December 9, 2008
Blagojevich Considered U.S. Senate a Good Refuge From Prosecution
Like everyone else, we've spent the morning pouring over the scintillating federal complaint [PDF] against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this morning, along with his close aide John Harris, on charges of attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder, and attempting to use his office to influence the Chicago Tribune's Editorial Board. Read all 78 pages if you have the time, but here are a couple crucial passages:
Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS, together with others, attempted to use ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s authority to appoint a United States Senator for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, including, among other things, appointment as Secretary of Health & Human Services in the President-elect’s administration, and alternatively, a lucrative job which they schemed to induce a union to provide to ROD BLAGOJEVICH in exchange for appointing as senator an individual whom ROD BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS believed to be favored by union officials and their associates.Surely Tom Daschle laughed out loud when he read that one.
This has to one of the best paragraphs in the whole thing, though:
On November 11, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with JOHN HARRIS about the Senate seat. ROD BLAGOJEVICH suggested starting a 501(c)(4) organization (a non-profit organization that may engage in political activity and lobbying) and getting “his (believed to be the President-elect’s) friend Warren Buffett or some of those guys to help us on something like that.” HARRIS asked, “what, for you?” ROD BLAGOJEVICH replied, “yeah.” Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that if he appoints Senate Candidate 4 to the Senate seat and, thereafter, it appears that ROD BLAGOJEVICH might get impeached, he could “count on [Senate Candidate 4], if things got hot, to give [the Senate seat] up and let me parachute over there.” HARRIS said, “you can count on [Senate Candidate 4] to do that.” Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he knows that the President-elect wants Senate Candidate 1 for the Senate seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.”There's something so perfect about the U.S. Senate being described as the ideal place in which a governor fleeing impeachment proceedings could take cover.
For the latest Blago roundups, head over to Chicagoist.
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it's like watching a train wreck. you should turn away, but you.just.can't.
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He used the "f" word? Does he kiss his mother with that mouth?
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Does it surprise anyone that a Republican would behave like this? After these past eight years nothing would surprise me.
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Better read the news more closely, kippers.
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What do the Republicans have to do with a Democrat Governor?
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Thanks, Kippers. Made me laugh with that comment(at you, not with you).
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What are you talking about? If this was about a Democrat the article would have said so.
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Astounding how a guy can be that utterly blatantly corrupt. Probably because of his wierd last name. And bad hair. And that he looks like Samwise Gamgee.
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If it was about a Republican the article would have said so as well, no?
Quit being coy. You once said "As for Biden, he looks even more phony next to a VP nominee like Palin ... Good pick by McCain," so we all know where you stand and what your real goal is here.
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The look on Blagojevich's face is eerily reminiscent of the look Eliot Spitzer had on his when he was nailed. Must be a Governor thing...
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Now why'd he have to call the President Elect a "muthaf***er?" That just aint cool. I wouldn't be surprised if the brutha went down there with some of his boys and went medieval on his lily white ass.
Muthaf**k that, ya influence-peddlin muthaf***er! We outta here.
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Nice work, Sherlock. Of course that is what I am talking about. As for my "real goal" I am not sure I have one other than pointing out a little hypocrisy. Look at the Ted Stevens post if you want an example.
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I think Illinois voters deserve some sort of prize. This makes two consecutive governors busted on corruption charges. Not to mention, four ex-govs have served jail time in the last 40 years (though one was for crimes that took place after he left office).
Illinois: The Louisiana of the north.
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His hair is nice and fluffy. His cheeks are nice and puffy. His eyes are nice and watery. His nose is nice and stuffy.
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kippers your mistake is in assuming that putting the party in or leaving it out is a deliberate action. A brief review of past political posts shows no obvious pattern.
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kippers: how about, instead of hypocrisy, maybe you've just tripped across different posting styles. maybe sommer and martin have different preferences when it comes to mentioning the political affiliation of those they write about.
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Not to mention the fact that party affiliation is much more relevant to a story about a Senator or member of Congress than a governor.
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Heh. This is a new level of Epic Fail.
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Speaking of bipartisan justice and fairness. Where's the post about Larry Craig losing his appeal?
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Larry Craig lost his sex appeal? Since when?
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monkeyrotica is a God, and I would like to buy him/her/it a drink at some point in time, holler at a fan.
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Fine, I may be overreaching. But please understand it is only because of my glee for this particular corruption charge and desire to see it played up as much as possible.
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"Illinois: The Louisiana of the north."
Pretty close to the truth.
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This will pretty much c-block Chicago from getting the 2016 Olympics.
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Senate seats, political appointments; given the stagnant economy I think we should be glad something is being bought and sold. Combine this with all that unlicensed Obama merchandise flying off the shelves and we may just see this recession through.
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How do you figure, gbert?
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8th street: how so? with a quick removal and replacement by someone who isn't so corrupt, and our saviour barack running things on the national end, i see no reason why this should substantially hurt our saviour's chances at having his coronation ceremony at the end of his second term in the city by the lake.
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Seriously, when has the IOC ever let a little corruption get in the way?
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2nd thought- 10X better now than down the line in the Obama admin!
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I've got some friends in CHI who are glad to finally see him go down. It seems the whole state disliked him.
I wonder if Al Sharpton or JJ will have anything to say about this: http://tinyurl.com/58e8y7
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stavros, unless I'm an Illinois resident, it doesn't really matter to me politically whether Blago is R or D.
Cases involving members of Congress, on the other hand, have national political implications (see: Ted Stevens).
Just making the point that the party affiliation of a corrupt national politician is more relvant to the DCist readership than that of a far-away governor, erego I don't see any "hypocrisy" here.
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"Illinois: The Louisiana of the north." You insult Louisiana by comparing it to Illinois. At least voters there had the good sense to pink-slip the laughably inept Kathleen Blanco and the laughably corrupt William "Cold Cash" Jefferson. Ray Nagin still hangs tough though, so no one's perfect. Of course any city that would keep the likes of Marion Barry on the payroll has little cause to complain about voter preferences elsewhere.
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What do you call it when the Governor of Illinois is arrested?
Tuesday.
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Try the veal. Its the best the in city.
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kippers is right in that the media generally plays up the party affiliation when a scandal involves a Republican and plays it down when a Democrat is involved.
James Taranto even has a feature where he follows this phenomenon:
http://awurl.com/qAMsicfzy
I don't know how much DCist is guilty of that same bias. Probably too small a sample to really tell, but then again there are lots of political scandals.
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I insult no one. It took Jefferson's constituents three years to kick him out of office.
And they re-elected Gov. Edwin Edwards four times. The guy once joked/bragged that there was no way he could lose a race unless he was "found in bed with a dead girl or a live boy," and one of his campaign bumper stickers said "Elect the crook." Classy.
Still, Illinois should get a special award just for the fact that they elected back-to-back corrupt governors.
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one of his campaign bumper stickers said "Elect the crook."
The full quote was, and I love this, "Vote for the crook. It's important."
To be fair, those bumper stickers were for his campaign against former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, the same election that produced "vote for the lizard, not the wizard", and made the defensible argument that there are some things our elected officials can do that are worse than mere bribery and racketeering, such as a leadership role in a violent terrorist organization or raising humanveal.
Still, Illinois should get a special award just for the fact that they elected back-to-back corrupt governors.
Uh-uh-uh! That's hardly unusual in and of itself. What you're looking for is, back-to-back corrupt governors who got caught.