This just in: Rod Blagojevich isn't very smart

I am a little late to the game with this post, but figured I might as well chime in. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by the FBI today on federal corruption charges, for allegedly trying to sell President Elect Obama's Senate seat, which he appoints. He was caught on wiretaps in various expletive laden conversations with his chief of staff, John Harris, who was also indicted. The transcripts are utterly hilarious, containing such gems as

“ (the senate seat) is a f—-ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing,”

and referring to President Elect Obama as a "motherfucker".

This cornucopia of corruption and stupidity also contained plans to extort the Tribune Co. into removing members of its editorial board who were critical of Blagojevich by holding up the sale of Wrigley Field, owned by the Tribune Co. Blagojevich also threatened to rescind state funding for the Children's Hospital of Chicago, because an executive there had not came through with an expected $50,000 contribution. Even by the subterranean standards of Illinois politics, this is some pretty vile stuff.

It doesn't seem likely that any of this will stick to Obama, who investigators have cleared of any wrongdoing. Still, Obama strategist/Daley mouthpiece David Axelrod has already had to backtrack on a statement he made claiming that

"I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

Obama has released a statement claiming that Axelrod "misspoke". I guess when he said "I know he's talked to the governor..." he actually meant that he had never spoken to the governor about the vacancy. Right. Uncharacteristically sloppy for Axelrod, an old school Chicago fixer and long time ally of the Daley machine. There is plenty of dirt in the transcripts, and I am sure there is a lot of scrambling and ass-covering going on in the Windy City tonight. I for one cannot wait for Gov. Blagojevich to start naming names, because something tells me he is not exactly a standup guy.

Here is Axelrod on FoxNews on 11-23-08