Blago-gate turns into Burris-gate

The drama never ends in Chicago, and it's looking worse for Democrats. FBI wiretaps reveal how Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL), appointed by disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill Obama's seat, wanted to send money to Blagojevich in order to win favors before all hell broke loose.

It's embarrassing that the Democrats even seated Burris to the Senate after all the controversy of his appointment. Now we know there was something definitely shady going on.

Flipping Emanuel's seat to red

The special election to fill the House seat IL-5 vacated by Rahm Emanuel is on April 7, 2009. It is Rosanna Pulido (R) vs. Mike Quigley (D). Unfortunately, the Illinois GOP isn't giving her the attention and support she deserves, so it's up to us to spread the word. Turning this seat to red would definitely rub the Democrats the wrong way, and who wouldn't want to do that?!

We wish Ms. Pulido good luck!

Bye bye, Blago

Unsurprisingly, the Illinois Senate voted to remove Rod Blagojevich from office, 59-0. It's the first time in the state's history that its governor has been impeached.

Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn is now promoted to Illinois Gov. Quinn.

Hopefully the people of Illinois can put all this negativity behind them now...

Blagojevich impeached by state house

The Illinois House voted 114-1 to impeach Gov. Blagojevich. Now we wait for the trial in the Illinois Senate to begin on January 26.

No surprise there. Since the scandal broke, there has been strong criticism from state lawmakers to remove Blago from office. And what was the governor doing? Jogging, getting in shape for a good fight. He's already fought the media, the Senate Democrats in Washington, and now his own state legislature. He's one tough Chicago politician for sure...

Illinois Democrats show some love to Blagojevich

This is almost unbelievable... Illinois state legislature with a Democrat majority decided not to strip the governor of his power to fill the vacant senate seat for now. The main reason? They fear that a Republican may actually win the seat in a special election.

So it's back to square one for the people of Illinois, underrepresented in the Senate with just one senator.

E. J. Dionne seems pretty sure that Obama and his aides have nothing to do with the corrupt governor. Let's hope so.

Emanuel had talks with Blagojevich's aides

All right, so Obama was correct in saying that none of his aides discussed the vacant Illinois senate seat with Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The truth is that Rahm Emanuel had such discussions with Blagojevich's aides. So technically Obama didn't lie.

Being a product of the Chicago political machine and considering his past (and current) questionable associates like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, I would not be a bit surprised if he gets in trouble one of these days. Plus, I really don't think the Clintons would mind bringing him down, either.

The immediate tasks following Obama's presidency may not be dealing with the economy and foreign policy, but rather hiding and avoiding skeletons in the closets of his inner circle.

Obama transition team officially in damage control mode

First, President-elect Obama held a press conference declaring that he and his aids have not spoken to Illinois Gov. Blagojevich about the open senate seat. Now his campaign lawyer Bob Bauer is doing an "internal review" so see who contacted the governor and said what... But the biggest leak is that Rahm Emanuel may have had several conversations with Blagojevich about the open senate seat!

Obamaniacs help with censoring on transition site

Obama's transition team launched a feature called "Open for Questions" on its site, Change.gov, for users to submit questions and vote on the top ones, much like Digg. But users are also allowed to flag inappropriate questions to remove them from the list. It looks like Obamaniacs are abusing such a feature to remove questions relating to the recent Federal investigation of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Again, change we can believe in!

Obama and Blagojevich

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is still the governor and can still appoint a replacement senator to fill Obama's seat, unless the state legislature works fast enough to impeach him. The buzz about this whole ordeal, however, is if any of this ties to Obama or his aids?

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly opines that all of this makes the president-elect look better because of his "commitment to ethics reform." But it's a fact that Obama and Blagojevich knew each other, perhaps quite well, as they crossed paths in their political efforts. Obama and Blagojevich and Obama have supported each other politically.

And why doesn't Obama release a statement demanding Gov. Blagojevich's resignation? That's the point Jennifer Rubin of Commentary brings up, and a very good one. Who on the transition team has the Governor's number on speed dial?

FBI arrests Illinois Governor and aide

Dirty. Chicago. Politics.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat (but you wouldn't read it elsewhere on mainstream media), and his chief of staff have been arrested by the FBI on federal corruption charges. Evidently the governor and his aid were soliciting bids to fill Barack Obama's senate seat. However, investigators revealed that allegations may go well beyond just that...

Remember, corruption always loses in politics.

Another Obama friend in trouble

The FBI has raided the office of Will County executive Larry Walsh, a former Illinois state senator and is a friend of Barack Obama.

Another story you wouldn't see on the MSM.

Obama campaign now faces real challenges

Why is the Obama campaign suddenly losing its touch? Mark Cunningham of the New York Post offers a good analysis based on the campaign's makeup:

Barack Obama has never run a campaign against a real Republican. And his main strategist, David Axelrod, is way out of his areas of expertise.

Axelrod specializes in urban politics. He's run a bunch of mayoral races (usually in cities with lots of blacks), plus contests in true-blue states like Massachusetts and New York.

In another word, inexperience. Obama came into the spotlight after making an impressive speech in the 2004 DNC. His opponent during his senator race withdrew and later replaced by Republican Alan Keyes who had to establish residency in Illinois (from Maryland) just so the GOP had somebody. So really, Obama had never ran any major political campaign except this one, and Alexrod is starting to show his lack of strategic vision in this crucial time during the race.