Chicago Daily Observer

[Note: Yesterday we wrote a long article with suggestions as to what the wonderful Hillary campaign should do next. We made several suggestions regarding the Michigan and Florida primaries, the upcoming debate on MSNBC and the rest of the debate schedule. We will discuss these issues further – possibly tomorrow, possibly this weekend. ]

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In olden days, corrupt Chicago politicians would simply take a bag full of money. Usually the bag of money was passed under the table while corrupt politician and corrupt fixer lunched or dined. Those were simpler times.

With all the do-gooders trying to stamp out political corruption things got more complicated for politicians on the take.

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If nothing else, Governor Blagojevich makes a great case for the media to keep an eye on politicians.

Here are a couple of sites worth watching:

Richard Caro keep his site up to date with the latest details in his constitutional case pitting Caro, Gidwtiz and Madigan against Blagojevich. Attention Chicago Reader, SunTimes and Tribune employees, this site employs hypertext links. Clicking here will take you to a site with first hand observations and documentation about a major case involving our elected leaders.

And on Reverse Spin, Dan Curry has been keeping us up to date on our Governor for some time, and has had the audacity to notice that Governor Blagojevich shares a lot of funding sources and politican machinations with Senator Barack Obama. Dan is relentless on organizing facts, and does not flinch from scrutinizing issues.

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Key Illinois lawmakers appeared ready Thursday to back Gov. Blagojevich’s surprise offering of free bus and train fare for senior citizens in order to avert a Jan. 20 meltdown of the CTA.

His move to end the bitter, six-month transit funding dispute came after the House and Senate narrowly approved a bailout package boosting the sales tax in Cook and the collar counties by a quarter of a percentage point and imposing a tax on Chicago real estate transactions.

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Governor ups ante in transit game Blagojevich throws wrench in deal with demand for free rides for seniors

Gov. Rod Blagojevich raised the stakes in the political battle over funding Chicago-area mass transit, saying he would only endorse a sales-tax increase lawmakers sent him Thursday if they also agree to give senior citizens free rides on local trains and buses.

Cornered by fellow Democrats after nearly a year of maneuvering on both sides, Blagojevich made the brand new demand as he sought to soften the political damage of breaking his long-held vow to veto a sales tax increase.

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