The Orbis

Issue date: 1/21/09 Section: News/Features

Blago's presidential aspirations are ruined. Sad, since his campaign would surely have been rich in comedic material.

It is said that it takes money to succeed in American politics. Illinois is no exception. The difference is that money in most other places goes towards organizing and buying advertisements while money in Illinois goes towards buying politicians.

Recently, that's meant buying the state's governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich. In December, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested for two counts of corruption in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois. The most publicized portion of the 76-page indictment affidavit were Blagojevich's alleged efforts to sell President Obama's newly-vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich thought the seat was worth at least a lucrative position on a corporate board or a job as head of a large non-profit advocacy organization (for himself and/or his wife) after it became clear that he would be unable to "trade" the Senate seat for a cabinet seat as Secretary of Health and Human Services or an ambassadorship to Serbia. In addition, he considered taking cash for the seat in the form of campaign contributions.

To give due credit to Blagojevich's imagination, he also entertained the possibility of appointing himself to the Senate in order to avoid being impeached and removed from office by the Illinois state legislature. Most ludicrously of all, Blagojevich felt that a stint in the Senate would be able to rehabilitate his public image and prepare him for a 2016 presidential run. This was rather optimistic; even before the corruption scandal became public, Blagojevich was barely managing to escape single-digit approval ratings in Illinois and would have had to face these same voters in 2010.

With his plans to sell off the Senate seat thwarted by his arrest, Blagojevich later announced that he was appointing Roland Burris, a former Illinois attorney general and comptroller, to fill the vacancy. It proved a shrewd political move; by suggesting that Burris's African American background was the reason why Senate Democrats opposed the appointment, Blagojevich managed to successfully play the race card and divert attention away from the fact that an incredibly corrupt governor was making the appointment. After a brief standoff with Senate Democrats who had no legal basis for barring the appointment, Burris was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on January 15. He currently serves as the only African American member of the Senate.

Aside from the Senate seat, Blagojevich demanded that the Tribune Company, which publishes the Chicago Tribune, terminate certain Tribune staff responsible for publishing editorials critical of Blagojevich. In return, Blagojevich offered state assistance in helping the Tribune Company sell Wrigley Field and possibly the Chicago Cubs in order to stay financially afloat (the Tribune Company has since sought bankruptcy protection).

Blagojevich also faces numerous allegations of using a "pay-to-play" scheme when doling out state contracts in everything from healthcare to transportation.

The Illinois House of Representatives has already impeached Blagojevich by a 114-1 vote on January 9, and Blagojevich now faces a trial by the Illinois Senate, which will vote on removing him from office based on the impeachment charges. A date for his federal trial has not yet been established and the trial will not begin until at least April.

Blagojevich is not the only Illinois governor to engage in blatant corruption. His gubernatorial predecessor, Republican George Ryan, is currently serving a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being convicted on federal corruption charges.

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