Blagojevich verdict is in

Guilty on 17 of 20 counts.

1 non guilty verdict.

No verdict on 2 counts.

Enjoy jail, Blago!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-blagojevich-jurors-going-into-their-10th-day-20110627,0,620170.story

Translated to Blago-speak

Blago wins!!!

Have Blagojevich and Charlie Sheen ever been seen in the same room together?

A special long distance dedication of I Fought the Law goes out to Mr. Blagojevich.

Guilty verdicts were not unexpected, but still, hard to shake the feeling that he was just caught doing what most politicians do behind closed doors. A whole bunch more of them should also go to jail.

Good. I hope the arrogant little shit gets his head shaved in the joint.

They don’t allow chisels in the Big House. :smiley:

At one time I would have LOL’ed at this. Now I just feel sorry for the kids, and, to a lesser extent, Patty (she knew what she was getting and was a willing participant in his power grabs).

Anybody still have the link to the Blago obscenity ring tones? Christmas is coming… :smiley:

This seemed like a foregone conclusion from the moment the story broke – the guy really made himself sound like a dirtbag. Still, it’s hard not to muster up some sympathy for his cellmate.

I’d be all ears in hearing the rationale anyone here could offer for what compelled them to ever vote for this guy in the first place. Seriously, this guy has come across as the biggest wedge of cheese ever, and yet a majority on Illinois voters willfully put him in office.

Lewis Black style sputter and random flailing of arms

Why?

Well, you’re almost certainly correct. But you’re missing the point. The rules are different for upper echelon leadership. The crimes are expected and irrelevant. The real problem is that he was sloppy enough to get caught.

The only explanation I have ever heard that made any sense is that he was a Democrat - even the support he got from President Obama over the years was based on partisanship and nothing else.

The only justification I heard from people on this board who admitted voting for him were partisan excuses.

Now, this isn’t to say that Republicans in Illinois were offering much better in this era - the historical and criminal record proves that. But it does show why his support even among Democrats evaporated so quickly - there was nothing holding it together but party loyalty and discipline, and once that support couldn’t even be justified in the party it vanished entirely.

lieu: Well, it’s not like he was saying all this stuff out loud when he was running for office. Just because a guy’s obsessed with his hair and acts like he’s God’s gift to the voters, that doesn’t mean he’s automatically a bad politician. In fact, it might make him fit right in!

In the second election, it was the lesser of two evils - I loved his opponent for governor (Judy Baar Topinka) but the lt. governor candidate, Joe Birkett, has shown some very questionable behavior in his position as DuPage County State’s Attorney, especially his dogged prosecution of suspects that were looking increasingly innocent in the Jeanine Nicarico murder, and after a confession by another man. I wouldn’t trust Birkett with more power.

In the first election, he had good ideas, he seemed young and energetic and idealistic. Shame on me for believing him. Edit: Mr. Moto, it’s not a partisan thing for me. I typically vote a very split ticket, especially in state and local elections, I’ve consistently voted for Topinka and would have voted her in vs. Blago but for her running mate (and have heard the same from many others), and so on. He had good ideas for the state, but bad intentions behind them that I did not see.

Besides, Illinois has a tradition of electing governors that go on to become felons while in office. George Ryan is one of them; he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for issuing a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois and commuting the sentences of those on Death Row, due to investigations showing that numerous people had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. However, what most people will remember is his abuse of the system for political fundraising, leading to - among many other things - the “Licenses for Bribes” scandal (pay a bribe to his campaign worker and get your incompetent/semi-(English) literate commercial truckers their licenses) and one of those truckers causing an accident that killed 6 children of a minister and his wife.

The Ryan scandal tarred much of the Republican party’s image in the state due to the apparent scope of the situation, and Blago was the first Democratic IL governor elected in 25 years.

Very interesting. While I was aware of some of the history, it’s the perceptions held by a state’s voters that aren’t always readily apparent to non-residents. Thank you both.

“But he wasn’t wacko before” is my excuse. :frowning:

Yep. Came off as slightly goofy, big coif of hair, fan of Elvis, kind of self-deprecating in humor, and with a (seemingly) honest desire to help the state and its citizens. It took years for cracks to appear in the facade. If I had honestly thought that he was doing anything deeply unethical around the time of the second election, I think I would have swallowed hard, prayed for some scandal to end Birkett’s political ambitions, and voted for Topinka for governor. You frankly grow to expect little fundraising issues or power plays, but nothing so deeply ingrained as what was happening in his administration or George Ryan’s.

It says something when a year or so into a guy’s second term, neither his lt. governor (the current governor, Quinn) or his father-in-law are talking to him!

Wow.

I knew he would get some time but this is a longer sentence than I expected.

Maybe this will finally wipe the smirk off his face.

Link to Chicago Tribune article.

Is he going to a white collar minimum security resort, or pound-me-in-the-ass prison?

No idea yet but 14 years is 14 years minimum security or not. I don’t feel sorry for him but that is really rough for his kids.

The Onion, of course, has the proper perspective on the matter.