Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions - both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.
DOWNLOAD THE FEDERAL COMPLAINT BY CLICKING HERE

Rich Miller's ongoing coverage can be found HERE.

(Editor's note: Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance and a Republican National Committee member, sent the following e-mail to Iowa Republicans in the wake of the November election. This, and two replies, are reprinted here with permission.)

 

Dear Fellow Republicans:

Election Year 2008 is now history. I am sure that you have had time to reflect on the results, what went right, what went wrong, and where do we go as a party from here. At a first glance, the results were discouraging. But let's put all the facts in perspective:

District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra argues that special treatment is being given to the high-profile defendants by the judge and asks for his recusal.

Millions of Americans have voted for Barack Obama to "fix" our economy and are breathlessly awaiting his inauguration so that he can implement his plans to "get America back to work." Are those voters ever in for a surprise.

  In a November 22 radio address, Obama stated that "we are facing an economic crisis of historical proportions" (true enough) and that "we must do more to put our people back to work and get our economy moving again."

 How does our new president-to-be intend to achieve this result? Obama declared that "I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011," and that "we'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms, solar panels, fuel-efficient cars, and alternative energy technologies ... "

 This, I submit, is the worst kind of economic claptrap, and is easily demonstrable as such.