FiveThirtyEight: "The Blagojevich Fallout"

[camera obscura]

Just despicable. What else can you say? This is an absolutely radioactive, Hurricane-force event that will have implications in Illinois for years to come.

We saw in LA-2 this weekend about what can happen to Democrats in instances of extreme corruption, even in very blue regions of the country. This case is a little different, in that the person who is responsible for the corruption isn't running for re-election (although Blagojevich hasn't yet declared himself out of the running for 2010!). On the other hand, the scope and the sheer drama of the corruption -- if the charges are validated -- is of greater magnitude than we saw in the Jefferson case, and odds are that at least one or two prominent Illinois politicians will get caught having done something less than above-board.

The Republicans are extremely disorganized in Illinois, but both the governor's seat and Obama's senate seat now need to be considered viable pickup opportunities for them in 2010. The Republican with the strongest statewide brand name is former senator Peter Fitzgerald, who retired from the Senate in 2004. With that said, the Democrats have several rising stars of their own, such as Alexi Giannoulias, Jan Schakowsky, Lisa Madigan, and Luis Guiterrez, all of whom have pretty clean reputations.

More: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/12/blagojevich-fallout.html

[uponit7771]

1. Obama makes the Bush admin seem like Lucifer understudies. I can see Obama backing a clean gov to...

...replace Blagos admin. hopefully he'll get the senator he wants too.

[ErinBerin84]

2. ew at the wingnutty comments

"Obama has blood on his hands". Nice fucking try, wingnuts.

[camera obscura]

4. They're probably mad that Nate was right about Obama sweeping in Nov

and they've decided to stink up his comments in retaliation.

[ErinBerin84]

5. heh, yup.

I only go directly to the website if I have to (usually read the articles from him here), but I remember lots of "Nate, we know you are only saying that Obama will win because you are IN THE TANK!" type comments before the election took place.

[grantcart]

3. "The Blagojevich Fallout" "disastorous - I disagree

all over DC lobbyists are putting away their check books and realize that they can't buy in - Obama isn't a player.

[Seen the light]

6. Nate's not talking about nationally, only in Illinois nt

[Cha]

7. But, all the Dems aren't dirty like most of the repukes,

blago and his posse. Even though I know the repukes love the guilty by association branding except for mccain and his ilk, of course.