Blog House: D'oh!

Minnesota has had its naughty moments: Minneapolis City Council members going to jail on corruption charges. Lawmakers arrested for spousal abuse. Missing ballots. Accusations of inappropriate gifts. ¶ Chicago makes Minnesotans look like altar boys. And Rod Blagojevich makes Tony Soprano look like a Jonas Brother. ¶ Blackmailing a newspaper. Seeking kickbacks for funding a children's hospital. Selling a Senate seat as he were a one-man eBay. ¶ Say what you will about the Illinois governor -- the guy has moxie.

Bloggers had a lot of other names for the now-indicted governor. Kevin Drum (1) summed it up perfectly:

Jeebus. Is Blagojevich also the world's biggest moron? The evidence says yes.

Noting that the U.S. Senate seat being auctioned off was the one being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, Mark Steyn at the Corner (2) snarked that he hoped Blagojevich had a high asking price.

Conservative bloggers weren't laughing, but rather were linking Obama to Blagojevich. Both men are from Illinois, it's Obama's Senate seat that's being filled and Obama confidant David Axelrod has previously been critical of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of Blagojevich. That last link might be the one that really causes headaches for the incoming chief executive, according to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air (3).

[T]his demonstrates the links between Barack Obama and the Daley Machine in Chicago. Axelrod serves as the liaison between the two, having spent years working in the Machine before becoming Obama's right-hand man. In 2005, before making that transition, Axelrod put himself out front in trying to politicize Fitzgerald's investigation and keep it from reaching his boss, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. ... This scandal will do what the national media refused to do during the campaign: tie Obama directly to this kind of corrupt political maneuvering and force some answers as to why Obama managed to rise so fast in that environment. His alliance with Axelrod should be Exhibit A.

But Ezra Klein (4) disagreed. His contention was that, thanks to the brazenness of Blagojevich, there is no question of Obama's culpability.

[I]f Obama had made a slightly different decision and decided to play ball with Blagojevich, engage in some minor quid pro quo and help Blagojevich's wife onto some meaningless corporate board, "the feds would have had the president-elect dead to rights." His presidency would've been effectively over before it had ever begun. As it is, he's got Blagojevich on tape saying, "---- him. For nothing? ---- him." That's a helluva endorsement. Obama owes this guy a Christmas card.

The Admiral at Anti-Strib (5) ripped the media, noting that it doesn't seem to like pointing out that Blagojevich is a Democrat.

Okay, we've all heard by now the two bit hoodlum that occupied the governors mansion in Illinois by now, but what we haven't heard in the MSM is he's a Democrat. Calm down lib readers, I'm not blasting the Democrats in this post, I'm blasting the irresponsible media outlets in this country known as the MSM to some, and the Ministry of Propaganda to others. ... In all the headlines I've seen, not once was political affiliation mentioned, very much unlike it would be if it were a Republican. ... Just a few years ago, Blagojevich's predecessor, George Ryan got himself caught up in a scandal stemming from trading commercial trucking licenses for campaign contributions. Every news story in the MSM labeled him a Republican. Larry Craig. The whole country knows he's a Republican. Believe it or not, there are a number of people that think Eliot Spitzer is a Republican. The mainstream media in this country is just putrid, I can't stand them.

Josh Marshall (6), noting that Blagojevich had an approval rating of 4 percent and had still harbored hopes of running for president in 2016, thinks he knows how the governor can avoid going to jail.

I think Blagojevich's best defense is probably going to be an insanity defense based on the evidence of his idea that he was setting himself up to run for president by appointing himself to serve out Obama's senate term.

But almost everyone agreed that Blagojevich is in big trouble, if for no other reason than because Fitzgerald is on the case. The prosecutor is tough. (Just ask Scooter Libby.) Matt Cooper at Portfolio (7), who was jailed by Fitzgerald for not revealing his source during the investigation of the Valerie Plame leak, had some advice for Blagojevich:

I don't think Fitzgerald is a cruel man. He could have put my big white butt in jail as soon as the first federal judge laughed my case out of court. But he didn't. He waited for me to make all my appeals to the Supreme Court, which meant putting his incredibly high-profile case on hold for a year. A vengeful prosecutor wouldn't have done that. ... The point here is I don't think you're dealing with a modern-day Javert or some loon. He's a hard ass, but a reasonable one and I think, if you believe you are guilty and are going to lose at trial, you might get a decent deal out of this. Sure, you'll have to do time but you're a relatively young guy. Fitz will deal. You're definitely better off dealing now. Whoever inherits the case from Fitzgerald can't afford to be seen as going light on you. It's bad enough you (allegedly) tried to sell a Senate seat but it's the president's seat, for gosh sakes. Obama's Justice Department is gonna be even tougher on you. It can't afford not to be. And even if it was inclined to show any mercy, do you think Rahm would sit idly by? He took your seat in the House and you know him well. I don't have to tell you that you're better off dealing with the Crips and Bloods than with a pissed off Rahm. ... Our situations are different, of course. I was never accused of a criminal act, only of being a reluctant witness. But I think I know Fitzgerald a bit and I think you can cut a deal. Best of luck!

tobrien@startribune.com

SEE FOR YOURSELF WHERE TO FIND THE BLOGS

1 Kevin Drum • motherjones.com/kevin-drum

2 The Corner • corner.nationalreview.com

3 Hot Air • hotair.com

4 Ezra Klein • prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein

5 Anti-Strib • anti-strib.blogspot.com

6 Talking Points Memo • talkingpointsmemo.com

7 Portfolio • portfolio.com/views/blogs/capital

Editor's note: Blog posts are excerpted but not edited.