No Runny Eggs

(H/T – Eric Odom’s Twitter stream)

The Chicago Tribume is reporting that Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (D-with the reference in paragraph #4) was taken into federal custody this morning. This comes a few hours after the Trib reported that the federal investigation into pay-for-play allegations against Blagojevich led by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had been expanded to include Blagojevich’s choice for Barack Obama’s replacement in the Senate.

I’m under no illusions that Blagojevich will either be convicted or not pardoned. Fitzgerald has but 40 days to get a conviction before he is no longer US Attorney. Further, Blagojevich and Obama share a friend convicted on public corruption charges, Tony Rezko, and Obama will, as of January 20, have the power to make all of Blagojevich’s federal charges disappear.

Revisions/extensions (9:35 am 12/9/2008) – The Trib comes through with the two-count-apiece indictment criminal complaint against Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris. The first count involves multiple instances of play-to-play, including the attempted sale of Obama’s Senate seat for personal gain. The second involves a scheme to have members of the Trib’s editorial board, who had been agitating for Blagojevich’s impeachment, fired in exchange for help in disposing of Wrigley Field. The short-version press release is also available from the Trib.

R&E part 2 (12:24 pm 12/9/2009) – A few updates. First, I have to thank Emperor Misha I and Allen Fuller for linking to me. Welcome those of you from Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and RootsHQ.

Second, I just got done listening to the press conference with Fitzgerald and the FBI Special Agent in Charge. One important item from the conference; in response to a question of whether Obama knew anything about the attempt to sell his vacated Senate seat, Fitzgerald pointed back to the indictment complaint/affidavit combo and said that it didn’t indicate that Obama or his team knew anything about that. He pointedly refused to say whether any evidence not included in that did indicate either Obama or his team knew anything, which is standard procedure regardless of whether the evidence exists or not.

I suppose I should answer the Emperor on how this will go away because I didn’t explain it very well above. I doubt it will get to the point of Blagojevich needing a pardon, but if it does come to that, it will happen. The fact that Fitzgerald included the shakedown of a childrens hospital as part of count #1 makes it likely that, if necessary, it will happen later rather than sooner (say the third quarter of 2011).

However, a pardon isn’t the only way that Obama could influence this. It has become customary for the entire US Attorney corps to be replaced by an incoming administration. I would expect the new US Attorney for Northern Illinois to “quietly” seek the dismissal of charges. Whether Blagojevich would have any legitimate juicy dirt on Obama or not, he strikes me as the type to try to use that to try to strike a deal. Obama can’t risk that dirt coming out, whether or not it is real.

R&E part 3 (12:29 pm 12/9/2008) – I really need to check my overbloated feed. I somehow missed doubleplusundead linking to me. Guess that’s why I’m a Moron.

R&E part 4 (12:33 pm 12/9/2008) – DrewM. live-blogged the press conference for those of you who missed it.

R&E part 5 (1:51 pm 12/9/2008) – I erred in calling this an indictment. It is a criminal complaint; the indictment will come from a grand jury. Sorry about that.

R&E part 6 (1:56 pm 12/9/2008) – Blagojevich and Harris are free on $4500 bond. They do have to turn over their passports and any firearms under the terms of the bond. They best not have any handguns because they’re both Chicago residents.

R&E part 7 (2:24 pm 12/9/2008) – Obama is “saddened and sobered” by the indictment, but says it’s “inappropriate” to comment on it at this time. He had “no contact with the governor or his office,” so he had no idea what was happening.

R&E part 8 (2:59 pm 12/9/2008) – Obama senior adviser David Axelrod contradicts those claims in an appearance on “Fox Chicago Sunday” from 11/23 (starting at the 1:14 mark, with the money quote at 1:20):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=konL35ur0Bo[/youtube]

Oops, Obama did it again!

R&E part 9 (4:16 pm 12/9/2008) – With a hat-tip to Allahpundit, I direct your attention to Jake Tapper, who has a couple more tidbits on Obama’s closeness to Blagojevich, and the $999 million questions – “But there remain questions about how Blagojevich knew that Mr. Obama was not willing to give him anything in exchange for the Senate seat — with whom was Blagojevich speaking? Did that person report the governor to the authorities?”

The Leftosphere thinks that Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel did tip off the authorities. He may have, and if he did, I’ll gladly give him a couple of “atta-boys”, but judging by the publicly-available timeline, I believe Fitzgerald and company knew about this the moment they reviewed the wiretaps.

R&E part 10 (4:46 pm 12/9/2008) – With a tip of the hat to EM Zanotti, I have bad news for friends of clean government – Blagojevich is going nowhere.

Meanwhile, Rick Moran has the definitive south-of-the-Waukegan-toll-plaza view. While I won’t be able to listen to Rick’s BlogTalkRadio show live because of Drinking Right, I will tune in sometime before 2 pm tomorrow. If you’re not going to DR, at least tune in to that.