"I ... I ... I ... I ... I couldn't fathom what I would say to those two girls," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald stammered last week when asked what he would say to Rod Blagojevich's daughters after our former governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

It was impossible not to think of those little girls last week. Even some of the most hardened, partisan Republicans I know felt no joy at Blagojevich's long prison sentence because of those kids. I don't know the children well, but I did spend some time with them a few years back and thought they were good kids, even normal kids, despite their father's position at the time and the overall weirdness of their situation.

While Rod Blagojevich's jury found him guilty on 17 felony counts last week, jurors found him not guilty on one count and deadlocked on two others. Not much has been written about those other counts, so let's take a look.

The paucity of electronic-surveillance evidence related to those verdicts, the lack of credible witnesses for the prosecution, and the absence of actual harm appeared to hurt the federal government's case.

During the long, excruciating overtime state-legislative session of 2007, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan complained that Governor Rod Blagojevich had a habit of diverting high-level discussions from the budget and toward Madigan's ties.

Madigan, it should be said, does wear some eye-catching ties. He takes no credit for his taste in clothing, however. His wife, he says, picks his ties for him.

Speaker Madigan confided to me one day back then that whenever Blagojevich would compliment Madigan on his choice of ties, he would always complain that, as governor, he couldn't afford such fashion gems. Madigan has a lucrative law practice that brings in a pretty penny. Blagojevich couldn't do side jobs as governor, he would repeatedly explain to Madigan and everyone else in the room, so he couldn't afford to dress like Madigan.

The House speaker seemed quite frustrated at the time with Blagojevich's fixation on his fetching ties, rather than dealing with the budget deadlock and general political gridlock. After all, it wasn't like Blagojevich dressed poorly. He always wore sharp clothes. He even showed up at the State Fair once dressed in designer blue jeans.

Thanks to his federal corruption trial, we now know that it was taste, not money, that caused Blagojevich to wax envious whenever he saw Madigan wearing a pretty tie.

As expected, former Governor Rod Blagojevich's new book paints himself as the hero of Illinois politics and blames everyone but himself for his troubles.

He also tries to settle an old score. Blagojevich's longtime enemies House Speaker Michael Madigan and Attorney General Lisa Madigan are both attacked.

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.

Al Whitmore, Dave Rash, and Dawn Rena Lang in Catch Me If You Can "Life's full of surprises."

These were among the first words spoken from stage during the opening-night presentation at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. Yet while this sentiment would've sounded perfectly appropriate coming from one of the characters in the comedic mystery Catch Me If You Can, it was actually a statement by the show's director, Kevin DeDecker, who preceded the performance with an announcement: Actor Mike Skiles had fallen ill, and his role as Inspector Levine would be assumed, that evening, by the production's stage manager, Drew Carter - a young man who would be carrying his script in hand, and would also be making his (accidental) stage debut.