What am I bid for a Senate seat? Half a million should do it

Out of America: Chicago politics has always been a sewer, but this scandal is a throwback to the days of Al Capone

By Rupert Cornwell
The Independent

".....You couldn't make this stuff up. Home-state boy Barack Obama wins the presidency, and even before the result is in, Blagojevich is out to sell, yes sell, his US Senate seat. After all, as he told a crony in a now globally famous chat on 3 November, a day before the election, a seat in the greatest deliberative body on earth "is a fucking valuable thing: you don't just give it away for nothing". And, if further extracts from the federal wiretaps are correct, someone quickly came forward with $500,000 (£335,000) on behalf of an un-named "Candidate 5"......

Part of the pleasure lies in hoary caricatures that have again been proved true. We all knew Chicago and Illinois politics was a sewer. Now we have a profanity-spewing Chicago-born governor offering a US Senate seat to the highest bidder; putting the squeeze on the local paper; and enforcing the Chicago political speciality of "pay to play" bribes, or"contributions", in return for a slice of city or state business. And this guy wanted to run for president in 2016?

And just like in the gangster movies, there are good guys as well. Federal District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (who prosecuted former governor George Ryan, currently serving a six-year prison term for corruption), could be a reincarnation of Eliot Ness, federal agent and nemesis of Al Capone, with a similar mission of cleaning up Chicago.

Of course, it hasn't been fun for everyone. A few weeks ago, Obama's state and adopted city were brimming with pride about the local boy made good.......

....But it's turned the spotlight on the grubby habits of the state where Obama's political career began. Once again, disreputable former associates – however distant – such as the convicted graft peddler Tony Rezko, once an Obama fund-raiser, are in the headlines.

Fitzgerald stresses that there is no hint of impropriety by Obama. But hometown sleaze is not what he wanted to be talking about as he set about building a new administration to open a new chapter in Washington.....

The process is polluted by money. All told, the 2008 election cost $5.3bn, with $2.4bn poured into the presidential campaign alone. The line between the politicians, lobbyists and downright bribery is often blurred......"