Miscellaneous News

Blago is reportedly to be indicted today.

Chickenshits of a Feather Stick Together

Chickenshits of both political parties in Illinois have decided to fall for the bullshit of Patrick Fitzgerald and throw out their embarrassment in the governor's mansion.

Not a single state senator stood up for Blago. Not one.

To put it on a more local level, Nevadans can't and won't get rid of the idiot in Carson City, and he is 100 times the embarrassment Blago is.

And here are those interviews from The View of ol' Rod three days ago:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4 is here.


And Larry King:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Part 5:



Part 6:



Part 7:



Part 8:



A link to these videos is here.

Blago, Etc.

Blagojevich has been impeached by the Illinois House of Representatives by a vote of 114-1:

A Blagojevich spokesman said the governor will not resign. A 2 p.m. news conference with the governor is scheduled for the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.

The actions of the House--approving an article of impeachment maintaining Blagojevich had committed abuses of power--represents the equivalent of an indictment.

The impeachment resolution covering Blagojevich's actions "show a public servant who has betrayed his oath of office, who has betrayed the public trust, who is not fit to govern the state of Illinois,” said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the Chicago Democrat who headed a special panel that recommended Blagojevich’s impeachment a day earlier.

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As far as I am concerned, Dick Durbin is more incompetent than Harry Reid.

Blago, Etc.

I have to agree with this post that it may be time for a new Senate majority leader, despite the fact Harry Reid is my senator:

We now have two vacant Democratic Senate seats, the one duly won by Al Franken in Minnesota and the one vacated by Barack Obama, to which Roland Burris has been appointed by "embattled" Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Regarding the Franken seat, this is over. There is no reason beyond Republican petulance not to seat him at once. But Republicans will always choose petulance over cooperation, and so they are doing now. Senator Franken's vanquished opponent, the incumbent Norm Coleman, has pointlessly challenged the result of Minnesota's meticulous recount in court even though, were Coleman to win every challenge his people have been able to concoct (mostly out of whole cloth), still he would not earn enough additional votes to prevail.

If we wanted to show some strength and create a Senate environment where we will actually be able to move this country properly in the right direction, we would forcefully attempt to seat Franken and let the Republicans try to mount a filibuster. If their filibuster succeeded initially, we should use their obstructionism to change the Senate rules to revert to the OLD filibuster rule, the one we saw in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and during the civil rights struggles of the '60s, where the minority must actually physically hold the floor for cloture to enter into the mix, and otherwise the majority can just wait them out. Or abolish the filibuster entirely.

Under the rules, this would require only a MAJORITY of the Senate, with the concurrence of the President of the Senate (currently unavailable to us because Dick Cheney wouldn't agree, but this will change in less than two weeks when Joe the Biden is sworn in). The Republicans would scream bloody murder but would not be able to avert the attainment of a quorum to enact the change. If we succeeded they would try to shut down the Senate, but without Democratic defections they do not have the numbers to make it stick. This would present some public relations complications but in my opinion it would be worth it in the long run, making compromise with evil so much less of an issue when we try to enact the Administration's various badly needed proposals. Remember, they snookered us out of the filibuster when they held a Senate majority, and I say sauce for the goose...

The current cloture rule is NOT a long-standing Senate tradition and should not be viewed with any particular reverence. To require a supermajority to prevail over an obstinate, obstructionist minority is not reasonable and is not an effective means of governance.

The second seat, the one in Illinois, is demonstrating rather conclusively that the current Senate leadership is too weak to be permitted to endure. Whatever one may think right now of Rod Blagojevich, I might urge that you reserve judgment on that point until more is known, given the partisan nature of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's history (remember, he protected Karl Rove and Dick Cheney from scrutiny during the Valerie Plame scandal, allowing Scooter Libby to become the lone scapegoat for illegal actions that originated right at the top) and his highly improper grandstanding in the current case. I have not heard the entire contents of his wiretap tapes, but what I have heard lends itself to a variety of alternative, less incriminating interpretations than would warrant Fitzgerald's jury-tainting public behavior. Remember, it is unethical for a prosecutor to bring charges or order an arrest unless he has a substantial reason to believe that he would prevail in court, and it is entirely unclear if any illegal act was committed or planned by Rod Blagojevich.

Be that as it may, Mr. Blagojevich remains the duly elected Governor of Illinois with not only the power, but the sworn DUTY, to appoint a successor to fill Barack Obama's now vacant Senate seat. To do otherwise would be an unforgivable breach of his responsibility as governor to serve the needs of Illinois citizens, particularly during this period when legislation plays such an important role in recovering from Bush's various messes and quagmires and a single vote in the Senate may prove decisive in determining the difference between a return to prosperity or a deepening depression.

There is no evidence whatsoever that Roland Burris has done anything even remotely illegal or unethical. Even if Patrick Fitzgerald's worst allegations of wrongdoing by Mr. Blagojevich prove to be true, that does not relate in any way to Roland Burris's qualifications or fitness to hold the Senate seat to which he has been duly appointed.

Harry Reid has been made to look the fool in this, and not for the first time. His whole reaction to it has been inexplicable, childlike in its whinyness, wimpy in its flaccid weakness, and counterproductive of not just the current power but the future stature of the Democratic Party. It is time that we voted in a new, more effective leader more attuned to the needs of the dangerous present and uncertain future.

I have several candidates for the post, each of whom provides various strengths that seem to be absent in Mr. Reid. To name three: Charles Schumer of New York, whose seat is safe and whose willingness to go to the mat against Republican obstructionism (except in the weird matters surrounding the treatment of Wall Street income as tax-favored capital gains instead of earned income) is impressive; Dick Durbin of Illinois, whose intelligence and predilection for partisanship might serve us well against our Republican adversaries; Carl Levin of Michigan, whose record on security and defense are unassailable and whose positions on social matters, particularly worker rights, are exemplary, and who positively drips intellect from every pore.

Maybe Harry Reid was the right man for the times when we were in the minority and needed conciliation in order to preserve whatever we were able to save from the predations of the Republican right wing, but that time is past and we need stronger leadership, leadership that remembers which party won the last few elections and which way the people of the United States want us to go with our legislative affairs. This is NOT served by denying Democrats the seats in the Senate they were elected or appointed to fill.

There are also some good suggestions of what Obama and Congress need to do to get the economy back on track. Trying to "reach across the aisle" with the GOP whose policies created the mess we are in is not the way to go.

The problem is too serious for band-aid solutions.

Blago, Etc.

After some Democratic senators decided to make absolute asses out of themselves over not seating Roland Burris to Obama's vacated Senate seat, there is a possibility he will be seated anyway.

More.

Senate "leaders," and I use that term loosely, deny these reports.

This saga is like something out of the Keystone Kops. If Reid is trying to be crafty and thinking about quashing GOP criticism over the Democrats being the "party of corruption" when the seat becomes open again next year, he's failed miserably.

Blago, Etc.

It has taken me a long, long, long, long time to question Harry Reid's competence, although many bloggers have been questioning it for years. Well, he and the Senate Democrats finally officially jumped the shark by not seating Roland Burris, who hasn't done ONE GODDAMNED THING WRONG, and Governor Blagojevich has not been proven to have done anything wrong, either, and had every GODDAMNED RIGHT TO APPOINT BURRIS to Obama's seat. I have said this and I will say it again, that Fitzgerald created this mess at the behest of the GOP in order to create a mess with the Democratic Party and with the hopes of creating a special election, which the GOP can exploit and attempt to steal.

The timing was everything and made me do an almost 180 on Obama with regard to the so-called Operation Board Games. I am still very critical of his jumping into the situation when he should stay clear of it except to get rid of Fitzgerald.

Reid is yapping about a procedural question as to why Burris won't be seated:

'Mr. Burris is not in possession of the necessary credentials from the state of Illinois,'' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in his speech opening the new session of Congress.

Burris, 71, earlier confirmed that Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson had informed him in a private meeting that his credentials lacked a required signature and his state's seal.

''I will not be accepted, I will not be seated,'' Burris told a mob of reporters who had followed him across the street for a news conference in a cold and steady rain outside the Capitol.

The former Illinois attorney general said he was ''not seeking to have any type of confrontation'' over taking the seat that he was appointed to by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But Burris, who would be the Senate's only black member, also said he was considering a federal lawsuit to force Senate Democrats to seat him.

But what if the procedural problems are corrected? What then, Harry? Are you STILL going to fuck it up?

Blago, Etc.

The only explanation I have for Harry Reid's stupid behavior regarding the Blago mess is he is looking out for himself when he comes up for re-election in 2010, assuming the GOP in Nevada has anybody now that Brian Krolicki is in legal trouble.

This is stupid, completely and utterly stupid. Reid needs to stay far, far away from the Illinois situation, which is nothing more than a trap against the Democrats anyway.

Roland Burris is qualified for the Senate job, and he should be allowed to take the Senate seat. Blago has not been convicted, he has not been impeached, and he has every right to appoint a person to the seat vacated by Barack Obama.

The Democrats have seriously fucked this case up and leave it open for the Republicans to exploit. Patrick Fitzgerald did the GOP's bidding in his ridiculous arrest stunt in order for the Democrats to be put on the offensive. Well, THEY are the ones hurting themselves.

Blago, Etc.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate really ought to shut up about Blago's appointment of Roland Burris to Obama's seat.

The Republicans WANT, desperately WANT, a special election for them to steal. Durbin and the rest need to shut the fuck up and let the drama unfold.

Blago, Etc.

The governor's impeachment hearing is going on right now.

Blago, Etc.

Blago's lawyer plans to subpoena Obama's aides in the latest chapter of the Illinois Circus.

Blago, Etc.

A few out there may say Blago has already opened his mouth enough. In any case, the embattled Illinois governor says he will talk soon about his problems.
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The Illinois court has rejected an attempt to remove the governor.
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Blago, Etc.

Blago will be allowed to appoint the Senate seat after all. Just don't pick anybody on the so-called "list."

Karl Rove is protesting too much, methinks:

Rove, a former top White House adviser to President Bush, said on Fox News, "[Obama] should have, right from the beginning, been more forthcoming."

Rove, a Fox News analyst, added, "He should have come right out at the beginning and acknowledged to the American people exactly what we already know, which is that somebody on his staff, somebody on his team, talked to somebody in Blagojevich's office. That's not the impression they left with the American people. They should have, right from the beginning, said, 'Here's what we did and here's who did it.'"

Pressed by liberal Alan Colmes of the "Hannity and Colmes" show if Rove thinks Obama is hiding something, Rove responded, "I just think he’s mishandled this."

Yeah, right. It's all going according to plan, and he knows it.

You think so?

When Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago, announced the arrest of the Illinois governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, Mr. Fitzgerald said he had acted to halt a political crime spree that included what he called an “appalling” effort to sell off the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

But now some lawyers are beginning to suggest that the juiciest part of the case against Mr. Blagojevich, the part involving the Senate seat, may be less than airtight. There is no evidence, at least none that has been disclosed, that the governor actually received anything of value — and the Senate appointment has yet to be made.

Of course it's not airtight. This whole thing was a scam to steal two Illinois seats ala what happened in Alabama with Don Siegelman. The timing gave the whole thing away.

It's too bad far too many Obama critics who are so-called Democrats can't see the obvious. The timing of the affidavit and arrest gave it away.

And then there's this:

In moving to arrest Mr. Blagojevich on Dec. 9, Mr. Fitzgerald acted without having presented his case before a grand jury. He is now likely to use such a panel to obtain additional witness testimony exploring whether anyone, including anyone in the Obama camp, had specific discussions with the governor’s office about filling the vacancy.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s decision to bypass a grand jury initially could signal a belief on his part that he did not yet have a fully prosecutable case on his hand, though it appears to have been prompted at least in part by the publication in The Chicago Tribune on Dec. 5 of an article that tipped off Mr. Blagojevich that investigators were listening in on his conversations.

Mr. Fitzgerald has also said he had been worried that if he did not intervene, Mr. Blagojevich might go ahead with some of his schemes, including appointing a successor to Mr. Obama.

Appointing a successor to a vacant Senate seat, which is what a state governor DOES, is called a "scheme." Can it be MORE obvious what the intent of the arrest and affidavit was?

This is pure politics. Obama better get rid of Fitzgerald and all of the other U.S. attorneys appointed by Bush or he is going to regret it big time.

Blago, Etc.

If you're going to run for public office in the first place, people should be able to pronounce your name. Which is why everybody calls Rod "Blago." Apparently the "j" in his last name is pronounced like a "y," at least from what I have heard of it.

Still, people should never run for office if voters can't pronounce the name, let alone spell it. "Schwarzenegger" is bad enough.

Blago is digging his heels in, and now the Illinois house has started impeachment proceedings against him.

Lordy, if he'd have just done what I suggested, this thing would NOT be dragged out, and the GOP would not have their wish of trying to tarnish Obama, who I think is probably as pure as the driven slush, with it ala Whitewater, and steal a couple of Illinois seats in the process.

Blago, Etc.

Rod Blagojevich's actions have been no different than his predecessors.

Maybe with one exception, and that is it was Republicans who hatched the scheme to entrapment him almost as soon as he took office.

In any case, Blago is weighing his legal options.

John McCain doesn't think much of the all of the GOP handwringing and attempts to use the Blago arrest as a way to help their own fortunes.

The timing, after all, is quite transparent.

Blago, Etc.

The media are continuing to try to find some kind of Watergate-style wrongdoing by Obama's "associates" in order to taint Obama.

We who have followed and criticized Obama KNEW this was coming. Now the Republicans, who really should be in the margins of our political system, are going to do everything in their power to hamstring him because of Obama's Illinois background. This was one of the reasons I was so dead set against Obama being our nominee. If he allows Fitzgerald to remain in his U.S. attorney's seat, he's going to regret it.

I hope Bill and Hillary Clinton are giving him so advice on this.

Meanwhile, Blago hangs in, saying he will be vindicated.

Perhaps so, but I think he should call the fascists' bluff and resign, get Pat Quinn to take his job, and Quinn can appoint Obama's successor. I have a great candidate to replace Obama: the woman whose political back he stabbed, Alice Palmer.

This would nip in the bud the GOP plot to steal two seats while abusing the judicial system to that end.

Blago, Etc. (More)

Obama is going to rue the day he EVER kept Fitzgerald on, IF indeed he does.

He naively thinks, like the Clintons with the independent counsel or special prosecutor during the Clinton years, that it will help him and make it look like he's got nothing to hide. Unfortunately for him, this is NOT how the Republicans operate. Fitzgerald is a hack, not a great man out for truth, justice, and the American way. He's just like the rest of the GOP scumbags. His timing of the arrest was to help the GOP and possibly get two seats in a special election, not about whatever Blago allegedly did. This will hamstring Obama until the end of his term if he allows it to happen.

Blago, Etc.

The WSWS has some commentary about the Blagojevich arrest, noting it could present a "crisis" in the Democratic Party, which is exactly the point of it.

It's to hamstring Obama while the country goes down in flames. The GOP can't help it; this is the way it operates. They did this shit to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The piece mentions the "rushed" character of the affidavit, however.

Meanwhile, calls for Blago to quit increase. Fine, as long as there is not a "special election" held instead of Lt. Governor Pat Quinn taking over and appointing somebody to take Obama's Senate seat. Democrats need to do that and not play into Republican hands.

This piece has to note Tony Rezko has been speaking to prosecutors, but it mentions Obama isn't implicated in the probe. Of course he isn't; it would have come out if he had. I can only imagine the pressure Rezko must have been under to find any dirt for Republican hack Fitzgerald to use against Obama in the general election. He is playing the Jim McDougal role here.* But the anticipated dirt didn't happen. That's really nothing, though, for the Republicans. Democratic politicians don't have to be guilty to be smeared to the point of "looking guilty." It never stopped the Republicans from going after Bill and Hillary Clinton despite the fact they were clean. So it is with Obama. They don't have to find any wrongdoing by Obama to use Operation Board Games as a way to hamstring him. I can see this coming. The whole country and world are going down in economic flames, yet the Republicans whose party created the mess want to prevent anybody from the opposing party from trying to succeed in fixing it so they can return to power and turn this country into a Third World country.

I see it coming, the pressure on Obama to appoint a special prosecutor or "independent counsel" on this matter. Bill Clinton made the mistake of having one during his administration because he felt he and Hillary would be cleared and didn't realize the judicial system would be perverted for political purposes by the fascists of the GOP. All calls for a special prosecutor or "independent counsel" should be rejected, no matter how much pressure is put upon Obama, and ALL of the U.S. attorneys replaced, including Fitzgerald.

Note this from the linked article:

Fitzgerald was appointed U.S. attorney by President Bush, but he is a political independent. Obama could retain Fitzgerald, lending an element of continuity to the Blagojevich case and insulating himself somewhat from accusations that he is seeking to remove a dogged prosecutor from a case targeting Illinois Democrats.

No, he shouldn't. Absolutely NOT, since this is a political investigation with Obama as the ultimate target. Let the yammering about "cover-up" happen. There are more pressing issues in this country than the horseshit in Illinois.
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*--Come to think of it, even Susan McDougal. Like her, Rezko was offered a "proffer" for his testimony. It's in those all-important footnotes in the affidavit. In other words, he would get a lighter sentence if he would give prosecutors what they want. Or, in the case of Susan McDougal, want her to lie or else suffer hardship in prison.

Blago, Etc. (More)

What a lying bastard Patrick "Kenneth Starr" Fitzgerald is. Sure he had no choice but to have Blagojevich arrested, coincidentally at the time he is about to appoint a successor to Barack Obama. Now, if Blago can just resign, that'll be music to the ears of the GOP:

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said the governor's actions forced his office to intervene. "Gov. Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree," he said. Fitzgerald said Blagojevich's "conduct would make [ Abraham] Lincoln roll over in his grave."

What a shitbag Fitz is. He knows he will be out of a job in January, so he "had" to act quickly. The timing of the arrest was the key to the whole deal.

Of course, the operative who runs "Hillary is 44," a fraud of a Democrat if there ever was one, is now promoting the GOP talking points that a special prosecutor should be appointed in the Blago matter. It should have been apparent from the get-go this guy was NOT a Clinton supporter but was peddling anti-Obama talking points in order to sow division among Democrats. Somebody was feeding him the talking points about Rezko, etc., for this was one of the first sites on the net to write about it. ALL Rodriguez EVER did on his site was bash Obama. Sure, he'd throw a bone now and then to the Clinton supporters to make them think he was on their side, but it was gradually becoming MORE obvious by the month this guy is a fraud, more even than his target.

Naturally, Obama should reject such horseshit of appointing a special prosecutor, and Democrats in Congress should shoot any such crap down. The GOP has already tainted the judicial system with judges and so forth. We don't need this bullshit anymore.

The timeline says it all:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich became the state's first Democratic chief executive in more than a quarter of a century after vowing to reform what he labeled the culture of corruption surrounding his predecessor that had fed deep cynicism among Illinoisans.

But little more than a year after replacing George Ryan in office in 2003, Blagojevich found his administration at the early stages of what became a host of state and federal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving state hiring, board appointments, contracting and fundraising that battered his tenure.

In their prosecution of Blagojevich fundraisers and allies, dubbed "Operation Board Games," federal prosecutors detailed a scheme that began only months after Blagojevich took office in which top fundraiser and adviser Antoin "Tony" Rezko conspired with longtime GOP government apparatchik Stuart Levine to split kickbacks from a state pension deal. Rezko also helped ensure Levine's reappointment to a state pension board.

As part of the investigation, in which 13 people have been indicted or convicted, kickbacks were often the prescribed price of doing high-level business, be it the pension board for state teachers or the panel that decided whether hospitals could expand their facilities. And the extortion efforts went beyond merely enriching the participants to include soliciting campaign funds for Blagojevich.

Blago found himself in the middle of this GOP scheme.

He refuses to step down, but I don't know how long he can hold out. It is Democrats who are trying to force him out, but they were playing right into the GOP's hands when they pushed for a special election instead of doing the following:

Other Democrats in Washington edged away from calls for a special election to fill Obama's place in the Senate, hoping that Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would soon become governor and fill the vacancy on his own. That would assure the party of holding the seat, and on a far faster timetable than any balloting would allow.

That's what SHOULD happen in this case, but I don't expect the Republicans to go along with this. Maybe a few Democrats finally got it in their heads this isn't about what Blago did or didn't do but about the GOP trying to steal two Democratic seats as payback for Obama winning the White House.

Blago, Etc.

The Chicago Tribune wants Blago to resign the governorship, thus paving the way for the GOP to take BOTH the governorship AND Obama's Senate seat, for the timing of the arrest is everything.

The Tribune proved it was non-partisan in its reporting by withholding information at the request of U.S. attorney Fitzgerald.

Blago will resign, of course, and will be forgotten. The GOP has just put out its opening salvo for the 2010 elections by comically running on a "clean government" theme.

And people by the millions, including so-called Clinton supporters, will fall for Fitzgerald's antics.

The FIRST thing Obama should do when he is inaugurated is to get rid of all of the U.S. attorneys including Fitzgerald, despite howls from the GOP and a misguided public. We have too many urgent problems to allow the Republicans, like they did during the Clinton years, to pervert the courts for partisan reasons.
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The AP says Blago could still appoint somebody for the vacant Senate seat, but does anybody actually think he will be allowed to do so? You've got Democrats like Pat Quinn and Dick Durbin calling for a special election--which is the goal of the GOP in order to steal a seat.

God, this whole thing is transparent. I suppose Obama will be pressured by the fascists to appoint a special prosecutor after he's president, and here we go again with Clinton II. The GOP will obstruct Obama at every turn, since the Democrats don't have a filibuster-proof majority, and then they will pervert the courts with "investigations" of Obama in order to help their own political chances, just as they tried to do with the Clintons.

The Republicans will never change. They are dirtbags who should be permanently marginalized.
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Operation Board Games

The end of another political career is at hand, as Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested on federal corruption charges:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges.

Blagojevich and Harris were accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy that included Blagojevich conspiring to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. The governor was also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning.

A Blagojevich spokesman said he was unaware of the development. "Haven't heard anything -- you are first to call," Lucio Guerrero said in an e-mail.

The stunning, early morning visit by authorities to the governor's North Side home came amid revelations that federal investigators had recorded the governor with the cooperation of a longtime confidant and had begun to focus on the possibility that the process of choosing a Senate successor to President-elect Barack Obama could be tainted by pay-to-play politics.

This isn't good news for Obama, either. More:

A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife.

At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich allegedly discussed obtaining:

• A substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

• Placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year.

• Promises of campaign funds — including cash up front.

• A cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

Jesus Christ.

You can read the affidavit in all its glory here.

Another point of view is this is another Don Siegelman-like case:

But we are now getting a preview of what we're going to face for the next four years, because John Boehner has already intimated that Republicans intend on campaigning against a "Democrat Culture of Corruption." Their ultra-partisan U.S. Attorneys have salted enough informants away, with threats of long prison sentences if they don't cooperate, to whipsaw Democrats in the House, Senate, governors' mansions. We're getting a preview of what we're in for until the inauguration and Obama's replacement of Bush's partisan Federal attorneys, whose efforts can be combined with similarly partisan FBI operatives, and judges to perform a considerable amount of mischief. Really NASTY mischief.

Rod Blagojevich was arrested today on a litany of charges that arose from the same people they beat down during the Reszko trial, This all originated with a couple of corrupt REPUBLICAN operatives, holdovers from George Ryan's old administration, one named Cerillo and another named Levine, who ruled a little feifdom that included the state pension board and medical care. Blagojevich was going to reform these agencies, and so Levine and Cerillo evidently conducted a rather nasty entrapment scheme, wearing wires and everything, attempting to get Blagojevich out.

In the process, they are trying to tie Obama into it, intimating (without any actual evidence, mind you) that Obama promised Blagojevich a cabinet post, possibly HHS or Energy, in return to naming Obama's preferred individual to fill his vacated Senate seat.

I have doubts either Blago or Obama is clean, and I don't doubt the ultimate fish the prosecutors want is Obama, but the LAST thing Democrats need is this bullshit when the entire country is going into the shitter.

If Obama is tainted, then we KNOW he was being set up by the GOP to be the Democratic Party nominee to take the fall to help the Republicans get back into power by running on an "anti-corruption" theme, which is laughable coming from them.

And, yes the timing is certainly suspicious. If Blago is out, this means there is an open governorship AND an open Senate seat, both ripe for the stealing by the GOP. As the writer above notes, READ the footnotes; they are key. Almost all of these "witnesses" are shady characters who have received plea deals or immunity.

Now people want to know who can name Obama's replacement. Well, if Blago goes, it would seem the next in line is Democrat Pat Quinn. But apparently not; it looks like there would have to be a special election, something the GOP would LOVE to have:

Those sentiments were echoed by Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and the Senate’s second-ranking Democratic leader, who said that the state legislature should move swiftly to schedule a special election to fill the vacant seat, effectively pushing Mr. Blagojevich aside.

“No appointment by this governor, under these circumstances, could produce a credible replacement,” Mr. Durbin told reporters today.

That's what this arrest was all about in reality, regardless of whether the allegations have any merit.

And this shitty blog admits it:

The complaint filed against Obama pal Governor Rod Blagojevich is a situation forced on Prosecutor Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald acted in an emergency manner to stop the Obama Senate seat from going to another corrupt Dimocrat. “We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it.” said Fitzgerald.

Fuck you and your shitty blog, Alex. You are not a Hillary Clinton supporter, shitface. A GOP operative pretending to be a Hillary Clinton supporter is what you are. Need I mention Fitz's job is NOT supposed to be about filling a vacant Senate seat with a Republican. Of course, you don't allow opposing comments on your crappy blog, just cheerleaders, so nobody can slap you in the face with a bit of reality.