Illinois Gov. Blagovich Arrested After Trying to Sell Obama's Senate Seat

by Damozel |  Gov. Blagojevich:  "The Senate seat “is a f—-ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing." (Politico).  Not when there are lucrative jobs to be had or favors to be traded!  This is old-time political corruption, the true authentic brand.  From The New York Times:

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.

Under the Illinois constitution Blagojevich has---or rather had--- the sole authority to name Obama's successor (chi.trib.), a power which he apparently described as "golden." (NYT)  He certainly seems to have done his all to make it so.

He felt that a fair trade for the political favor he had to sell might be, say, a high-powered position in the Obama administration or maybe just a lucrative position elsewhere for the wife.  Oh, and some money for his campaign chest.....

[H]e sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of Health and Human Services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said.

He also suggested, they said, that in exchange for the Senate appointment, his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year, and he tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund.

Furthermore, if he wasn't offered a deal to his liking, he would just take the Senate seat himself. (NYT)   

At a news conference, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, said that Mr. Blagojevich had gone on a “political corruption crime spree,” and that his actions had “taken us to a truly new low.”(NYT)  

Ben Smith points out that it is clear from the complaint that the Obama team refused to offer him anything for appointing his preferred candidate, Valerie Jarrett.

"ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he knows that the President-elect wants Senate Candidate 1 for the Senate seat but 'they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F*** them,'" says the complaint.  (Politico)

He also said:  "One piece of speculation: Jarrett's abrupt withdrawal from consideration for the Senate seat suggests Obama's circle aware of the investigation." (Politico)

At Talk Left, Jeralyn noted that Obama should be very grateful that Blago trashed him on tape.  "As Fitz said, there's no information Obama was aware any of these attempts were taking place, and the tapes make it pretty clear Blagojevich didn't think Obama's people would "pay to play."" 

Here were some of his other bright ideas for how he could parley his constitutional powers into cash or other valuable prizes.

Just last week, on December 4, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor that he might "get some (money) up front, maybe" from Senate Candidate 5, if he named Senate Candidate 5 to the Senate seat, to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for Blagojevich if he ran for re-election. In a recorded conversation on October 31, Blagojevich claimed he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate 5 as follows: "We were approached 'pay to play.' That, you know, he'd raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator."

Who is this "Senate Candidate 5"?  Marc Ambinder thinks he can make an educated guess.  The Smoking Gun has a different theory.

But wait!  Here are a some more examples.

On November 7, while talking on the phone about the Senate seat with Harris and an advisor, Blagojevich said he needed to consider his family and that he is "financially" hurting, the affidavit states. Harris allegedly said that they were considering what would help the "financial security" of the Blagojevich family and what will keep Blagojevich "politically viable." Blagojevich stated, "I want to make money," adding later that he is interested in making $250,000 to $300,000 a year, the complaint alleges.

On November 10, in a lengthy telephone call with numerous advisors that included discussion about Blagojevich obtaining a lucrative job with a union-affiliated organization in exchange for appointing a particular Senate Candidate whom he believed was favored by the President-elect and which is described in more detail below, Blagojevich and others discussed various ways Blagojevich could "monetize" the relationships he has made as governor to make money after leaving that office. (CBS2.chi.com)

This is just the tip of the iceberg.   Blago tried to use his political clout to get the Tribune to fire the Chicago Tribune editorial board members who had criticized him fired as a condition of providing them state assistance.  (NYT)

[I]ntercepted phone calls revealed that the Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs, has explored the possibility of obtaining assistance from the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA) relating to the Tribune Company's efforts to sell the Cubs and the financing or sale of Wrigley Field....

Intercepted calls allegedly show that Blagojevich directed Harris to inform Tribune Owner and an associate, identified as Tribune Financial Advisor, that state financial assistance would be withheld unless members of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board were fired, primarily because Blagojevich viewed them as driving discussion of his possible impeachment. In a November 4 phone call, Blagojevich allegedly told Harris that he should say to Tribune Financial Advisor, Cubs Chairman and Tribune Owner, "our recommendation is fire all those [expletive] people, get 'em the [expletive] out of there and get us some editorial support." (CBS2.chi.com)

The New York Times says that "pay to play" is all part of the "clubby world of Illinois politics."

 [T]he charges are part of a five-year investigation into public corruption and allegations of “pay to play” deals.... In addition to the charges related to Mr. Obama’s Senate seat, they include accusations that Mr. Blagojevich worked to gain benefits for himself, his family and his campaign fund in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions.

The authorities recorded Mr. Blagojevich speaking with advisers, fundraisers, a spokesman and a deputy governor, using listening devices placed in his office, home telephone, and a conference room at the offices of a friend, prosecutors said.(NYT) 

Melissa McEwen says:

I was in the car listening to NPR when the story broke, and my immediate response was to burst out laughing. He just wouldn't be an Illinois governor if he weren't breaking federal law!

Illinois' not-Obama Senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, has spent the past few weeks petitioning for clemency on behalf of the last Illinois governor, Republican George Ryan, who's currently sitting in jail. (And, by the way, his defense attorney is the Illinois governor before him, Republican Jim Thompson. You can't make this stuff up.)

Josh Marshall:

I mean, I think everyone involved in politics or interested in political corruption in the country had to know that Blagojevich's phones were tapped and probably his offices were bugged, and that Pat Fitzgerald had him under the craziest level of scrutiny. And he tries to sell the senate seat with that hanging over his head? That's simply amazing. I guess you could say he's just a traditionalist, trying to keep up heritage of Chicago machine politics. But with some of these characters, it must just be pathological.

Hell, even I had heard.  How did Blagojevich not?

Fitzgerald was amazed.

Noting that Blagojevich has been under investigation for years for pay-to-play corruption charges, Fitzgerald expressed his amazement that the activity would continue. “You might have thought in that environment, pay-to-play would have slowed down. The opposite happened. It sped up,” he said.  (Think Progress)

I'm guessing he was the same sort of cockeyed optimist as so many other criminal defendants, telling himself that if nobody had arrested him it meant they had no evidence.

At TalkLeft, Jeralyn says:

Blagojevich's lawyers best shot will be in challenging the wiretaps and bugs. Considering itt didn't work for Gov. Ryan or Tony Rezko or Stuart Levine, that seems like a longshot. After that, what's left? That the conversations were just talk and didn't amount to overt acts in furtherance of a conspiracy? That too will be a hard sell...

Mrs. Blagojevich must be happy she didn't get charged. I wonder if it will stay that way or whether she'll be indicted when Fitz takes the case to the grand jury.

I kind of doubt, reading the various reports, that it will stay that way, though I suppose she could be a bargaining chip.  

Ambinder further comments on how all this may affect Obama during the transition and---if the inauguration ever comes---after.

The president-elect has long considered Blagojevich to be a clot in the artery of Democratic power. Axelrod, too, has been privately critical of the Illinois governor, a former client. The touchy context for this indictment is the larger circle of Chicago political insiders who Obama befriended on his freeclimb to power. A long trial will expose to the public many unsavory Chicago political traditions -- the same traditions that John McCain haltingly tried to turn into a political issue during the presidential race.

Yeah.  And the right will rejoice at having even the thinnest fragment straw out of which to manufacture their bricks. 

Memeorandum has more.

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Comments

[Charles]

I trust the Smoking Gun over Ambinder.