Obama, His Governor and Tony R.

When I debriefed my wife on the day's events, her mouth dropped wide open when told of the arrest of the Illinois Governor, especially since she knew him as a Congressman.

"That guy?" she asked incredulously.  "He was just a doofus."

Whatever he was, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now a household name, even if I can't pronounce his name correctly.

And it isn't positive PR that Gov. Blago is getting right now, as he allegedly put a "For Sale" to the highest bidder sign on the Senate seat once occupied by President Elect Obama.

One of the interesting things about the FBI affadavit that carried all kinds of unbelievable quotes from wiretaps of the Governor was the first part, which focused mainly on his ties to Tony Rezko.

Yeah, that same Tony Rezko.  He was convicted earlier this year of using his connections with the Illinois state government to demand kickbacks from businesses that wanted to do business with Springfield.

In fact, Rezko's name is mentioned only 169 times in the FBI affadavit.  Rezko and Obama of course have their own curious land deal, where Rezko sold the newly minted U.S. Senator a piece of land next to his for a nice price.

Nothing illegal, but it just makes you scrunch up your nose and sort of wonder what's up.

So, the same day that Gov. Blago gets arrested for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, it gets reported that a federal grand jury has issued a subpeona for the specifics of that Rezko-Obama land deal.

Maybe Obama is the guy who successfully navigates all of these Chicago Politics shoals and never gets muddy.  Maybe he has nothing to hide.

But what's the old line.  You can tell a lot about someone by their friends?

One thing that seems clear is that Gov. Blago was not really friends with either Obama or fellow Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.  Guess they were rivals.