Rod Blagojevich

Not only has Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich stolen the political moment from Barack Obama, he’s taken a crowbar to the president-elect’s mantle as wordsmith-in-chief and orator for our times. Once Blago’s cussed, illegal schemes got taken down by the FBI and disseminated by the Justice Department, the nation took notice of a new literary lion rumbling from its midsection. Blagojevich’s words have also inspired Americans to take up their pens to compose a new musical (or fragment thereof) and a flattering Daily Beast quiz that compares lines from “The Sopranos,” a show that won six Emmys for the best writing on a television, to lines from the FBI affadavit.

If anyone took it seriously when an unnamed U.S. senator floated the name of his senate colleague Norm Coleman as a prospective chair of the Republican National Committee in The Washington Times three weeks ago, they likely aren’t anymore. And not because of the ongoing recount in the election for his Senate seat, which was seen as hampering [...]

Rod Blagojevich was arrested today on charges that included alleged schemes to funnel money to the Illinois governor through his wife, Patricia. Because the charges against Blagojevich are criminal and made by the U.S. Department of Justice, they are on a wholly different order (at least so far, pending results of a newly reported FBI probe) from allegations about U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman that were made by private plaintiffs in a pair of Texas civil suits from October.

The dissimilarity, however, ends there.

Despite the GOP’s efforts to link Barack Obama to the Rod Blagojevich scandal, the president-elect states he’s “had no contact with the governor or his office so [he] was not aware of what was happening.” Further, according to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s statement (pdf), Obama, in the words of TPM, “wouldn’t pay to play.” The [...]

Even before all the facts are out, the Republican National Committee is trying to link Barack Obama to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested today for allegedly trying to sell off Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. The Hill reports that the GOP’s email to reporters included “laudatory remarks the president-elect has made [...]