[Peace-discuss] Murderous Illinois politician

[C. G. Estabrook]

The governor of Illinois is no better than he should be, but as far as I know he 
hasn't had anybody killed (or at least he hasn't been indicted for that).  But 
while the media have been so excited about his (illegal?) activities, another 
Illinois politician has been planning to kill many people when he becomes 
president.  Robert Gates, Obama's Pentagon chief (and Bush's), has been 
traveling throughout the Middle East announcing plans for the expansion of US 
attacks there.  Which Illinoisan is the bigger criminal?  --CGE


	Is What Blago Did Illegal?
	posted by Christopher Hayes on 12/12/2008 @ 2:40pm

Playing devil's advocate for a moment. Obviously, if the tapes are accurate, 
what Blagojevich was odious and unethical and dishonorable. But was it illegal?

Here's why I ask: the Tribune's reporting that not only was Jesse Jackson Jr. 
candidate five, but that Blago had a meeting with a business man named Raghuveer 
Nayak who's a fundraiser for both men, and it was during that conversation that 
Nayak offered to raise as much as $1.5 million for Blago's campaign fund if he 
gave Jackson the seat.

OK, it's possible that Jackson had no idea these folks (including, it appears, 
his brother) were scheming on his behalf. But here's my question: My 
understanding of the law is that there's a distinction between personal 
pecuniary interests/compensation and campaign fundraising. In other words: it 
would be manifestly illegal, obviously, if Blago was "selling" the seat in the 
sense of trading it fro cash for himself. But is trading the seat for 
fundraising help really illegal? and if so, doesn't that mean that a huge 
percentage of political transactions are illegal, including all those 
conversations during the primary about Obama inducing HRC to drop out in 
exchange for fundraising help to retire her debt?

I'm not defending this at all. Let me make that clear. I'm saying that 
politicians trade things for fundraising help all the time, it's half of what 
they do. So where's the line where that becomes illegal?

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet/389771/is_what_blago_did_illegal_?rel=hp_blogs_box