Blago Verdict

Very strange, the whole thing. It's not surprising the jury exited the place without going to the interview room after an 11-1 holdout situation on one of the main counts of selling the Senate seat.

The question now is what next? Will we have to put up with this knucklehead making news every few days for another year, which will occur if Fitzgerald tries him on the 23 hung counts? It's likely Blago's defense would pull the same non-defense again if they go through the same motions with another panel, so perhaps next time around the government would need to call Rezko, Jarrett and Raum.

Of course, that won't happen until after the mid-terms, if it happens at all. But it certainly would run into the 2011 presidential campaign kick-off so my guess is they'll huff and puff about a retrial for a few more days, then on some obscure Friday (before Labor Day maybe) the DoJ will announce they won't retry.

Meanwhile, the main thing learned during this trial was not about Blago, but about Obama. His transition team's report about their contacts with Blago regards the Senate seat was clearly less than transparent....which registered as much on the mainstream news BS-0-meter then as it does now.

The Rahmbo Pivot

So the same guy tangentially involved with Tony Rezko and Rod Blago...the same guy who likely offered Joe Sestak a bribe to stay out of the Pennsylvania primary...the same guy who threatened representative Massa in the shower over his health care vote...is now the same guy trying to focus the BP oil disaster on congressman Barton for foolishly admitting the obvious? Shocking. Maybe they can release the transcript of the BP come-to-Jesus secret oil meeting so we can all get some transparency on this.

A desperate move, but never sell the mainstream media short in their attempt to make it a legitimate meme. Still, Rahm is facing a possible appearance in the Blago circus trial, which appears to be a dose of sunny disinfectant on the hot dog factory known as Chicago politics. He wants to run for mayor there, so maybe it's time to leave, over that alone. Or maybe there's another disagreement?

Fat Chances

So Blago wants Obama to testify in his Senate-seat auction case? That's about as likely as anyone finding out who destroyed the CIA interrogation tapes (since the latest FOIA release has apparently exonerated the Bush folks).

Hot Rod is an interesting character, though. It's almost as if he's regularly doing and saying outrageous things to keep his profile as high as possible, to the point of becoming a household name. Wonder why he would do that, aside from the fame?

Another Saturday Night Special

This Congress and administration seems to like working in the dark. Appropriate, too.

Arkansas Senator Blanche Lambert's impassioned speech earlier in the day against the public option--but in favor of courageously allowing the public option to become a reality-- highlighted the afternoon. Ms. Lincoln vowed not to vote yes on a bill if it contains a public plan, which appears the kind of posturing destined for GOP TV commercial immortality. At last check Huckabee's from Ar-kansas and also has a TV megaphone. Then again, it's Huck.

But the so-called Louisiana Purchase was even more tawdry. Mary Landrieu even had the temerity to revel in her largesse, apparently oblivious to the fact it comes from the taxpayers and not Harry Reid's billfold. Wasn't the stimulus enough? Clarify something here--what's the difference between her shakedown of the taxpayers via Congress and this conversation from another politician:

"If they're not going to offer anything of value, I might just take it." Another quote: "Unless I get some real good expletive, I might just take it myself." "I've got this thing and it's *#$* golden. I'm not going to give it away for nothing."

..other than an indictment?

Sherlock Holmes, He Presumes

Are all the public officials in Chicagoland clowns or are they just good actors?

Geez, as if the Christopher Kelly death isn't suspicious enough we have a suburban mayor during a news conference holding up the drivers license of the woman who drove Kelly to the hospital. Is it standard protocol for the police to seize the drivers license of people not yet accused of crimes then flash their name, picture and address to the media? Who didn't bother to ask where they got it?

Whatever, the mayor certainly seemed to be enjoying his time in the limelight. Here are some gems: she (girlfriend) "lawyered up, as we say in the trades" and we're "giving it all the bells and whistles" as if other cases don't get such treatment. And finally they will have to wait for the "toxology reports". The girlfriend's lawyer had a more colorful opinion:

“The mayor's a jackass. You can print that,” Gillespie said.

Ah, Chicago. One crazy place, to the point that to an outsider it seems as if the entire Blago tale is a made-for-TV dark comedy. Surely Patrick Fitzgerald will get to the bottom of this tangled web before he's eligible for retirement.

Blagorithm

Since most people don't understand mathematical algorithms, I'm calling what happened today in Chicago a Blagorithm. You might describe it as a blagasm, or maybe a blagosion, or maybe just a pitiful collapse of western civilization. Actually, it's just Chicago.

Thanks to Blago we are now actually seeing the hot dogs being made up there, and while it's not pretty, it's bizarrely comical, almost as if the whole thing is an episode of the Batman TV series and soon the Joker will pop out and announce he's taken over Chicago (with police chief Fitzgerald tied up in the corner).

Saturday Night Live can hardly keep pace. Here we have the spectacle of former Obama opponent Bobby Rush predicting that anyone who dares not to seat the Mr. Burris might be participating in a "lynching", setting up the surreal notion that Obama might be leading the mob for strongly suggesting this pick will not stick.

With the curtain now fully pulled back it's prudent to wonder what kind of part Obama had in that pork-laden play. We seem to be left to believe he was some kind of sleeper agent sent in there undercover to clean everything up, playing the game all along to keep up appearances but now ready to drop the hammer on his unsuspecting ex-colleagues. Because short of that...

Innuendo Fest

Strange. Atlantic online had a short blurb today about George Tenet that seemed about as credible as Tenet's claim he spoke with Richard Perle on 9/11:

An enraged George Tenet, drunk on scotch, flailing about Prince Bandar's Riyadh pool, screaming about the Bush Administration officials who were just then trying to pin the Iraq WMD fiasco on him

This was supposedly contained in a new book about the Middle East. Tenet has denied it, but no word on whether he made any pool/dunking jokes.

And just now, on Hannity and Colmes, guest Victoria Toensing ended her appearance saying Patrick Fitzgerald was "the next Elliot Spitzer" and that the press should "investigate". Colmes was muttering for a reply as they cut to a commercial. Hmm. Wonder what she meant by that? Does she mean he's aiming for the Governor of Illinois vacancy or does she mean he's been hittin' the tip jar at the Chicken Ranch?