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I heard about that already on a radio program this morning.
Sounds like business as usual for Illinois politics.
Have anything that's news?
They flat-out arrested his ass.
CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.
According to a federal criminal complaint, 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. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.
A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
The affidavit said Blagojevich discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.
It said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.
He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a post in the president's cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor's office.
"I want to make money," the affidavit quotes him as saying in one conversation.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement that "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."
"They allege that Blagojevich put a for sale sign on the naming of a United States senator," Fitzgerald said."
Among those being considered for the post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr.
Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to squeeze out campaign contributions.
His chief of staff, John Harris, also was arrested.
Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal investigation involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state. Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they're also investigating "serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" under Blagojevich.
Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges. Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.
According to Tuesday's complaint, Blagojevich schemed with Rezko, millionaire-fundraiser turned federal witness Stuart Levine and others to get financial benefits for himself and his campaign committee.
Federal prosecutors said Blagojevich and the chairman of his campaign committee have been speeding up corrupt fundraising activities in the last month to get as much money as possible before the end of the year when a new law would curtail his ability to raise contributions from companies with state contracts worth more than $50,000.
According to the affidavit, agents learned Blagojevich was seeking $2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year, with a large part allegedly to come from companies and individuals who have gotten state contracts or appointments.
Blagojevich took the chief executive's office in 2003 as a reformer promising to clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess.
Ryan, a Republican, is serving a 6-year prison sentence after being convicted on racketeering and fraud charges. A decade-long investigation began with the sale of driver's licenses for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor.
FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said federal agents arrested the governor and Harris simultaneously at their homes at 6:15 a.m. and took them to the Chicago FBI headquarters.
Bochte said he did not know if either man was handcuffed or if the governor's family was their North Side home at the time of his arrest. He did say Blagojevich and Harris both were given time to get dressed before being taken to the headquarters.
He also did not have any details about Blagojevich's arrest, only that he was cooperative with federal agents.
"It was a very calm setting," he said.
The governor was to appear later Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan to answer the charges. The time was not immediately set.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/...rruption_probe
I heard about that already on a radio program this morning.
Sounds like business as usual for Illinois politics.
Have anything that's news?
I hear it's part of a larger probe that also involves the Rezko/Obama property purchase scandal.
And, in the details of the complaint it appears there is a "Washington Advisor B" who was pitching an Obama-favored "Candidate 1" in exchange for either an appointment or ambassadorship.
"a change is a comin'"
where'd you hear that?
speechless
The Audacity!
these guys are toast.
On the Mike Gallagher Show. He's on from 6AM to 9 AM here. He's been breaking the news as it unfolds since beginning of his show.
yeah, what did he say about resko's involvement?
But I thought Patrick Fitzgerald was only a tool for the Democrats and their CIA witch-hunt?
He must have not gone along with who Obama wanted...
Or just Obama
The tapes reveal a two-term governor who no longer wants his job, badly wants cash and is determined to leverage a financial benefit out of his appointment powers.
He also appears to think little of the president-elect, whom he calls a "motherf***er" at one point.
"F**k him," Blagjoveich says of Obama during a lengthy call with top aides and his wife recorded on November 10th, "For nothing? F**k him."
This raises an interesting question. If Blagjoveich isn't tried, convicted and removed from office by the time a Senate appt. needs to be made, technically, is the choice still his to make? And if not, who's choice does it become?
Wow
It's from Wikipedia, so judge it accordingly:
Approval ratings
Polling completed on October 13, 2008 put Blagojevich's approval rating among Illinois voters at 4%. Blagojevich ranks as “Least Popular Governor” in the nation according to Rasmussen Reports By the Numbers.
On October 23, 2008, the Chicago Tribune reported that Blagojevich suffered the lowest ratings ever recorded for an elected politician in nearly three decades of Chicago Tribune polls. The survey of 500 registered likely voters conducted showed that 10 percent wanted Blagojevich re-elected in 2010, while three-fourths said they didn't want him back for a third term. The survey also showed only 13% approved of Blagojevich's performance, while 71% disapproved. Only eight percent of the state's voters believe Blagojevich has lived up to his promise to end corruption in government. 60% of Democrats did not want him to serve another term in office, and 54% disapproved of the job he had done. Among independent voters, 83% disapproved of his performance and 85% of them rejected a Blagojevich third term. Blagojevich said in October 2008 that if he were running for re-election this year, he would win, and the economy, not his federal investigations, had caused his unpopularity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich
If he's still governor, he'll make the appointment. If he's not governor, his successor in the office, the Lt. Gov. of the state, will make the appointment. I wouldn't expect the current governor to last much longer in that post, and I'd expect that the Democratic Lt. Gov. of Illinois will ultimately appoint Senator Obama's successor.
You know, if was Dubya I'd just say, " it. History is going to remember me for worse things anyways," and offer him a presidential pardon to put a Republican in the seat. Something tells me this guy's party loyalty is probably not as strong as his desire to not go to federal PMITA prison.
There is no way they are going to let him or his Lt. make the pick. They're on this like white on rice.
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in Washington and Illinois urged the Illinois Legislature on Tuesday to quickly schedule a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat rather than leave that power in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's hands.
Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat, was arrested Tuesday by the FBI which alleged he sought favors to influence his choice for Obama's replacement.
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who called the charges shocking, said he would soon call the chamber into session to pass a bill to establish a special election to fill the vacancy. He did so moments after Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., urged the state House and Senate to take the same step, and do so by a margin that could withstand a Blagojevich veto.
"No appointment by this governor, under these cir stances, could produce a credible replacement," Durbin, told reporters in Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made similar remarks, and called for a process to fill the vacancy that does not involve Blagojevich. The charges against the governor, Reid said, "are appalling and represent as serious a breach of the public trust as I have ever heard."
Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democratic leader, said his state faces a messy and uncertain future with Blagojevich holding the power to name someone to finish the last two years of Obama's term.
Special elections are costly, Durbin acknowledged, but it might be coupled with a special election that will be needed to replace Rep. Rahm Emanuel. The Chicago Democrat will resign his seat soon to become Obama's White House chief of staff.
The Cons ution requires House vacancies to be filled by elections. Senate vacancies can be filled by appointment, and Illinois, like most states, gives the power to the governor.
Blagojevich must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, Durbin said, but if the charges against him are true, "he has clearly abused the public trust." He did not call for the governor to resign, citing the innocence presumption.
However, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said the legislature should begin impeachment proceedings if Blagojevich does not resign promptly.
Durbin said his relationship with the governor has been cordial but not close. Blagojevich waited 12 days to return Durbin's recent phone call requesting a discussion of the Obama vacancy, Durbin said. The two men discussed about 20 possible replacements, Durbin said, and Blagojevich made no hint that he was seeking payments or other favors in making his choice.
Durbin said Blagojevich's arrest should not cast a shadow over Obama's inauguration and early days as president because there was nothing improper in their relationship.
Durbin said he worried that Obama's former seat could remain vacant for months. With Senate Democrats only a few votes short of a filibuster-proof majority in the new Congress that will convene next month, a vacancy could make it harder to pass Obama-backed measures "during a critical period in American history," Durbin said.
The Senate could refuse to seat a person appointed by Blagojevich. Several would-be senators have been rejected that way, usually when their election was corrupted or deeply in question. The last appointed person to be refused a seat came from Alabama in 1913, when the Senate concluded the state legislature had not given the governor the power to fill a vacancy, said Senate associate historian Don Ritchie.
Senator Ditka
Is this the first time a Governer has been arrested?
is this the first time a president-elect is involved in a scandal before getting into the white house?
How do you claim Obama is involved?
Wow you're using involved incredibly loosely.
uhhhhhh... wow.
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