Yesterday during the program we were graced with the news that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (a Democrat) was arrested. The very short story is that the guy is a complete corrupt footstool. I mean, seriously .. the FBI says it has phone call recordings of this guy - a sitting governor - trying to sell of Barack Obama's senate seat. And that is just the first page! There are 76 pages full of different schemes this guy had going .. like telling the Chicago Tribune that he would give the paper financial help if it agreed to fire some of its editorial writers that were critical of him.

So there are a couple of issues at stake here. Let's start out slow.

First of all, what do you do about Barak Obama's senate seat? The seat still has to be filled. Clearly this creep isn't going to be appointing anyone, so now what? There are talks of the Senate taking over the process. Either way, we know the rules .. It's a black seat now ... a historical black seat ... so at least we know that whoever is appointed or selected or chosen or whatever to fill that seat is going to absolutely, positively, without question have to be black. And no ... there no discrimination here, is there now?

But on to far juicier things .. did Barack Obama's transition team know this was going on? Heck, did Barack Obama himself know this was going on? That question is already getting testy. Yesterday Obama said that he hasn't had any contact with the governor or his office. But there is a statement out there from David Axelrod that he made on November 23, 2008 saying, "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." Of course now the Obama transition team has come out and said that Axelrod "misspoke" back in November. Don't you just like this "misspoke" angle? I think "screwed up" is more appropriate. But that is about all we will get for now until the FBI releases more information about the recorded phone calls.

So the next step is .. let's try to figure out how close was Barack Obama to this guy. Even if they weren't close, shouldn't this say SOMETHING about the political culture that produced Barack Obama? From what I can tell, Obama endorsed Blagojevich for governor in 2002 and 2006. He also happened to serve as a top advisor to him during his 2002 run. Guess who was also in the picture? Rahm Emanuel. It can be said that Obama and Emanuel were among Blagojevich's top strategists when he won in 2002.

In 2002, on a Chicago TV show, Obama had the following exchange:

Obama: "Right now, my main focus is to make sure that we elect Rod Blagojevich as Governor, we..."
Host: "You working hard for Rod?"
Obama: "You betcha"
Host: "Hot Rod?"
Obama: "That's exactly right"

And more recently, in 2006, Obama spoke at the Illinois State Fair on behalf of Blagojevich.

Bottom line .. you need to remember that our next president came from the same political culture as did this corrupt governor. Most of Obama's myrmidons don't realize it, but Obama won his first race for office not by getting more votes than the other folks, but by arranging to have his opponents - ALL of them - kicked off the ballot. Now if that doesn't carry the stench of Chicago-style politics ...