Can you believe the accusations leveled against Rod Blagojevich? Trying to basically sell the US Senate seat? Trying to get concessions from the Tribune? I mean, is he even from Chicago? Kudos to Mr. Fitzgerald for doing this even though Blagojevich probably is (or was...) a friend/patron of Obama. I hope US Attorney Fitzgerald gets some major promotion in the Justice Dept for this and for Scooter Libby.
In the past few years we've seen corruption and scandal from: Murkowski (AK), Spitzer (NY)(prostitute), Blagojevich (IL)(corruption), McGreevey (NJ)(gay sex scandal), Ryan (IL)(another sex scandal), Romer (CO)(another sex scandal). Corruption and scandal in statehouses, esp among Dems, is a problem. I'm sure I've missed some. If I had to try to find a common thread, and there may not be one, it would be that most of these affected states have statehouses in small towns that are not commercially important tot he state. Romer in CO is an exception. I wonder if that breeds corruption.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Rod Blago-to-jail-ovich
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 9:36 AM
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Ryan was also convicted of racketeering charges.
Clearly the Illinois Democratic party needs to be cleaned up.
Has Obama said anything about this yet? And if the gov. has to resign, what happens to that Senate seat?
Thank God this guy is gone. I've wanted him out for a while. And hey, "Dollar Bill" Jefferson is out too! So two bits of good news for those who want to clean up the Democratic party.
Next we work on Murtha.
What's wrong with Murtha?
Right now, the Gov can appoint a Senator who will serve until 2010. Or the governor can resign and the new Lt. Gov (Quinn) can appoint a senator to the vacant seat until 2010. OR the legislature of Illinois can intervene, change the rules, and require a special election for Senator sooner rather than later. I think that may be necessary under these circumstances to give any legitimacy to the new senator. Dick Durbin is calling for that.
Ryan was an Illinois Republican.
I think there's a lot of corruption in Illinois politics. That makes Obama seem even cleaner by comparison.
Ummm... There's some mistaken beliefs here or some misinformation. I'm not sure which, but I'll help clear it up.
Jack Ryan is a Republican and was not convicted of (or even charged with) anything. He at one time asked his wife to have sex with him in a group sex room in Germany, which was a legal act.
George Ryan (no relation to Jack Ryan) was Illinois Governor before Blagojevich and was convicted of corruption, conspiracy, and more. He was also a Republican.
It was Jack Ryan who was favored to win the Senate seat now being vacated by Barack Obama. The Chicago political machine convinced a judge to unseal sealed court documents about Jack Ryan's divorce from Jeri Ryan (the actress, a former Miss Illinois who played on Star Trek: Voyager and Boston Public) to cause his scandal. Jack Ryan withdrew from the race, which went to Obama.
George Ryan sold state contracts to businesses in exchange for campaign contributions, which is one thing the Democrat Blagojevich is charged with. He also is thought to have sold commercial driver's licenses to unfit drivers in exchange for bribes, and more.
Neither major party in Illinois has clean hands. The Democratic Party has a worse history as far as I can tell, but the Republicans are guilty of corruption, too.
Please don't add to the confusion between Jack Ryan and George Ryan. As one is a good man who made an unusual (by US standards) request of his wife. The other is a convicted criminal.
This is what's wrong with Murtha.
Not nearly as bad as Blago, of course. But who is?
FYI - Obama and Blago have not been on speaking terms since before the Dem Nat'l Convention. Blago wanted to speak or something and didn't get it. They have never been particularly close.
My mistake. I knew there were two Ryans, but I confused them. I thought the former governor was the one with the sex scandal, not the former senator.
We can argue how bad Jack Ryan's actions were, or if they were bad at all, but we can't dispute the fact that there was a scandal about sex that effectively ended his career.
Yes, we have been confusing a couple of different people here. LTG was mixing up the two Ryans and I was confused about which party George Ryan belonged to.
As for whether Jack Ryan is a good man or not...If you are a social conservative, family values Republican and you secretly live a life of, shall we say unconventional, sexual exploits you are raging hypocrite. It is also disputed by some within the Illinois Republican party as to whether Jack Ryan was complete honest with that party's leadership prior to his winning the nomination to run against Obama.
All of this makes one wonder how Obama managed to stay "clean".
A recent poll had Blagojevich with 13% approval rating. Apparently nobody has given a rat's ass what Blagojevich thinks or wants for a couple years. So that partly explains why, now that he finally had something people wanted (a senate seat) he became belligerent and crass to demand favors. It's really sad.
I think Obama was a small fry in the Illinois senate with nothing much to sell.
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