If you haven’t heard about this yet, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, was arrested on Tuesday morning by the FBI and released shortly after on $4500 bail.
Here’s the deal: Since Barack Obama was an Illinois senator, and will no longer be able to finish out his term because of his election to the Presidency, the law says that the Illinois governor gets to name his replacement in the Senate. Incidentally, there are lots of other laws that say he’s not allowed to accept money or bribes for this appointment. Governor Blagojevich was in the process of violating, like, all those laws, and a bunch of other ones, too. Essentially, he was wheeling and dealing, attempting to sell this Senate seat to the highest bidder. This is, like, super-duper illegal and totally repulsive.
Who was the Evil Governor looking to appoint? Some reports indicate that one possibility was Jesse Jackson.
The FBI has a shitload of evidence on this dude — because someone tipped them off to these goings-on and they wire-tapped his office for weeks. So they basically have hours and hours of phone conversations of this dude cussing his evil little face off and saying and doing evil shit. In fact, in one instance, he threatened to withdraw $8M in funding from a children’s hospital because its CEO didn’t contribute enough to his campaign. Total evil dude.
Despite this overwhelming evidence of total evil-ness, he has yet to resign from his post. And, according to the law, he is still in a position to appoint Obama’s successor in the Senate.
Ewwww!!!
Democratic Sickcago politics has always been the most corrupt in the US. Obama coming up from the streets of Sickcago and getting his political start as a street organizer there….. keep your eyes on this one boys and girls it’s going to get interesting! There are alot of ties with both these men. Don’t forget… Obama endorsed this crook for governor.
sickago? I have never heard that. thankfully.
this story is hilarious. crooked politicians are more fun than celebrity gossip.
and I am somewhat surprised that it only took one comment until someone brought up Obama affiliation. just a little. whatever. GO’bama!
Jesse Jackson Jr., not the Jesse Jackson you are thinking of, it is his son. His son has been a US House Representative since ’95.
Blago has been under suspicion (strong suspicion) for months and months. This is just the nail in the coffin.
I live a couple blocks away from him and the place was still surrounded by TV vans a couple hours ago.
He sure is ugly.
What. An. Asshole.
Is Joe Pesci available to play him in the HBO special?
um, gary if you actually read the articles or watched the news you would know that obama tried to stay away from him as much as possibly and he most likely wont be brought down in all of this because of this. Obviously you dont live in IL, because of your narrow minded views. Chicago is an amazing place and anyone that has visited it or lived in it knows so. Just as GQ, they named Chicago, city of the year. Yeah we have had 2 governors back to back both indicted, but that has nothing to do with Obama. And yes, the state as a whole reelected Rod back into office, but not all of us “sickago” people are morons like Rod.
Was he the lead singer for Danzig?
good call Ann. I was definitely thinking of the wrong J.Jackson.
@motissa, haha!
yeah, if you read the indictment, there’s quite a few phonecalls where he questions what obama will be offering in exchange for HIS pick for the new senator. totally shattered my little obama hopes and dreams.
Yeah, this guy is nasty. I lived in Machine Politic Land (aka Chicago) for 6 years and watched this guy get weirder and weirder. No question about the fact that Obama is somehow part of this whole thing. Half of Obama’s new staff is Chicago Machine….good ‘ol Rod is just a preface of what’s to come…wait and see!
This guy is a COMPLETE FUCK STICK!!!
I think, he thinks he’s Tony fuckin Soprano!
Fools! YOU don’t publically diss the Clintons and walk away free MR O. It was like shooting ducks in a barrel..? No really this is type of Shadey Politics that go on in Ill all the time. Read the newspaper blogs and prepare to be shocked even more.
wow. interesting input on this. and i am not happy. but really, i wouldn’t be surprised that obama got some lift along the way from this evil white guy. f.f.f.f.f.
Clearly he didn’t pay his hairdresser enough of his bribe money. That hair is going to haunt my sleep.
Both Obama and Blago were on the Tony Rezco money train. You can put money on Obama having to testify. I was hoping that now that Obama is taking most of the dirty politicians with him to the White House it would allow Zhitcago an opportunity to clean itself up while Washington D.C. gets dirtier and dirtier.
First of all, to the Obama conspiracy people, if you actually read the affadavit or even watched the press conference with Patrick Fitzgerald (who is so awesome, by the way) you would know that Candidate 1 is most likely Valerie Jarrett, who the Obama people were rooting for. Blago says that “they” (most likely Obama’s people) wouldn’t offer anything but appreciation so he said “F them” but including the missing letters. Secondly, there is a lot of speculation that Rahm Emmanuel helped tip off the feds.
That being said, this guy is such a crook. No one knew the extent of it years ago, when we voted for him. But for the past couple of years, everyone I know in Chicago has hated him and we’ve all tried to find ways to get him out. Hell, we even had it on the ballot this year to look into his governorship. Plus there was a proposition for a Constitutional amendment (which some of us voted for just to try and get Blago out). Illinois politics (especially Chicago) are SUPER corrupt. We all know that. Our last governor Ryan (a Republican, it’s both parties here) is in jail, and two other IL governors have been in jail. Back to Obama, this is why so many of us rooted for him here, because his record was so clean and he’s such an advocate for transparency in government (probably because he’s seen the worst stuff in Chicago).
I laughed all morning yesterday and can’t wait til Balgojevich gets the hell out (by impeachment, because that arrogant idiot will never resign). And to put it in perspective how amazingly stupid he is- he was being investigated, and he knew, for three years before trying to sell the most high profile Senate seat. How dumb can you be thinking you wont get caught??? And I feel so dumb for even thinking for a second he was taking his time with the appointment cause he was trying to find the best pick, not trying to find the highest bidder! I wonder now if there was anything he ever did in office that he wasn’t monetarily motivated to do.
FYI, one possible appointee was Jesse Jackson, JR., not the one we are so familiar with, but his son. Big difference, IMO.
This is better than Y&R. Im thinking that with Ted Stevens, Kilpatrick, Blajoyevich and any other politician that has been arrested lately, this would be an amazing reality show and whoever wins would get to be the next vice-president.
Oh man, Blagojevich would probably do a reality show in a heartbeat. As long as they paid him enough. What a tool.
i can’t get over motissa’s comment. glen danzig is about 50 yimes more normal looking than this guy.
or times, if you will. . .
I was very nervous about Obama running for president knowing he was from Chicago. I’m from Illinois and know about the corruption that has been going on forever. I’ m not a democrat but I certainly hope Obama is clean(as clean as a politician can be). Our country is in so much trouble right now that I pray for a good president. We desperately need one. I can’t image what would happen if Obama got implicated in any of this. Too horrible to think about
Obama is NOT clean and shiny. He has his own dirtball associations in his past. Tony Rezco was a super sleazy fundraiser with ties to Obama (he even sold a piece of land to Obama adjacent to his house at a discount price).
No one involved in Chicago politics should be trusted. Get ready for shenanigans just like the Clintons as Obama brings good old Chicago cronies with him.
As Chuck said, Obama is not clean- but I very much doubt that there’s any truly clean way to thrive in Illinois politics. I’ve only lived in the state for 3 years, so I don’t fully understand the system here, but it does seem like Blago is an exception in the extent of his corruption. (Every politician is a little corrupt here, but using children to extort a campaign contribution is above and beyond).
Fun facts:
4 out of the last 7 governors of Illinois have been arrested. Precedent?
Before the scandal broke on Tuesday morning, Blagojevich had an approval rating of 3%. (I guess the good news for him would be that getting arrested really couldn’t do much damage to his approval).
yea from chicao (obviously) and every politician here except for tony pereca (and im a democrat!) is a crook. its disgusting. When everyone was all ‘yeay obama’ i was more ‘ how about someone else? ‘ and only half ‘ anyone but mccain ‘
thank you Dinosaurs. I liked your post.
I just realized how wrongly i spelt his name, but would anyone have gotten it right if beet hadn’t posted it?
It’s pretty ignorant to say that because somebody is a poltician from Chicago, he/she MUST be corrupt. That’s faulty logic, and is just a new means for sore losers to go after Obama (after that stupid ass Supreme Court case about his birth certificate failed). Go after Blago all you want. Hell, I’ll be right next to you shouting for his impeachment (as I have been for years, as a democrat).
If Obama’s CHIEF OF STAFF Rahm Emmanuel, FROM CHICAGO, is the one who tipped off the feds, that should be a hint for you that Obama is nto working with Blago. In fact, Obama has clashed with Blagojevich for some time now. First when he pushed ethics reform while in the State Senate, which Blago (surprise surprise) fought against. Why do you think he pushed ethics reform right away in the state Senate? Why do you think he worked on it in Washington? Why do you think he plans on having one of the most transparent presidencies, with weekly addresses to the country and a website with all the goings on available for the public to look at?
For two years, the Clinton folks and then the McCain folks tried to get anything at all whatsoever on Obama. They had nothing. And they looked hard. There is nothing crooked. He’s been looked into by every rabid, foaming at the mouth conspiracy theorist who would probably give up their first born child to find something on this guy. And they have nothing.
If you actually lived in Chicago, or in Illinois, you would know the main players in our messed up system. And then you would know how Obama shunned these players in his run and now his cabinet posts.
And if you want to know how Obama thrived in Chicago without being crooked, it was by playing by the rules. It kind of took a lot of people by surprise. He got opponents in his state senate run kicked off the ballot because they had not followed rules about the number of signatures on a petition to run for office. He used all the rules and legal loopholes (including his ‘present’ votes which were part of a political strategy) to his advantage.
And he went to people the democrats here never bothered to go to- southern Illinoisians. It’s the same way he played the general. People like him and trust him. People vote for him. Just like they did in November. It’s no different here. So he doesn’t have to rely on our terrible governor giving him a boost. He doesn’t have to rely on shady contributions- this is the man who raised close to a billion dollars! He has always been above the crap that goes on here, and that’s how he thrived in Chicago without being crooked.
Beet: I have been reading your columns for over a year now, and I’ve come to realize that you are an idealist. I used to be an idealist – who worked in the mortgage industry!!! I am now no longer an idealist, and am in need of some serious therapy – and a stable source of employment. Yeah, we be poor! Politics – what a dirty game. It’s an even dirtier game than the Mortgage industry. Did you hear that George Bush just told reporters that he doesn’t believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible? How nice of him to inform all of the Fundamentalist Christians of this fact, NOW THAT HE IS ON HIS WAY OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE, of this not so insignificant fact. Maybe the 500 or so people, who voted for him, instead of Al Gore, would have voted some other way had he imparted this information BEFORE THE ELECTION. I guess it’s too late to fling the “Liar, Liar pants on fire†accusation at him. He’s already served two terms. Let us all hope and pray the new administration has a greater sense of ethics. Somehow, however, I have a feeling we’ll all be singing the same old song…Screwed again; We’ve all just been screwed again…
OK, OK……I’d just like to point out one thing about Blagojevich that everyone seems to conveniently overlook: the man does sport a sexy head of hair…. I mean come on, that’s not something you see every day! I think I’ve made my point here.