Update at 9:53 a.m. ET: Here’s the formal complaint [.pdf] and news release that we received from the Justice Department.
Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: USA TODAY’s Judy Keen has confirmed with prosecutors that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning on federal corruption charges.
The U.S. attorney’s office says the Democratic governor and his chief of staff, John Harris, are accused of soliciting bribes and committing wire fraud.
“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism. The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions,” he adds.
More to come, no doubt.
#61–John==You dodged the question about the BASIS on which you voted. Stating a mere conclusion does not give a basis.
Nonetheless, you raise a fair question==why vote for either? Voting for the lower offices and leaving the Gov position blank or putting in a write in candidate would make more of a statement than voting for someone you really don’t support.
Likewise, I voted AGAINST McCain because of Palin and his Bushlike Policies but I had nothing meaningful against Obama. If I had, I would have not voted for Obama.
I don’t live in Illinois but it is likewise loopy to claim that you have to live there to understand corruption. Think about that statement too. Why reference the corruption of Rome since you didn’t live there? Silly.
#65 – Bobo
>>Likewise, I voted AGAINST McCain because of
>>Palin and his Bushlike Policies
So your trousers are down around your ankles also. I guess that bottle of Astroglide will come in handy for a number of different reasons.
#22 Con-Fusion said:
“When will these retarded right wing nuts get over the fact the election is done?”
You mean the way you and the demon-craps got over the 2000 and 2004 election?
Buch of two-faced Hypocrites!!!
this is politics as usual. -seats are “brokered” this way all the time.. however, i’d bet the house this is the banking elite’s puppets showing its teeth in response to the news that Illinois would not do business with Bank of America until it unfroze its credit lines..
it only takes one to stand up in protest at the right time to start a cascade effect.
they had to snap his carrot quick before the public masses realized the power they have. (and send a quiet message to any others who were thinking of following his lead..)
also..i’m sure they’ll want someone in the seat who will continue to support using the National Guard and CAGE units for gun confiscation, (via FOID lists) -as they started to do a few months ago..
they have dirt on everyone that does not comply withe the current agenda..
fwiw:
Elliot Spitzer’s sex scandle was produced to silence his attack on the banks predatory lending practices (ie sub-prime mortages) which he started when he was new york attorney general.
iirc he was just days of blowing the lid off off the whole thing. -Countrywide which was backed (and has now been gobbled up by bank of america)
was at the heart of the whole thing, iirc.
-this is why bernanke, The Fed et al *refuse* to disclose where and when all the bailout money is going. its would paint such an obvious picture the paid-off media would have no choice but to report it..
this all started in 1999 with clinton signing off on the repeal of the market’s glass-steagall act, which was further deregulated (and even enforced) by bush thereafter..
sorry for the tangent.. but all this is to take the power away from the states and grossly upgrade the power of the federal gov. they will scandalize anyone at state level that does not play “fed-ball”
-s
#66–Mustard, as you like to say: “You aren’t making any sense.” I voted against McCain and for Obama because I was against McCain and had nothing against Obama.
What secret code of yours have I transgressed requiring the astroglide, or is this another of your many not too subtle comeons?
#58–soundwash==you are way too deep into conspiracies and linkage. Pull out before its too late. Money and power attract corrupt people. Corrupt people do things for money and power. THAT is politics by and large and explains 99% of what goes on. Conspiracy requires beyond tomorrow future thinking. Corruption only requires grabbing whats right in front of you today.
#32, Liberty,
I would say to think outside the box, but in your case I have to say think outside the square.
What? David Duke was running again and I missed it?
WHOAAAAA!!!!!!
Someone actually chooses to call themselves “angry republican.” Unbelievable. I see the republican part in his posts. Haven’t caught the angry part yet.
What a douche.
Hilarious responses from everyone of the usual suspects. I only wish I had more time to waste reading this blog.
45 Approval rating and Palin has over 80%. I’d like to be humping the good looking one and Mustard would be doing the one arrested today.
# 68 soundwash said, “this is politics as usual. -seats are “brokered” this way all the time.. ”
No, not this way. Read the transcripts.
#67, InNeedOfAngerManagement
You mean the way you and the demon-craps got over the 2000 and 2004 election?
Buch of two-faced Hypocrites!!!
Obama won the 2008 election, even though the right wing nuts tried as they might to derail the process. At least the Supreme Court has the sense to lay off of this one.
In 2000 the Supreme Court ignored Florida law and ordered the count to stop. Florida law required the individual counties to recount. The Supreme Court stopped that process, over ruling the State Court, the State Appeal Court, the State Supreme Court, a US District Court and the District Court of Appeals. Then they add that their decision is not a precedent.
And we won’t even get into all the legitimate voters that were quietly kicked off of the rolls, mostly in Democrat areas.
In 2004 it was well documented that there were several States where legitimate voters were kept off the rolls and / or stopped from voting at a booth. Then the Ohio State Department kept good machines from the more heavily populated areas causing very long lines and voters giving up. Ohio was in the forefront but other States pulled similar bullcrap.
With the world watching and so much of the population getting a little edgy, things went a lot smoother. It is a lot harder to run a dirty election when so many are watching over your shoulder.
And you were close. That last line should have been “Bush of two faced hypocrites”.
Look like a bad hair life to me.
#73 – Mr. Deisel
>>Approval rating and Palin has over 80%.
Uh, you must be thinking about her pre-Troopergate ratings. They dropped by over 25% after her petty, mean-spirited, dishonest nature was revealed. 44-year-old tits and ass will only get ya so far. At some point even the drooling truck drivers kick her to the curb.
>>I’d like to be humping the good looking one
>>and Mustard would be doing the one arrested
>>today.
Woo! Hoo! “humping the good-looking one”!! Well, get out your bottle of Astroglide, pull up some Palin pics (maybe the Photoshopped one of her holding the rifle?), and make it happen, stud! Too bad that, in real life, you have trouble even picking up truck-stop cuties.
#77 – ‘dro
STFU.
Oh Con-Fusion,
You just have to keep spewing that old tired BS, one day you might actually beleive you BS.
To paraphrase your words:
“When will YOU get over the fact that those elections are done, Retard!!”
Put down the Obama-aide, smell the coffee and give your hypocrisy a rest.
#80 Angry Repug
>>You just have to keep spewing that old tired
>>BS, one day you might actually beleive you BS.
Anything particularly bullshitty you’d care to point out, or is that just more Repugnican sour grapes?
Na-nee na-nee boo boo!
“#74 Paddy-O said,
“# 68 soundwash said, “this is politics as usual. -seats are “brokered” this way all the time.. ”
No, not this way. Read the transcripts.”
—
rofl..Operation Board Game -gotta love the names
they come up with.
thanks mate, i did not see the link to the transcript..
-however, it only re-affirms my comment further
imo.. this is exactly how politics is done.
i grew up around lawyers and “the other side” -have many as clients, here in nyc..everything is a bargaining chip when it comes to power, money and politics.
i’d love to see the full 78 pages they’re willing to share with the courts/public.. (only 78 pages for 5 years work? ha!)
-5 years..dollars to donuts the fbi has a mountain of evidence on everyone in chicago politico scene.
looks like they have the strings on lots of puppets..
-given the above allegations..think about this:
i would love to see the papers they have that detail who owned the “for sale sign” on the very senate seat that obama got fast tracked to sit in on January 3, 2005..
-from *nowhere* to president elect in chicago. i’m sure it’d be most telling. (and damming)
-well within the 5 year span of this
“Operation Board-Game”
-lets see if they claim “national security” to suppress the names of everyone involved in this little farce that they do not want to take down.
all they need is just one to be “a suspected link to terror” [terror repeats with an echo] -to seal the court and investigation records.
don’t know about you, but i’ll be pretty pissed if they do not allow the public full disclosure on all proceedings.
lastly…from the bottom of the pdf.
“The public is reminded that a complaint contain only charges and is not evidence of guilt.
The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
-ok…sadly, if they have to add that to the bottom of the complaint..to me, that smells like he might be acquitted or slapped on the wrist w/a fine and no jail time..
-time will tell.
-s
What’s the big deal? This is business as usual for both parties.
This guy simply pissed someone off.
#83–soundwash==I’d read all that stuff with interest IF it could in any way explain how anyone other than Spitzer himself without any other outside agency decided on a life of hookers. That was the only cause of his downfall, other conspiracies need not apply.
Now, explain to me how any public or secret cabal convinced Spitzer to use hookers and you will have converted a non-believers.
Short of that, everything else is coincidental.
I see no reason to believe Greg Palast after the bogus stuff he wrote about vote fraud in 2004. He wasn’t just wrong, a guy with that much knowledge was definitely lying to claim something weird about the vote in Florida the way he did.
Wow, that was fast. Obama hasn’t even taken office and the Honeymoon is over. Can you imagine what would have happened if this crap hit the news the week BEFORE the election.
Anyway, Obama gets to clean the mess left by Barney Franks and Chris Dodds screwups. Nothing like the CRA and Fannie and Freddie to crater the economy. Its too bad that network TV will never investigate this and present an unbiased documentary on how the democrats protecting fannie and freddie set the stage for the financial armageddon we get to enjoy for the next 3 years.
Enjoy your time off from work.
I suspected that this was too well timed. And that the DOJ was somehow picking on Illinois for producing our next US President. I’m sure this isn’t the only case of corruption in state government. Even Gov. Palin faces some damning questions, and this case seems to have blown that off the Presses. THEN… I can across this.
http://tinyurl.com/5quzdr
And now I’m wondering if the time is merely coincidence? A huge one? As the FBI was bugging the governors office, they very likely knew this was coming. They may have even known from an inside source, and that’s what started them looking into Blagojevich’s dealings. You could probably find similar with may a state’s politician (and they have). But the Feds may have singled out this one, because he dared to mess with GM and BoA. Now I wonder if they’ll be going after Sentor Dodd, next?
Mustard, I have never heard someone talk about using Astro-Glide so often as you.
Me thinks you have a lot of experience in same sex relationships or you just like the feeling of it as a catcher.
# 83 soundwash said, “thanks mate, i did not see the link to the transcript..”
Oh, they made part of them public?
#90 – Vin Deisel
>>Mustard, I have never heard someone talk
>>about using Astro-Glide so often as you.
I know, Deisel. I know. Among your cohort, a squeeze is worth a thousand words. You horny bastard, you.
>>Me thinks you have a lot of experience in
>>same sex relationships or you just like the
>>feeling of it as a catcher.
Does it feel good to be a catcher, Mister Deisel? Does it feel good? Hee hee! The more you babble on, the more rapidly the tangled web of your macho posturing unravels. If you were as smart as you’d like to imagine, you would take the advice I give to ‘dro, and STFU. You’re only digging yourself in deeper. Better pipe down, “stud”.
Heh. Heh heh.
Does this mean I don’t get the post??
I gave him $10.00. Do I get it back?
#88, peehead,
#79 Why will I shut the FU? Because I call on your stupid beliefs that your saviour is capable of doing such shady things?
please, just STFU !!! You rarely ever post anything except another ad hominem comment that usually doesn’t make sense.
You’re an idiot. An asshole. An ingrate. A waste of oxygen.
Don’t reply, please. Just STFU
You guys are funny, saying thing like “politics as usual” and “both parties do it”… That’s is so funny, if he were a republican, you’d be foaming at the mouth making all sort of vile condemnations…
The next four years is going to be interesting watching you guy crap yourselves trying to defend Obama’s and the democrat’s screw-ups without looking stupid (too late for some of you) He he he he…
# 95 Mr. Fusion said, “please, just STFU !!! You rarely ever post anything except another ad hominem”
I think maybe you should take some of your own medicine and chill. Hmm?
Don’t start your day like this. Isn’t good for the ol BP.
#96 – Big Boy
>>That’s is so funny, if he were a republican, you’d
>>be foaming at the mouth making all sort of vile
>>condemnations…
Unlikely. There are so many Repugs that have been caught up in ethical and moral scandals, it’s hardly even news any more. Even the right-wingnut “homophobes” getting caught with their drawers down (or their legs in a wide stance) engaging in ass-banditry has started to become boring. For a partial list just from January 2007 through Larry Craig’s wide-stancing in the boys’ room (August 2007), see below. The entire list of Republican shenannigans would probably crash the dvorak doto org slash blog server:
January 23, 2007: Republican radio personality Scott Eller Cortelyou of Denver arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to lure a child into a sexual relationship
January 29, 2007: Republican former Jefferson County, Colorado, Treasurer Mark Paschall indicted on two felony charges “in connection with an allegation that Paschall solicited a kickback from a bonus he awarded one of his employees”
January 31, 2007: Republican Congressman Gary Miller is named by Republicans as ranking member of oversight subcommittee of House Financial Services Committee despite the FBI’s investigation into his land deals
February 14, 2007: Major Republican fundraiser Brent Wilkes and former CIA executive director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo are indicted by a grandy jury for corrupting CIA contracts
February 16, 2007: Major Republican donor Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, aka Michael Mixon, is indicted in federal court on charges of providing material support to terrorists
March 5, 2007: Ethics complaint filed against Republican Senator Pete Domenici for his role in the Attorney Purge scandal
March 6, 2007: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury
March 8, 2007: Republican former U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich admits to extramarital affair
March 23, 2007: Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of George W. Bush’s energy policies, pleads guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate committee
March 27, 2007: Criminal charges filed against Republican Pennsylvania State Senator Robert Regola in connection with the death of a teenage neighbor who was shot with the senator’s gun; he is accused of three counts of perjury, allowing possession of a firearm by a minor, recklessly endangering another person and false swearing
March 27, 2007: Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, “indicted on charges of defrauding investors and banks of $1.6 billion while chairman of Collins & Aikman Corp., an auto parts maker that collapsed days after he quit”
March 28, 2007: Robert Vellanoweth, a Republican activist and appointee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, after a crash that killed three adults and one child
April 18, 2007: The FBI raids the home of Republican Congressman John Doolittle, investigating his ties to Jack Abramoff
April 19, 2007: The FBI raids a business tied to the family of Republican Congressman Rick Renzi, as part of an investigation into his business dealings
April 23, 2007: The FBI questions Republican Congressman Tom Feeney about his dealings with Jack Abramoff
April 23, 2007: Federal auditors find repeat violations of federal election law from the 2004 Senate campaign of Republican Senator Mel Martinez
April 26, 2007: David Huckabee, son of Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, is arrested at an Arkansas airport after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded gun in his carry-on luggage
May 4, 2007: Bruce Weyhrauch and Pete Kott, former Alaska state Republican legislators, were arrested and accused of soliciting and accepting bribes from the corrupt VECO Corporation
May 4, 2007: Republican state Assemblyman Michael Cole is censured and stripped of his leadership position after the married father of two spent the night at a 21-year-old intern’s apartment
May 11, 2007: A field coordinator for Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry is indicted for voter fraud in North Carolina
May 12, 2007: NBC News breaks the story that the FBI is investigating Republican Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons for suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for securing government contracts
May 15, 2007: Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy is arrested for drunk driving (he pled no contest on June 1, but didn’t publicly disclose the event until June 11)
May 18, 2007: Republican former South Dakota State Representative Ted Klaudt is charged with eight counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of sexual contact with a child younger than 16, two counts of witness tampering and one count of stalking against two foster children in his care
May 21, 2007: Republican state Senate candidate Mark Tate is indicted on nine counts of perjury and two counts of election fraud by a grand jury
June 11, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig is arrested for lewd conduct in the men’s bathroom of an airport
June 19, 2007: South Carolina Republican state Treasurer and South Carolina Chairman of Giuliani for President Thomas Ravenel is indicted by a grand jury on cocaine distribution charges
July 2, 2007: President George W. Bush commutes the sentence of former Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby following Libby’s conviction on obstruction of justice and perjury
July 3, 2007: A grand jury report declares that the sale of public land to Republican Congressman Ken Calvert and his business partners violated the law
July 11, 2007: Republican state Representative and Florida co-Chairman of McCain for President Bob Allen is arrested for soliciting a male undercover police officer, offering to pay $20 to perform oral sex
July 16, 2007: Republican Senator David Vitter holds press conference acknowledging being on the D.C. Madam’s list and past involvement with prostitutes
July 16, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was involved in a sweetheart real estate deal
July 19: Republican former state legislator Coy Privette is charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution
July 24, 2007: Michael Flory, former head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans, pleads guilty to sexual abuse
July 26, 2007: Media report that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski will sell back land purchased in a sweetheart deal, following close scrutiny of the shady transaction
July 29, 2007: Glenn Murphy Jr., recently-elected Chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, is accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping man
July 30, 2007: The FBI and IRS raid the home of Republican Senator Ted Stevens following investigations into Stevens’ dealings with the corrupt VECO Corporation
August 2, 2007: Bush administration senior adviser Karl Rove disregards a Congressional subpoena and refuses to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee
August 6, 2007: Investigation called for after House Republican Leader John Boehner leaked classified information regarding a secret court ruling over warrantless wiretapping
August 8, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig pleads guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct following his June 11 arrest
August 9, 2007: Major Republican donor Alan Fabian is charged with 23 counts of bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and perjury
August 15, 2007: Republican state House candidate Angelo Cappelli is arrested for perjury and grand theft
August 22, 2007: Republican political consultant Roger Stone resigns his role with the New York state Senate Republicans after reports surfaced that he made a “threatening, obscenity-laced” phone call to the 83-year-old father of Governor Eliot Spitzer
August 27, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Larry Craig was arrested and pled guilty – he had not publicly disclosed the events to that point