ARRESTS AT THE TOP

There can be nothing but admiration for Special Counsel Fitzgerald in Illinois. In the 50's, when I lived in Chicago, it was often spoken that, if you go on vacation, don't tell the police to watch your house or you will come home to an empty one. If you can't trust the police, you distrust politicians as well. A few years later, priests were added to the list of whom not to trust. When dishonesty is as accepted as it has been in so many areas in our country, especially in the past eight years, its escalation seems contagious.

In the past few years we have seen lots of politicians involved with money in graft, illegal services, open thievery, eg. Stevens in Alaska, but the media gets more mileage from sexual misdemeanors, eg. Spitzer, Clinton, Larry-What's-his-name, and too many others to mention.

Today there was news more striking. Patrick Fitzgerald, announced the charges he had made against the current governor of Illinois.

Regardless of Blagojevich's frequent utterances
that he has not done wrong, the voice captures
certainly appear that they will prove him quite
guilty. It appears, further, that the government
hen house is full of foxes. It takes a lot of
chutzpah to act as the governor does and sound as
grandiose as he does. The clinical part of me
wonders if he is in a manic episode. That still
would be no excuse, but it might help to explain his apparent stupidity.

An AP article says the Governor has gone beyond greed. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested, accused of trying to trade the Senate seat left vacant by US President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Blagojevich, as governor, has sole authority to select a successor to Mr Obama as junior Illinois senator. FBI investigators said telephone intercepts showed he was trying to sell or trade the seat for personal benefit.

Prosecutors said Mr Obama, who is not close to Mr Blagojevich, was not involved in the alleged wrongdoing. That's nice to hear but if there are those out there still fighting that his birth certificate isn't legitimate, will they listen to the prosecutors and believe them? I can only hope so.