Blagojevich

 Podcast Show Notes

Blagojevich appoints old crony to the U.S. Senate.  

Resolution introduced to go after Bush and Congressional Republicans on bailouts at the Republican National Committee.  (Hat Tip: Save the GOP.)

Coming to an Emergency Room near you?: British man dies after waiting 6 hours to be admitted to the Emergency room (Hat Tip: Don Surber.

The Democrats' big gift: rationed health care.

Global warming hoohah fails to materialize. (Hat Tip: Greenie Watch.)

The not so hard working folks who run the UAW union.

Unions hinder the budget process in Washington State. (Hat Tip: Right Mind.)

Palestinians bring back crucifixion. (Hat Tip: Don Surber.)

Teen girls in Thailland given future.

Iraqi Christians stand firm.  

Music by Caledonix via the Podsafe Music Network.

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News of the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is focusing on his own crimes, which appear to be brazen and deplorable.  I don't think anybody is defending him against what appears to be smoking gun evidence.  

But this isn't an isolated example.  As Dave Schuler says at Outside the Beltway, "within my lifetime three Illinois governors have been convicted of corruption and served time in prison after serving their terms as governor. It’s not just a few bad apples here, not just “political crooks”. The system itself is corrupt."  What Blagojevich did and what will happen to him is already pretty clear, and there's probably not a lot of questions left on that front. 

However, there are two important questions that need to be answered as we proceed:

(1) Who else will be caught in this scandal?  While there are relatively few allegations that his pay-to-play was reciprocated, there are two reasonable possibilities to consider:

• Brazen solicitation of bribes does not arise ex nihilo.   Initial or reciprocal inquiries and signals must have been sent to give Blagojevich the impression that he could be so bold, so presumptuous, with his bribery.
• As the Mother Jones blog notes: "Sounds like some other folks are in trouble as well. Starting with "Senate Candidate 5."  Marc Ambinder says Senate Candidate 5 appears to be Jesse Jackson, Jr.
• Firedoglake says "the whole Valerie Jarrett incident, where Obama endorsed her for his Senate seat one day and then appointed her as a senior White House aide  almost immediately, was awfully suspicious."   The Politico's Ben Smith says this "suggests Obama's circle aware of the investigation."  However, Marc Ambinder has read the documents and says "there's no evidence whatsoever that anyone associated with the Obama presidential transition did anything improper."

• Any other potential players in this scandal are almost certain to have been much more discreet than Gov. Blagojevich.  Those signals would have occurred through backchannels and surrogates.  Do the recordings and other evidence indicate that any of the people - candidates, Unions, or influencers - were sending signals to the Governor that they were willing to play ball?

(2) Where was the media?  I assure you, the corruption of Illinois politicians is not a shocking new development.   So, why did it take a US Attorney to investigate and report upon the corruption that everybody has known about for a long time?  Why has the media not exposed this?

The media's inability to expose and bring down such pervasive, long-term corruption suggests they are either unwilling to susbtantively challenge the government, or incapable of doing so effectively.   Either is a damning indictment of the fourth estate.

UPDATE: To clarify, I'm not asking why the media didn't wiretap this guy or cover this story.   I'm asking why the media hasn't done more to expose the generations of corruption in Illinois (or Louisiana).  They have been spectators, watching the story instead of uncovering it.