Oooh. In addition to selling Obama's seat, Blago threatened to pull state funding for a

[Occam Bandage]

children's hospital unless a board member gave him a $50k donation, and threatened "economic harm" to the Chicago Tribune unless they fired editorialists who had criticized him. (All per CNN)

Yeah, I bet it was all about his Bank of America stunt, though. :eyes:

[Lerkfish]

1. by all accounts, this was one corrupt governor

too bad he wasn't a republican: they HONOR the most corrupt among them.

[ananda]

2. Consider this. Many Reeps have done just as bad or worse..

.. and are still in office..

.. including Bush and Cheney.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Yeah, yeah. "But...but...REPUBLICANS ARE BAD TOO!!!"

Blago is a worm. Don't make excuses.

[Donnachaidh]

6. so this makes his stunts okay then?

:eyes:

[Bluzmann57]

9. True. But that still doesn't excuse what he (allegedly) did

This guy has been dirty from day one and has been under investigation for at least two years. A corrupt politician is a corrupt politician. Period.

[Andy823]

10. I agree.

IF they are corrupt then they need to go no matter what party they belong to!

[Robbien]

11. I am thankful Fitz grabbed Blago. Very very thankful. The fact that corrupt GOPers

are still freely out there doesn't diminish the fact that our state no longer is under the control of one very very corrupt man.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. I understand that law schools are now putting that proviso in their Criminal Law courses

Because it's such a convincing legal argument.


:eyes:

[Occam Bandage]

14. "C'mon, judge. Thousands of murders go unsolved. What's one little rape in comparison?"

[Not the Only One]

13. We have to have a higher standard. No excuses.

We can't compare ourselves to Bush and Cheney and Nixon. We're better than that.

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. Not the Illinois' last Republican Governor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ryan

[JVS]

18. Long live the Illinois!

;-)

[Mike Daniels]

17. So, you're willing to excuse Democratic corruption just because the Repub's get away w/ it?

Because that's exactly how your post reads.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. The problem here is that the minute someone sees "Democrat arrested".....

....they trip over themselves to defend the guy and call it all a railroad job.

I'm not from Illinois, but I've heard enough from many good Illinois DU'ers here to know he's a total crum bum and a disgrace to the office. Thank God he didn't get to make that appointment. Hopefully, people will do some research on the guy before putting on the tinfoil to say Bush is behind it. People need to know who the fuck they are defending first.

[tritsofme]

4. Sometimes if it walks like a crook, talks like a crook

It is a crook.

This is indictment is much more damning than I could ever imagine.

[dmallind]

7. Hey Dems can be self-obssessed criminals too.

This is only a problem for fantasists who denied that, or the insecure who must see black and white morality in every sense where all who are on their side are pure in all ways.

Personally I never thought a D after somebody's name was a guarantee of altruistic perfection. Not saying others did, but the response to these scandals is all too often for those who are on the same side to excuse or minimize or defend.

Not interested in that. Selling a Senate seat for a high paying sinecure is illegal, immoral and the actions of a dishonest scumbag. Blago may have, or may have had, other excellent qualities (nobody is 100% malignant in all ways any more than 100% benevolent) but Demo or no this is scumbaggery and we should have no problem saying so, because it's equally stupid to use examples (sadly multiple - Jefferson's freezer anyone?) to say all Dems are corrupt as it is to use Larry Craig and Mark Foley to say all Republicans are self-loathing sexual hypocrites.

[leftofthedial]

8. he was/is way corrupt, no doubt.

and stooopid.

[camera obscura]

16. You stay classy, Blago.