Whoa:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges.
A three-year federal corruption investigation of pay-to-play politics in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has expanded to include his impending selection of a new U.S. senator to succeed President-elect Barack Obama, the Tribune has learned.
Federal authorities got approval from a judge before the November general election to secretly record the governor, sources told the Tribune, and among their concerns was whether the selection process might be tainted. That possibility has become a focus in an intensifying investigation that has included recordings of the governor and the cooperation of one of his closest friends.
Man, I don’t even know what to say.
UPDATE by Diego Infierno: Wow:
Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being “stuck” as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.
In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: “if . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.” Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”
What an asshole!
heres what i have to say. if the allegations are true… go to jail.
If Blago has to resign who takes over as Govenror?
was the face of the illinois dem party in 2008, and not that douchebag. if balgo had been the face of the illinois dems, we might have seen a realignment of illinois to the republicans like the dems saw in ohio during 06-08 and beyond. this might be worse than bob taft. we need him to resign and get a clean dem (if one exists in illinois,) to get the governors seat.
i agree. get him out. to me, a violation of public trust… by an ELECTED official should carry extra penal time. something like… like caesars wife… an elected public official should be above suspicion.
This could have happened before election day.
“It’s worse than a crime, it’s a mistake.” Was that Bismarck?
Seriously, how stupid could Blagojevich be, doing this even though his administration is already under scrutiny? Of course his alleged criminal activity will be used to taint all other Illinois Dems, including whoever ends up getting this Senate seat.
All these corrupt politicians are Dems all of a sudden – Jefferson, Rangel, Blagojevich. Not a great way to start the next cycle. Thanks goodness Obama has sky high approvals. Had to love this from Bill Schneider – “An Obama job approval rating of 79%, that’s the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster.”
It looks like the specific charges revolve around bribery and the appointment of Obama’s replacement in the Senate. Yikes!!
Unlike my mayor Leaping Larry Langford .
Anybody find it not so ironic that we are at the end of this current crop of U.S. Attorneys and we are seeing all kinds of indictments?
This is why Illinois usually has a Republican Governor.
This is a good thing. If only justice for corporate criminals like KBR were that swift!
this would be another rare instance in which I’d chose a Green, in this case Rich Whitney, over a Dem.
Emil Jones can forget about being the placeholder, since he’s Blago’s frontrunner choice.
Oh, you dumb son of a bitch! You ain’t boxing your way out of this round, douchebag!
a dose of draconian justice is called for to make elected officals think twice. it may be a tad extreme, but i suggest we bring back public hangings of such officials. it would satisfy the publics bloodlust, give notice to politicans that the penalties are severe, and mete out an appropriate justice. maybe then we would have an aboveboard honest elected government.
the flip side is good people might not run and the penalty would become too frequent.
What was the final bidding price?
A good statewide scandel by FL repubs is exactly what we need to make a comeback at the state and local level. Come on Gov. Crist, we’re coutning on you!
will purge itself of one more bad Democratic official. First was Jefferson last week, and now we have Blago. If Dems are to be removed from office, I couldn’t pick a better time–after the Presidential election.
The truth of the matter is that most of us knew that Blago was corrupt, and having him busted should be viewed as a good thing for our party in the long term. I could only imagine what else he could have done the next two years if he wasn’t caught now. The damage from Blago’s involvement should stay on a State level and not spread to the Federal level (or other states). Maybe this is hopeful wishing, I dunno…
Blago on person Obama wants (probably Valerie Jarrett) for the Senate seat: ‘they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F*** them’. Nice. This is all on that slimy piece of shit.
Rahm Emanuel on himself, Obama, and getting Blago into office:
“We used to sit around helping our governor get elected, help those strategy meetings”
This story is so crazy its almost too hard to believe. What sort of idiot does something like this when he knows darn well hes being watched 24/7 by investigators? This is like those fools running from the law getting caught because they were pulled over for running a red light. Its just not the sort of thing anyone with a brain would do lol.
This guy was trying to buy his own legacy. That’s a new low.
Corruption itself is bad enough, but what really gets me about this is just the rank stupidity of the corruption. Jesus Christ, how could Blago have thought this wasn’t going to be found out…
is they’ve got this buffoon on tape cursing out Obama for refusing to play. “All they offered was appreciation …” Good to have that clear separation from the President-Elect.
Scary thing is that the Feds expected he’d try to pull something with the appointment and got a judge to agree and allow the wiretap. Makes you think that whatever he did before had to be pretty bad, too.
I’m just glad he didn’t appoint himself. Especially since he might actually be right about Democrats being more risk adverse as far as challenging a Senator and risking losing a Senate seat.
I just hope there isn’t any dirt on Emil.
Blago could serve some time in the same prison cell as Ted Stevens. We could create a new sitcom called “The Newest Odd Couple”.
Any evidence that he was picked because of some sort of bribery? He’s President of the IL Senate afterall.
2010 is going to be a tough year for Democrats and if we’re just giving up seats left and right we will be murdered! MASACURED A TELLZ YOU!
Besides, Blago is one of our best prospects for 2016. I hope he appoints himself to the Senate and runs in 2016.
Draft Blago for Pres 2016!!!!!
http://thehill.com/leading-the…
Good idea.
Run for president? Seriously?
Some of the other stuff might be tolerable with people in Illinois. F’ing with the Cubs is not one of them.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…
A diary on Daily Kos citing sources at the Huffington Post seems to think it’s the case. Good news if true.