Illinois Politics

Apparently being the governor of Illinois predisposes one to get indicted. For those not familiar, the last governor of Illinois, George Ryan, was convicted of racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud.

In comes Rod Blagojevich. Not exactly a popular or successful governor so far, and now an FBI sting reveals the depth of this guy's insanity. He is trying to 'sell' the senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama (the Govenor has the power to appoint a replacment).

I just read through the entire summary on The Smoking Gun and it is unbelievable. How a guy who is already afraid of indictment can have all these conversations over the phone is amazing. The audacity of his efforts to solicit a bribe are staggering.

There are tons of great quotes, but the one that made me laugh out loud was that Blagojevich considered naming himself to the senate seat because he believed that he will be able to obtain greater resources to defend himself if he is indicted as a Senator than Governor, and a desire to remake his image in preparation for a Presidential bid in 2016. REALLY? Either I get indicted and I can defend myself better, or hey, I'll just run for President. REALLY?