Blago Finally Subpoenas Rahmbo

The day before the trial:

While he was a U.S. representative from Chicago, Emanuel was recorded in conversations with Blagojevich about Obama's vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich is accused of offering the seat to the highest bidder.

Emanuel was also an alleged victim of a Blagojevich extortion attempt over a state grant to a school.

Heard this on the radio as I was driving back home.

Blago was on WLS radio this morning and talked about this: Too risky to put Rezko on stand? They still haven't sentenced him so are keeping him on ice until the Blago trial is over just in case.

Blago also told Don and Roma he would definitely testify as would his wife Patti. Kind of a surprise about her, though she was mentioned in the indictment and is on the bleepin' tape. I guess they are keeping up a united front.

...Sun Times.

The jurors are being selected starting tomorrow and given numbers, rather than being identified by name. Don asked Blago why the jurors were being kept anonymous, like a mob trial. Blago said he didn't know.

Well, the trial of former Governor Ryan had issues with the jury. Some were found to have lied about having criminal records and were bounced off, inconsistently as I recall. One juror appeared to have been harassed as she was a holdout and bullied off the jury. It was a circus. Now we won't know entirely know whether this jury is a circus or not. Let's hope the jurors are vetted better and this judge handles things better. He has a good reputation.

More. John Kass, from yesterday:

Illinois politics are on trial, too, and Illinoisans know that things haven't been cleaned up just because Gov. Dead Meat was indicted and ran to New York to sell himself and his wife, Patti, to reality TV.

Rod was the governor, yes, but he wasn't the one with the real power. In political terms, he was a nobody next to the real political kings of this state. They've made fortunes, or their friends and families have made fortunes. They have layers and layers of buffers between themselves and the levers that get pulled in their favor.

Rod was foolish enough to pull his own levers.

Let the trial begin.