BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
updated 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday morning on federal corruption charges, officials said.

His chief of staff John Harris was also charged, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in a statement.

Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.

76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade for personal gain the state's U.S. Senate seat, which is being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

The arrests follow a long and highly publicized corruption investigation.

Blagojevich and Harris are due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday to face the charges.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the fine State of Illinois, where there is no distinction between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to pay-to-play politics.

And to think, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald was on the chopping block.

That's ok, the State will vote for yet another crooked political crony to replace Rod. And Rod will be out of the clinker once he's pardoned by Obama, just like governor Ryan will be pardoned by Bush at the urging of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (funny how that works, huh?).

Here's a link that summarizes the criminal complaint. It's really unbelieavable.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/rod.blagoj ... 83170.html

Jefferson, Spitzer, Reid, Edwards, Blagojevich...

This is the party that's supposed to change DC?

Rod might be the stupidest person alive.

I'd be willing to bet the at least 50% of the clowns in Washington (in both parties) have knowingly broken the law while in office. Most of those people are in Washington because they couldn't get real jobs. Do really think that Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain or Sarah Palin could actually get a real job if they weren't politicians?

Yeah the Durbin urging is quite bizarre. Something must be for sale/ of interest there...

Good times. Good times. On an unrelated note, apparently there is a subpeona for the Rezko/Obama land deal as well. Good times.

Blagojevich was a terrible governor, I'm more than happy to see him go down

Yet, somehow, he won a second term in office.

By the way, as an aside, as long as he's still the sitting governor (whether he's indicted or not), he still is in position to name the next Senator to take Obama's seat. That should be interesting.

Blagoveka;dnfich is a d-bag, a LOT of people in Illinois knew he was corrupt. I voted Green in '06.

Well it's either that or the party of McCarthy, Nixon, Craig, Foley, Rumsfeld, Libby, Cheney and Bush. Take your pick.

Spitzer and Edwards were just fucking around. How does that affect good government?

If you need to include two adulterers on your list just to get to five, that's pretty weak sauce.

And what has Reid done besides being flaccid?

Didn't Reid have some interesting land deals in Vegas?

How about "None of the above?"

You forgot Stevens...but this is my point...

I don't know, did he?

Doesn't everyone have interesting land deals? In my business, all land deals are interesting.

Spitzer and Edwards were doing things to their families that you would NEVER do, amirite? It's kind of troubling that you would dismiss such behaviour. Aside from Spitzer's blatant law-breaking, politician's open themselves up to blackmail with such behaviour, surely you understand that?

...and call me crazy but when personal conduct becomes incorrigible (i.e. cheating on your wife while she's dying of cancer) it reveals some fairly profound character flaws.

...and Harry's done some deals that would make a Chicago politician proud.

Here's an article on Harry's interesting land deal:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8KMJ8I00&show_article=1

I don't dismiss them, and if you remember, I was the one who broke the Edwards story here on RM (as gv has broken the Blogojevich story today). But to put a guy cheating on his wife in teh same category with what Bogojevich or Ted Stevens or basically the entire corrupt Bush Administration is kind of hyperventilating. I mean, I think that Senator Vitter is a hilarious hypocrite for his philandering, but he's not someone who has profited from his office and sold the government to teh highest bidder.