Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is a guy it’s better not to have known — even if for only one flash-lit moment. Blago-smears have stained President-elect Barack Obama, U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Rahm Emanuel, and even our own U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, in a case (so far) of guilt by free-association. Now a 1980 photo of the future governor with President Richard Nixon (hat tip Time Out Chicago, via Doing Time) demonstrates that death is no ex post facto protection from a persona non grata like Blago — who told reporters the day before the FBI picked him on public corruption charges that he welcomed those who would surveil him openly but “those who feel like they want to sneakily, and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate.”

According to Time Out, a 20-something Blago staked out Nixon’s New York residence with a pal in 1980, angling for a photo and autograph. The picture surfaced in a profile of Blagojevich produced by Chicago public television station WTTW.