some pretty unbelievable stuff.
He was even considering appointing himself to Obama's Senate seat so he could possibly make a run for President in 2016.

The really funny part of it is that he was on camera the other day practically daring anyone to try and record his conversations.

He's pretty screwed... now they just gotta nail Daley's corrupt ass for the hat trick.

**Jarhed** · 12-09-2008, 05:57 PM

YouTube Video

**lnvanry** · 12-09-2008, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by lucifuge

lol, unfortunately (for Blago) they have him on tape saying some pretty unbelievable stuff.
He was even considering appointing himself to Obama's Senate seat so he could possibly make a run for President in 2016.

The really funny part of it is that he was on camera the other day practically daring anyone to try and record his conversations.

He's pretty screwed... now they just gotta nail Daley's corrupt ass for the hat trick.

I don't know why anyone is surprised with this charade...its chicago politics as usual. Anyone else who has lived in this city (Which I am moving back to in Jan) know exactly what I"m talking about...practically all our gov. get in this type of trouble...hell I think there are 2 or 3 still in prison for it.

Blago should've included Daley in on the deal and maybe he wouldn't be so screwed....Daley isn't going any there Luci. THey've tried to get him and his father for decades and it never sticks...they just scape goat their staff who gets taken care of for the sacrifice.

This stuff isn't anything new

**busyLivin** · 12-10-2008, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by lnvanry

I don't know why anyone is surprised with this charade...its chicago politics as usual. Anyone else who has lived in this city (Which I am moving back to in Jan) know exactly what I"m talking about...practically all our gov. get in this type of trouble...hell I think there are 2 or 3 still in prison for it.

Blago should've included Daley in on the deal and maybe he wouldn't be so screwed....Daley isn't going any there Luci. THey've tried to get him and his father for decades and it never sticks...they just scape goat their staff who gets taken care of for the sacrifice.

This stuff isn't anything new

Yep. Daley is too smart & too well connected to be taken down. Blago is small time next to Daley.

Like you said, it's Chicago politics. They're just going to make some other dirty asshole my gov now.

That's why Dickless Durbin wants George Ryan pardoned... he probably has dirt on him.

Highest sales tax in the US & murder capital of the country... so much for our anti-gun bullshit.

Why do I live here again?

**Jarhed** · 12-10-2008, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by busyLivin

Highest sales tax in the US & murder capital of the country... so much for our anti-gun bullshit.

Why do I live here again?

LOL!!! I'm a transplanted Chicagoan myself. I saw the light and got out of "Dodge". Not that Cali is any better, I just needed a different environment. Maybe corruption is more tolerable in SoCal, then again, maybe not!

**min0 lee** · 12-10-2008, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by IronAddict

Proving corruption has no party lines...Thanks gov.Blagojevich...Now go and sell your hair care products!

Yeah, that's the first thing I notice...while most men his age lose hair he seems to grow more.

**min0 lee** · 12-10-2008, 03:02 PM

Chicago seems has a history of corruption, Busy or Ivanry called this a while ago....

**IronAddict** · 12-10-2008, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Yeah, that's the first thing I notice...while most men his age lose hair he seems to grow more.

Yeah, he's gonna turn Bubba on something fiercly.

**min0 lee** · 12-10-2008, 04:55 PM

ABC News: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Is 'Senate Candidate No. 5', Says He Did Nothing Wrong

Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous "Senate Candidate No. 5" whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, his attorney confirmed today after it was reported earlier on ABCNews.com "The Blotter".

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. calls for Ill Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign.
According to the FBI affidavit in the case, Blagojevich "stated he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided Rod Blagojevich" with something "tangible up front."

Jackson told ABC News this morning he was contacted Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Chicago whom he said "asked me to come in and share with them my insights and thoughts about the selection process."

**min0 lee** · 12-10-2008, 08:09 PM

I think Chicago should be happy that Jesse Jackson JR. will not get the seat.

**busyLivin** · 12-12-2008, 03:03 PM

George Ryan wants to give a public apology now. Unbelievable. If Bush pardons him even I won't like him anymore.

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2008, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by busyLivin

George Ryan wants to give a public apology now. Unbelievable. If Bush pardons him even I won't like him anymore.

Wow, that guy was pretty crooked.

**busyLivin** · 12-12-2008, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Wow, that guy was pretty crooked.

That's Chicago politics... You want crooked? Daley dwarfs them all!

**busyLivin** · 12-12-2008, 03:47 PM

one of my favorites...
AOPA Online: Mayor Daley bulldozes Chicago's Meigs Field

look at the pictures.. it would be funny if it wasn't real

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2008, 03:48 PM

How do they get away with this?
I can understand it it's not a problem but I'm always hearing about how crooked it is there...this goes back to the Capone days I imagine.

**busyLivin** · 12-12-2008, 03:56 PM

They do it because they've gotten away with it for so long that they've gotten arrogant.
Most of them are second generation.

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2008, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by busyLivin

one of my favorites...
AOPA Online: Mayor Daley bulldozes Chicago's Meigs Field

look at the pictures.. it would be funny if it wasn't real

WTF???

**busyLivin** · 12-12-2008, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

WTF???

No kidding..at the time he wanted to put in a casino there. You see all the planes pictured that he stranded there?

**IronAddict** · 12-12-2008, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by busyLivin

No kidding..at the time he wanted to put in a casino there. You see all the planes pictured that he stranded there?

Shit! that is obscene!

**lnvanry** · 12-12-2008, 04:43 PM

its not obscene...its the chicago. Min0...try to think of how NY was during the first half of 1900s in terms of the political scene and crime....thats chicago.

The countries most powerful italian mafia doesn't reside on the east coast anymore either....How about the story when Daley sr. had the truck unions fail to plow the roads during an election season and made it look like the sitting mayor didn't know how to remove snow, when in actuality he was sabotaged. The unions and the Daley's are one.

How about when Daley sr. and his top staff executives where RECORDED (public info you can obtain on the net) speaking with Robert Kennedy during JFKs presidential election....promising that the state of IL "will be democrat"...That was when IL was like the FL or OH of today. A big key swing state. In the end over 25,000 dead people voted for JFK in chicago.

the list goes on and one...hell even today a few thousand dead people vote in chicago.

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2008, 05:13 PM

Damn.....interesting stuff.

Um.....isn't Obama from there?

**lnvanry** · 12-12-2008, 09:35 PM

I have a feeling Obama is a lot cleaner than most coming from IL, but make no doubt about it...if he came from Daley's city, he's got some chicago dirt

**samadamsboyee** · 12-12-2008, 11:57 PM

Dude has the worst hair I have seen since the 80s.

**min0 lee** · 12-13-2008, 08:21 AM

**min0 lee** · 12-13-2008, 08:38 AM

Chicagoans and Illinoisans love political scandal the way that Milanese love opera.

We trade recollections, like baseball cards, about the secretary of state (Paul Powell) who stashed money in shoeboxes, and the Chicago mayor (Harold Washington) whose birthday was April 15 but never filed his income tax return.

Rod Blagojevich stands a chance to be the fourth Illinois governor in recent history, and the second in a row, to wind up in prison. This run suggests that Illinoisans are indifferent to political corruption, and it's hard to argue with such an impressive procession of felonious officials.

But all of Illinois' disgraced former governors were considered honest pols when they were elected. Otto Kerner had gone to Cambridge, won the Bronze Star, and was a respected judge. Dan Walker was a self-righteous reformer of such blatant rectitude that he managed to cast Illinois Congressman Paul Simon -- bow-tied Paul Simon, a man who wouldn't try to sneak a tenth apple into a Nine Items or Less checkout line -- as a stooge for the Chicago machine. George Ryan was considered a slightly frumpy small-town druggist who would keep a wary eye on Chicago sharpies. Mr. Blagojevich, for that matter, ran as a fresh face to chase out Ryan's stale old ways.

Associated Press
I leave it to biographers and psychiatrists to ponder if these governors of both parties were honest men who got corrupted in high office, or lifelong crooks who had simply been waiting for the opportunity.

President-elect Barack Obama has never been close to Mr. Blagojevich. He has aligned with the Daley division of the fractured Democratic machine, while Mr. Blagojevich, chiefly through the sponsorship of his father-in-law, a powerful Chicago alderman, has been from that faction that has always resented the mayor's good fortune for being born with the Daley name.

But while calling for historic change globally, the president-elect has never professed to be a reformer locally. Mr. Obama has surrounded himself with some of the best political talents of Richard M. Daley's team (observe the number of former Daley chiefs of staff and campaign managers among his close associates), and reassured voters across the country that his Chicago roots confer a kind of priceless political street cred that he cites ("Hey -- I'm from the South Side of Chicago!") when skeptics wonder if someone who was a state legislator just four years ago is prepared to sit down with the likes of Vladimir Putin.

In Chicago politics, outright reformers have always been held a little suspect. They are considered too smug to forgive human frailty and temptation, while regulars have a human touch. Larceny may beat in their hearts -- but at least you can tell what's in their hearts; whereas reformers expect people to live by rules.

Reform gets identified with well-educated people who are comfortable with laws that say city jobs should go to the person who is best qualified. After all, educated people usually are the best qualified. Regulars know that regular people sometimes need a little help. Under this kind of ethic, steering rewards to friends and family becomes a virtue. As Mayor Richard J. Daley once famously exclaimed when caught trying to shovel city insurance business to one of his sons (not Richard M. or Bill Daley), "Any father who doesn't do for his son isn't a good father, and if they don't like it, kiss my ass."

A Chicago alderman once complained to me about modern reform hiring laws -- the line was so good, I borrowed it, unembellished, for a novel -- "What's this world coming to when a guy can get a job for a stranger more easily than he can for his brother in law?"

But even those who live by this kind of code are appalled by the allegations against Mr. Blagojevich. Reaping reward for appointing someone to the senate is not unprecedented, or even unethical. I am confident that if Gov. Blagojevich had appointed Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama's reported favorite, to the seat, the people in his administration would consider that they owed the governor some sort of favor, and would have resurfaced a highway, or invited him to a White House dinner with Angelina Jolie. But unsubtly putting a senate seat up for personal auction, as if it were a piece of family jewelry, is arrogance that makes even hardened pols shudder.

Yet that's not even the item that angers me most. Among U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's bill of particulars is the charge that Gov. Blagojevich sought to rescind a state payment of $8 million to Children's Memorial Hospital if their CEO failed to organize a $50,000 contribution to the governor.

Many shameless politicians would send free turkeys to a children's hospital. The publicity is good, and it might help them sleep at night. But this governor was willing to stint on their care if a hospital official didn't oblige him with cash.

When I was in high school, a group of friends and I would pass out toys and candy to children in the hospital wards there. It was both the saddest and sweetest event of the season, and the thought that a public official would dare diminish the care of sick, innocent children over a campaign contribution doesn't just deserve an indictment. I think it reserves that politician a seat in Hell.

Mr. Simon is the host of NPR's Weekend Edition and author of the novel, "Windy City" (Random House, 2008).

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