Yes, to sell something like a Senate seat one has to be more like a circumspect horse trader, I imagine. I may be cynical but my impression is that Bleg was only stupidly coarse in the pursuit of his goodies and perhaps in the coarse nature of the goodies themselves.

Having grown up on the far south side of the city knowing politically active parents of friends, it struck me then, and it does now, that the “party” is a very serious thing in Cook County. Nowhere else have I experienced the slavish adherence to the “party line”. There are no arguments brooked by precinct captains. Right, wrong, and rationalization don’t enter into it. It always seemed to me to be a taste, a shade, of what life is like in totalitarian countries.

Here’s a quote and link for you, from two dudes who know high level Democratic Party politics don’t see things quite your way:

“This is a huge distraction at the worst possible moment,” said Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel who did damage control for President Bill Clinton.

And it can grow if not handled properly. “It’s like the whirlwind,” said Chris Lehane, another veteran of the Clinton teams. “You get pulled into the vortex more and more.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/11/america/11fallout.php

The Ill. Governor’s antics weren’t a secret.

Oh, that’s right he didn’t support the bailout……good to see who’s pulling the strings and who’s the marionette. All we need now is a bit of good ol fashion public outrage….

Thanks for the advertisement … I guess it’s all about the traffic, huh?

How can we change things around here? Anyone have any links for someone like me to follow up on? At this point, I’m wondering if some out of state entity should go through the government contracts and awards or something!

Anyone who lived through 1973-4 in this country should dread that. The consequences of a scandal of this magnitude, shading into a full-blown Constititional crisis, during an entirely separate “black swan” cascading failure in finance, are just too painful for me to contemplate.

It seems that he read Adequate Compensation: How to get paid in politics, but he skipped Talk At Your Own Risk: Be careful what you say, to anyone.

Politics is a discipline. He should have studied.

I vote for Olde Skool Tekaniqs.

I think we should stick his dick in a blender.

If it comes out unharmed, then it is God’s will.

Nonsense. The media keep assuring us that Obama has nothing to do with any of this. That’s good enough for me!

I think Obama might be the Michael Corleone of the Chicago machine. They may have deliberately kept him out of the worst stuff to create a veneer of respectability. Will he step up to his responsibilities if Sonny goes down?