Rod nailed on tape

Tim Bearden
Editor-in-chief

I always thought rods were made of steel, but Illinois' own G-Rod Blagojevich was hammered to the wall this morning on corruption charges.

Things just don't get any better for Illinois politics. Let's do the breakdown, we have George Ryan convicted of corruption charges, three fundraisers who have been indicted or convicted on corruption charges, two Chicago aldermen, one who pled guilty and the other who has yet to be accused of any wrong doing and a Blago in a "political corruption crime spree."

Yes, it's going to be a very Merry Christmas for federal prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald, who has done all but accuse the corrupted reformer candidate of stealing the Christmas tree from little Cindy Who. His gift, any political office he'll ever want.

For Illinois and the governor, a lump of coal and a rude wake-up call from the FBI.

The case dubbed "Operation Board Games" has been under investigation for three years and is, according to the man who's trying to save Springfield, still ongoing. Guess what else happened around that time. G-Rod's re-election.

The smooth operating, rigid quaff wearing politico swore reform when he ran for Ryan's seat in 2002, then his administration went under investigation right before his re-election campaign in 2006 and now is looking at running again under the "I know you are, but what am I" campaign in 2010. While under federal investigation, the people of Illinois re-elected him. Seriously, what were we thinking? Judy Barr Topenka wasn't necessarily the next best thing at the time, but we did have a third option.

The major accusation hanging over superquaffs head is the attempt to sell President-elect Barack Obama's senate seat. The kicker? If the bid wasn't high enough, he was going to take it himself. He even called the highest ranking member of his own party a motherf---er. Smooth.

A couple months before G-Rod's arrest, the Illinois General Assembly passed an Illinois Ethics Bill against "pay-to-play" politics, which he threatened to veto. The original champion of the bill? President-motherf---er Obama. Gee, it makes you wonder why he used such strong adjectives to describe the next commander-in-chief doesn't it? It also just looks bad for the jailbird, who was bailed out faster than the mortgage companies today.

But, if you think he looks stupid on international anti-corruption day, then what do we look like? Sheep, idiots, naive or maybe optimists.

"He doesn't have any real control over what his fundraisers do," we thought.

Maybe those of us who voted for Blago in 2006 should get indicted for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as solicitation of bribery.

Then again, please don't. Go for the one's who didn't vote for the recall amendment on Nov. 4.