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New York is fantastic," a pumped-up Rod Blagojevich said after strolling his way back to the luxurious Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday, hours after appearing on David Letterman. "Walking down the street here in Manhattan, cab drivers are honking, guys in cars are shouting support, 'Keep it up! Keep fighting!'

The fireworks you see on the Fourth of July make an irresistible spectacle, but they can do it only in the course of destroying themselves. Rod Blagojevich, in his mad blitz across all the channels on your TV, was following a similar course. He has our attention now, but not for long. A wise sage once said that every man labors to conceal his insignificance from himself. Politicians do so by conducting campaigns, winning elections and basking in the deference that goes to high elected officials. No one goes into politics in an effort to learn self-effacement. Some people, of...

One of Oprah’s most famous moves was giving away a car to every member of the studio audience. With the Obama administration planning to dole out several thousand dollars in largesse for every American family, why not Winfrey for senator from Illinois? Whatever his motivation, Rod Blagojevich let it be known on GMA today that he had indeed considered Oprah for appointment to Barack Obama’s open Senate seat. Diane Sawyer interviewed the Illinois governor, and to her credit held his feet fairly firmly to the fire. In contrast with Amy Robach’s relatively soft treatment in her NBC interview, Sawyer repeatedly...

As a social conservative, I never thought in the space of one calendar year I would have been defending soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and beleaguered Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. But sometimes fate can lead us to strange places. I supported Hillary Clinton's doomed Democratic presidential primary bid against Barack Obama though I didn't have a vote in the matter. At the time, I felt that even the Clintons would be better for America than President-elect B. Hussein Obama and, for the record, there has been nothing to change my mind. Indeed, my opinion on the subject is...

Carolyn Kennedy is a major contendor for the vacant senate seat in NY, because as George Stephanopoulos says, she can pony up more money for the republican party than anyone else. There is absolutely no word of scandal about that. That's not much different than Rod trying to get the person who can pony up the most money....Ok the cause is different, but it's the same thing!!!

The city of Chicago is one of the few major metropolitan areas which runs away from its past at every opportunity. Yet, indeed, the very construction of the city led to the term "underworld." And with rampant corruption controlled by infamous individuals like "Big Jim" Colosimo, Al Capone, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, Murray "The Camel" Humphrey and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Chicago can hardly bury its past--no pun intended. Since the turn of the 20th century, what Carl Sandburg referred to as the "City of Big Shoulders" was perhaps the center of organized crime in the United States. Though New...

After a quarter century of following politics, there are some canards that will never let you down. For example, a good way to judge the character of an individual is to look at that individual's enemies. Also, if some unsavory individuals are all unified against one person, there's probably something rotten in Denmark and I'm not talking about eggs or cheese. Beleaguered Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has certainly fit the bill regarding some of these words of wisdom. For a moment, let us look at those who are most zealous in their criticism of Blagojevich. The leader of the pack...

Only time will tell and I, personally, think that he is still mostly crazy. Yet, if he is crazy like a fox, then here is what he is attempting to do. First, on every level politically and legally, his choice of Roland Burris is one that the folks in both Springfield and in Washington D.C. will have to accept. The Huffington Post has a good break down of his solid legal footing. Rod Blagojevich's decision to appoint Roland Burris to Illinois' vacant Senate seat, even as the governor faces intense criminal scrutiny, is being treated as a crazy political power...

The HUffies are worried that the Cabbage Patch Doll known as Rod Blagojevich might drag their Obamassiah down as you can see in this HUffington POst THREAD titled, "Blagojevich Scandal: Governor's Lawyer Wants Obama Staff Subpoenaed." However, unfortunately for Team Obama, the Cabbage Patch Doll is NOT going gently into the night. He absolutely intends to drag his fellow Chicago Machine Democrats, including the Obamassiah and Rahmbo, down with him. And the best thing of all is that the Cabbage Patch Doll has plenty of audiotape evidence care of federal wiretaps, to make his case that the rest of...

The reality of Rod Blagojevich is making it difficult to write the comedy. We now know why it took Blagojevich 10 days to make a public statement about his arrest. He spent that time memorizing a stanza of Rudyard Kipling poetry. His press conference on Friday was less a review of his current predicament than it was a personal pep rally. "I will fight. I will fight. I will fight," the governor exclaimed. While Rod was offering up Knute Rockne dinner theater to the assembled media, I half-expected Patti Blagojevich, or should I call her "Real Estate Agent Number One",...

Barack Obama's designated Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is caught up in the Illinois senate seat sale scandal...and it's Karl Rove's fault. I kid you not! Oh, and the Associated Press is some sort of rightwing organ for reporting on this senate seat sale. Such are the delusions of the DUmmies as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Senate-for-sale case threatens new chief of staff." So fasten your seat belts for a trip into DUmmie Fantasyland presented to you in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, looking forward to Karl Rove being blamed for EVERYTHING...

Lynn Sweet wants the Obama team to come clean over its contacts with Blago. David Shuster has a different concern. He's hoping the media won't get "adversarial" once the Obama folks get around to releasing their report about who said what to whom. Shuster made his pre-emptive plea for good media manners on this evening's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the MSNBC show Shuster has recently begun hosting now that David Gregory has moved on to Meet The Press. Sweet, of the Chicago Sun-Times, began with a reasonable reporter's take on the pending release by Team Obama of its accounting of contacts...

Lynn Sweet wants the Obama team to come clean over its contacts with Blago. David Shuster has a different concern. He's hoping the media won't get "adversarial" once the Obama folks get around to releasing their report about who said what to whom. Shuster made his pre-emptive plea for good media manners on this evening's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the MSNBC show Shuster has recently begun hosting now that David Gregory has moved on to Meet The Press. Sweet, of the Chicago Sun-Times, began with a reasonable reporter's take on the pending release by Team Obama of its accounting of contacts...

I'm a Chicagoan, and while I don't think the national media often captures The Windy City accurately, in the wacky case of Illinois Governor Rod "What, me worry?" Blagovich trying to sell a senate seat with the Feds already in his illustrious hair, I guess they got the basics about right. In other words, in any other state of this great union, Blago's blatant "play for pay" would be so unbelievable as to be laughable, but in Illinois, when it comes to political corruption, we've been taught to expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, I'm afraid to inform the gleeful GOPers...

I'm a Chicagoan, and while I don't think the national media often captures The Windy City accurately, in the wacky case of Illinois Governor Rod "What, me worry?" Blagovich trying to sell a senate seat with the Feds already in his illustrious hair, I guess they got the basics about right. In other words, in any other state of this great union, Blago's blatant "play for pay" would be so unbelievable as to be laughable, but in Illinois, when it comes to political corruption, we've been taught to expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, I'm afraid to inform the gleeful GOPers...

It may be that neither President-elect Barack Obama nor anyone else on his staff has anything to hide regarding the pay-to-play scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Then, by all means, Obama and his team should stop acting as if they do have something to hide. The loudest voices in politics and the media are coming from the critics and the cheerleaders. One camp is sure that Obama and his inner circle are guilty by association, and the other is sure they're totally innocent... The sloppy way the Obama transition team has handled things isn't building credibility with anyone but...

Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for Illinois' Northern District first achieved national prominence when he was appointed special prosecutor in the investigation of the so-called "outing" of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Fitzgerald brought charges against White House insider Scooter Libby, but most would agree the call for the prosecution of Libby was driven by politics and Fitzgerald was simply doing the job he was given. Fitzgerald, who was first appointed to his position in Illinois by then-U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald (no relation), has done an outstanding job rooting out political corruption for nearly a decade, no matter in what Party...

In one of the more incisive indictments of the MSM I've witnessed, certainly by one of its own, Joe Scarborough tore into the media this morning for its failure to have investigated Barack Obama's political roots. In particular, the Morning Joe host ripped the MSM for not testing the truth of Ryan Lizza's reporting, above, of Rahm Emanuel's claim that he and Obama were central figures in Blago's 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Scarborough pointed out that already this summer, when the Lizza article appeared, it was known that Blago was under a deep ethical cloud. Yet the MSM charged off to...

When asked by CNN whether he had anything to say to Illinoisans, Blagojevich said Friday that he will wait to speak at the "appropriate time." As he left his attorney's office, the governor did not answer a question on whether he is going to resign, saying only, "I'll have a lot to say at the appropriate time."

Which would be the more heavily-guarded place to be for a political figure who's received death threats?: a. A school concert in a public venue. b. A press conference in the company of the President-elect of the United States of America. If you answered 'b,' you're thinking like me and presumably most people. If you answered 'a,' you're A.B. Stoddard. The associate editor of "The Hill" newspaper offered up her strange excuse for Rahm Emanuel's failure to attend press conferences with Pres.-elect Obama in the course of an MSNBC appearance this afternoon during which she also claimed that "President-elect Obama...