The prosecutor

While holding down the job of U.S. attorney in Chicago, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald commuted to the nation's capital, investigating the disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame and winning a conviction against Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby.

On Tuesday, Fitzgerald shook the Illinois political world with the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.

It's unusual for a federal prosecutor to have on his résumé two such sensitive investigations in different parts of the country. And that's not all. In a productive seven-year tenure, Fitzgerald also won the conviction of the previous Illinois governor, Republican George Ryan, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison term for corruption.

J. Gilmore Childers, who prosecuted terrorism cases with Fitzgerald in New York, said his friend has a sort of righteous indignation at wrongdoing. Childers said, "He has a sort of 'Oh, gosh' quality, an aspect that's almost corny, that sees things as black or white."

Obama has pledged to keep Fitzgerald on the job.

The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich marks the latest in a series of recent scandals erupting around Democratic politicians.

The corruption charges against Blagojevich come as one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, remains under investigation by a House ethics panel.

Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana is awaiting trial on charges of bribery, money laundering and misusing his congressional office, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Saturday, he was ousted from his House seat in a run-off election.

Earlier this year, Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned after revelations that he was involved in a prostitution ring.

Democrats said they hoped the political fallout for their party would be limited, but they acknowledged that the developments would give Republicans a new political target during Obama's transition months.

Note to prominent people doing questionable things: Don't invite people to check up on you while you do it.

Just as presidential candidate Gary Hart once baited reporters to "follow me around" if they thought he was stepping out on his wife, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told people on the eve of his arrest that they were welcome to tape his public and private phone calls. "I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful," he huffed.

Daring authorities or the media to tune in shows a particular kind of conceit, says Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management specialist. He said, "The people who get themselves into these messes are like Wile E. Coyote -- people who are in love with their own cunning who end up driving themselves off a cliff."

In a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of Barack Obama's rise through Illinois politics, a phone call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Jones was a critic of the bill, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Blagojevich, who had vetoed it. But after the call from Obama, the Senate overrode the veto, prompting the governor to press state contractors for donations before the law's restrictions could take effect on Jan. 1, prosecutors say.

Tipped off to Blagojevich's efforts, federal agents obtained wiretaps for his phones.