Blagojevich

[struggle4progress]

Poll question: Blagojevich

[terrya]

1. Is a disgusting, corrupt, opportunistic, self-serving douchebag.

[Occam Bandage]

2. Is the most corrupt elected official currently serving in the United States.

[kevsand]

8. But unfortunately, that may not make him the worst in Illinois history.

Yet. That's a really high bar to clear.

[Occam Bandage]

9. I have faith in him. There's still plenty of discovery time left!

[BeatleBoot]

3. He and his Hairstylist need to Resign

What a chump.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. may be one corrupt SOB...

but should have his day in court and the GOV'T should prove him guilty...not the other way 'round...

sP

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Um, One Doesn't Needs To Prove One's Innocence In The US...

Only to defend it.

[NashVegas]

6. Kind Of Stands Out, Doesn't It?

like a very sore thumb

[ProdigalJunkMail]

7. so far at least a couple have noticed and commented n/t

[Occam Bandage]

10. In the courtroom, yes.

We ain't in a courtroom, and I ain't a juror.

[struggle4progress]

11. That's absolutely correct. Moreover,

this administration does engage in political prosecutions -- and Fitz didn't exactly get to the bottom of the Plame scandal

[Occam Bandage]

12. He couldn't. "Obstruction of justice" charges usually imply that justice has been obstructed. nt

[struggle4progress]

16. An "obstruction of justice" needn't imply successful obstruction; and if Fitz

had been willing, he could have assembled a credible conspiracy case based on what he knew. Quite a number of people were ultimately involved, but it is absolutely clear that, on the same day Wilson's editorial appeared, Cheney was working on an angle to link Plame's CIA status with Wilson trip to Niger. The evidence available to Fitz for a conspiracy case may have been circumstantial, but it would have been a strong circumstantial case -- and it is a case he would likely have won, because in fact all of the underlying claims were factually true. The only credible explanation, for Fitz's failure to pursue the case, is that he decided against it for political reasons

McClellan accuses Bush of deceit in CIA leak
Former spokesman says both president and vice president involved
updated 10:13 a.m. CT, Wed., Nov. 21, 2007
... McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame. "There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Monday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself" ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21903753/

Cheney Penned Note About Plame, Filing Shows
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006; Page A06
After former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV publicly criticized a key rationale for the war in Iraq, Vice President Cheney wrote a note on a newspaper clipping raising the possibility that the critique resulted from a CIA-sponsored "junket" arranged by Wilson's wife, covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, according to court documents filed late Friday ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051301258.html

http://static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/53/146253168_3a63fad4e9_o.jpg

[Occam Bandage]

17. "He could have assembled a credible conspiracy case."

To the netroots, yes. To a court, not so much. Believe it or not, it takes more than "lol, everyone knows it."

[struggle4progress]

19. A jury looking at a careful timeline would have reached the same conclusion as the netroots:

nobody of sound mind believes that Cheney wrote "Did his wife send him on a junket" (on his WaPo 6 March 2003) and then that this coincidentally happened:

Mission To Niger
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, July 14, 2003; Page A21
... administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102000874.html

Fitz knew Novak heard it from Rove: see
Columnist testifies Rove confirmed Plame was CIA
POSTED: 12:01 p.m. EST, February 14, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/12/cia.leak/index.html

McClellan resigned from the White House in April 2006: he now says top administration officials were involved in the Plame affair, and he must have learned it before he resigned, because afterwards he was out of the loop. The necessary information was therefore available before Fitz went to trial; he either failed to obtain it or else applied an inappropriately strict standard

[KharmaTrain]

13. If You Lived In Illinois, This Wasn't A Shock...

I avoided voting for Governor in 2006 cause I couldn't vote for this shitstain, yet there was no way I'd vote for an even more inept repubnican...I was just hoping this bastard would just go away...and now it looks like he will, just not on his terms. If anything, I'm happy that Patrick Quinn will be taking over and this arrogant fukstick is out of power, out of public life and into a jail cell. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. No conspiracy, sorry. No political motivation by Bank of America here... No illegal birth certificate either. This bastard got caught and he dserves both the public humiliation and all the prosecution that comes to him. No excuses just because there's a (D) or (R) next to his name.

Lastly, Blago WASN'T and ISN'T "Chicago Politics"...if anything there are a lot of Chicago Democrats who are quitely doing a happy dance cause this happened and this piece of shit has been exposed. For the past two years, Blago has been a party of one...and that's only for himself. It was common knowledge and my only hope was that he wasn't stealing the state blind...now my suspicions are coming true.

The only thing shocking out of today's revelations is that this dude honestly thought he could get away with this shit.

[bklyncowgirl]

14. A crook is a crook is a crook

Whether he's got a D or an R after his name.

Admittedly this guy has more chutzpah than most. Selling Obama's Senate seat--as a resident of New Jersey, formerly of Brooklyn, I stand in awe.

[stillcool]

15. Good Political Theater...

[Radical Activist]

18. Is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and belongs in prison.