Compared to the real pros who populate Washington D.C., Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of conducting a public auction for President-elect Obama's former U.S. Senate seat, is a piker. He was only seeking a few hundred thousand in campaign contributions to his re-election, and only modestly well-paid jobs for he and his wife.
Former Democrat Bill Clinton has been forced by Obama to release the list of some 205,000 contributors to his private foundation and presidential library. It is rife with conflicts of interest among its some $200 million in gifts. It is loaded with foreign benefactors, led by Saudi Arabia.
You cannot say with a straight face that these folks were all normal, civic-minded citizens with no interest in buying influence.
Ha! If anything, the appointment of Hillary as Secretary of State will allow Bill to reload the arsenal. If it made sense to lavish $200 million on a former president, think how much more valuable a contribution will now be, with his wife as Secretary of State.
Blago, you think too small! The gov now says he will sign a bill from the legislature calling for an immediate special election for the seat, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Democratic majority will refuse to seat any nominee selected by Blago. Talk about screwing up a sure thing. Impeachment proceedings against Blago are bogged down in the sewer of the Democratic-controlled Illinois legislature, and even the state supreme court has turned down the pleas of the opportunist Democratic Attorney General, to get involved.
Instead of a reliable liberal appointed by a Democratic governor, now the Republicans, in light of the scandal, will have a real shot at electing a U.S. Senator from Illinois in a few weeks in a special election.
Even in its atrophied, enfeebled, severely decayed state, the GOP managed to pull it together enough to elect a conservative Vietnamese immigrant to the seat of the freezer king, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, last week. This is a district that is 75% black and 80% Democratic.
As incompetent as Illinois Republicans have been in recent years, the turf is not near as bad as Jefferson's district, and don't think for a minute they can't pull it together in a special election. In fact, two GOP congressmen are already licking their chops, eager to make the race.
The squeaky clean, deft Obama ship is leaking oil. What a gas!
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