Crime, or, business as usual: Blagojevich, Part 1

With the sensationalism of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's arrest for corruption-conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and solicitation of bribery-dying down, having been exploited by the media to its fullest potential, attention seems to now be refocusing on the minute details of the matter. That is, whether any crime has actually been committed, or has Mr. B's gravest mistake been calling a pile of shit a pile of shit, and not obfuscating it as high-energy content organically reprocessed baby-back ribs with a side of mashed potatoes and a dash of red wine...

After all, the actual process he was orchestrating, the trading of a political position for favours, would probably be considered completely standard by those in the business, including Mr. Blagojevich and the man who arrested him. “We’re not trying to criminalize people making political horse trades on policies or that sort of thing," said Patrick Fitzgerald, the District Attorney for Northern Illinois. Of course you're not, because then the whole political class would be under investigation; this is just a mild case of opportunism. His statement also begs the question, what political manoeuvre is his latest triumph part to? Surely the wording and timing (he was already under previous investigation, hence the wiretaps) was horrible on Blagojevich's part, but one has to wonder how coincidental the expediting and valorizing of this ordeal is with Obama's rise to power.