Blago-gate!

Obama's first "scandal"---and he's not even in office!  Things move faster than they used to and not always in a good way.

 Marc Ambinder points out that Obama has long considered Blagojevich a tumor on the Democratic party's behind (Ambinder put it a bit differently).  UPDATE:  This article suggests that maybe he hasn't thought so for that long.   And a Chicago reporter thinks Rahm Emanuel might have tipped off the feds to Blago's "Pay to Play" gambit. 

But the fall of the Illinois Democrat---while pleasing to those of us who like our government corruption free--does its part to wilt the petals in our winner's bouquet and we haven't even had the inaugural ball yet.

We know how these things go, having seen the Rezko and Ayers things play out:  being from Chicago, and the scion of the Illinois political system, he's going to have connections to people involved in the scandal, giving Republicans (not to say the howling banshees of the far right) a chance to have a go that may go on and on and on.  After all, six degrees of separation, and we're talking about one relatively small community. 

UPDATE. Or...wait.  Not even that far.

Axelrod...has been privately critical of the Illinois governor, a former client. (Ambinder)

UPDATE 2.  That didn't take long!  And not even ONE degree of separation remains!  Sigh.  Obama knew---and endorsed---the corrupt governor.  Well, we've been down the guilt-by-association road before.

And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary that year, then-state sen. Obama endorsed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. But after Blagojevich won, Obama came around enthusiastically. At the same time, meanwhile, Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client.

[O]thers now around Obama were less enthusiastic about Blagojevich at the time, namely David Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign adviser who will soon be a senior adviser at the White House.

Axelrod had worked for Blagojevich in his past races for the House, but he declined to work on his gubernatorial run.

"He had been my client and I had a very good relationship with him, but I didn't sign on to the governor's race," Axelrod told the New Yorker. "Obviously he won, but I had concerns about it...I was concerned about whether he was ready for that. Not so much for the race but for governing. I was concerned about some of the folks -- I was concerned about how the race was being approached."  (Political Punch)

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At MoJo Blog, Jonathan Stein provides a short history of corrupt Illinois governors:

Blago (2003-present?), George Ryan (1999-2003), James Edgar (1991-1999), James Thompson (1977-1991), and Daniel Walker (1973-1977). Blago is Blago. Ryan was convicted of 16 charges of conspiracy, fraud, and lying under oath and currently resides in federal prison. (Patrick Fitzgerald, apparently the greatest prosecutor walking the planet, was Ryan's prosecutor.) Edgar... saw his subordinates charged with giving a sweetheart deal to a major campaign contributor. Thompson does not appear to have run into any legal trouble, but the law firm he heads did represent Ryan against Fitzgerald. And Walker was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in a savings and loan scandal after leaving office.

So that would be... three of the last five Illinois governors charged with some kind of wrongdoing. Excellent work, Land of Lincoln.

So what happens now, as in "in the immediate future"?  Ambinder again, because he's so fair and balanced and we're so not:

Transition aides declined to comment on the indictment; they seemed to be surprised by its scope. Speaking about Obama, U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald told reporters that prosecutors "make no allegations that he is aware of anything."  Perhaps as a courtesy to the president-elect, Obama's name isn't printed in the indictment -- only Durbin called on the Illinois General Assembly to enact a law as quickly as possible calling for a special election to fill the Senate vacancy of Barack Obama. No appointment by this Governor could produce a credible replacement." 

Rep. Jan Schawkosky (D-IL) called today for Blagojevich to resign, and if he refuses, to impeach him.

Memeorandum has more.

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