Unadorned Corruption

Governor Blagojevich of Illinois has been arrested for attempting to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat for financial consideration. Imagine it: the governor of Illinois actually said:

I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.

Kurtz at TPM calls it, "serious chutzpah." Todd Beeton opens his description of the breaking news with a sardonic, "Greeeeaaaat." Josh Marshall at TPM expresses wonder with a single word at both the daring and denial of the governor: "Amazing." BarbinMD at Daily Kos sums it up with, "What an ass."

Somehow, the lack of a blue dress with a stain and the failure to claim there were WMDs when there were none makes the scandal a little refreshing. Everyone can understand trying to sell a public benefice for private gain. No one can argue that this is anything other than just bad. You don't need to call in an ethics philosopher or a moral theologian to do the analysis on this one.