Senate seat for sale?

Illinois politics is legendarily corrupt. But even by the state’s high standards, the charge sheet against the current governor, Rod Blagojevich, is impressive. Blagojevich was, so it is alleged, trying to sell the Senate seat that Obama’s election had left vacant. If that wasn’t enough, Blagojevich was apparently attempting to shake down the president-elect.

The sale of the Senate seat isn’t the only charge against the governor. The New York Times summarises the others as follows:

“The governor is accused of racing to solicit millions of dollars in donations from people with state business before an ethics law bars such behavior in January, and threatening to rescind state money this fall from businesses, including a Chicago hospital for children, whose executives refused to give him money. He is also accused of putting pressure on The Chicago Tribune to fire members of its editorial board who had criticized him or lose the governor’s help on the possible sale of Wrigley Field, which is owned by the Tribune Company and is home to the Chicago Cubs.”

The transcripts of Blagojevich’s conversations – his phone was tapped – reveal a positively Nixonian level of swearing and remarkable levels of self-delusion, he thought he could be a presidential contender in 2016. They also suggest that a couple of other Illinois politicians could soon get dragged into this scandal; Obama himself is in the clear but it remains to be seen if all of his political allies are. The nature of Illinois politics is summed up by the fact that three of the last five governors of the state have been indicted.