Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
4:40 PM ET, December 9, 2008

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Chicago Breaking News:
Blagojevich arrested on federal charges  —  Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay-to-play politics in Illinois' top office.
RELATED:
Chicago Tribune:
Blagojevich's Senate selection process investigated  —  Federal probe widens to Obama's vacant seat  —  UPDATE: Source: Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody  —  A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning.
Marc Ambinder:
Blago Indictment: Who Is Senate Candidate 5?  —  Gov. Blagojevich's own words make it clear that he did not believe that Barack Obama wanted a person called “Senate Candidate 5” to be appointed to the Senate. … In other words — if Blago doesn't get what he wanted, then he'd stiff the PEOTUS …
New York Times:
Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal  —  CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama's seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Blago calls Obama “motherf—er”  —  The tapes reveal a two-term governor who no longer wants his job, badly wants cash and is determined to leverage a financial benefit out of his appointment powers.  —  He also appears to think little of the president-elect, whom he calls a “motherf***er” at one point.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
What the transition knew  —  The transition hasn't yet responded to questions about Rod Blagojevich's indictment, but the key question is whether the transition was talking to prosecutors, whether Obama and Valerie Jarrett knew that Blagojevich had offered her the Senate seat in exchange for a labor job …
Chicago Tribune:
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich arrested  —  Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges.  —  Tribune staff report  —  Gov. Rod Blagojevich arrives at the Tribune Tower for an interview with CNN in Chicago.
Associated Press:
Ill. governor arrested in corruption scandal  —  CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of what federal prosecutors called a “political corruption crime spree.”
Discussion: Big Brass Blog
CNN:
Durbin wants special election to replace Obama  —  (CNN) — Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday he wants a special election called to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.  —  At a press conference with reporters on Capitol Hill, Durbin said he wants the Illinois legislature …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
AMAZING  —  Even setting aside the primordial level of corruption of trying to sell the senate seat of the President-elect of the United States, I never fail to be amazed at the brazenness and stupidity of some political crooks.  I mean, I think everyone involved in politics or interested …
Discussion: Washington Monthly
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
‘Senate Candidate 5’  —  Capitol Fax's Rich Miller updates the state of the speculation on the identity of “Senate Candidate 5,” the public official who — from the complaint — appears to be in the most jeopardy, aside from Blagojevich and Harris.  “Senate Candidate 5.”
Discussion: Reuters
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Blago wanted to shake down Warren Buffett  —  Blagojevich and his inner circle were expansive in pondering just how they could leverage the Senate appointment for financial gain, and at one point the governor floated the notion that legendary financier and Obama supporter Warren Buffett could somehow be brought into the deal.
Discussion: Donklephant
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Source: ‘SEIU official’ was Stern  —  A Democratic source confirms that SEIU President Andy Stern is the “SEIU official” referred to in the federal complaint against Rod Blagojevich.  —  There's no allegation that the SEIU official did anything wrong, and what appears to be a wiretap transcript …
The Smoking Gun:
Obama Senate Seat For Sale?
Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy and Gawker
Marc Ambinder:
Blago Indictment And The Obama Team
Discussion: The RBC
Associated Press:   US Atty: Not alleging Obama knew of Ill. gov. plan
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Blagojevich Criminal Complaint: The Best of the Best
Chicago Sun Times:   Charges: Illinois Governor Blagojevich shook down the Chicago Tribune
CNN:   Feds: Governor on ‘political corruption crime spree’
Brad Plumer / The New Republic:
Blago On Obama: “F*** Him.”
Discussion: Democracy in America
CNN:
Court: Craig can't withdraw sex-sting plea  —  (CNN) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's effort to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor offense of disorderly conduct in connection with a sex-sting operation.  —  “Because we see no abuse …
Discussion: Washington Monthly and TalkLeft
RELATED:
Steve Karnowski / Associated Press:   Sen. Craig loses appeal in airport sex sting case
Jonathan Stein / MoJoBlog:
So.  Who Will Appoint the Next Illinois Senator?  —  Looks like it is Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, the man on the right.  He better have zero uncovered corruption scandals in his past, because the entire national media is going to turn its eyes to him as soon as it's done digesting Fitzgerald's complaint.
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Blago Can Still Make The Appointment
Ross Douthat:
The Case For Caroline?  —  After allowing that her head tells her to “recoil from political dynasties,” Ruth Marcus lets her heart make the case for Senator Kennedy of New York: … I don't know about Jesse Ventura, but I find Schwarzenegger and Sonny Bono's pre-political careers as self …
RELATED:
Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:
NY Rep. King interested in NY Senate seat
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Cracks appear in Obama foreign policy team … WASHINGTON (AP) - The first sign of cracks in President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy team of rivals emerged on Monday as his choices for secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations visited the State Department.
Discussion: Hot Air
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 4:40 PM ET, December 9, 2008.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
QUOTE OF THE DAY.... A new national poll from CNN/Opinion Research …
William J. Broad / New York Times:
Hidden Travels of the Atomic Bomb
Justin Wolfers / Freakonomics:
Is Happiness Contagious?  —  If those riding intellectual fads …
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Steele to conservatives: ‘Wake up people’
Discussion: Donklephant
 Earlier Items: 
Bloomberg:
Illinois Threat to Bank of America Is Dangerous, Critics Say
Reuters:
Homeowners re-defaulting after getting aid
Discussion: A Blog For All
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Obama's Web presence loses its luster
Discussion: Becoming 44
Kris Kitto / The Hill:
Breitbart's big, red Hollywood
Discussion: Weekly Standard
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Around 75% of the largest US newspapers aren't endorsing anyone for president this year, as publishers try not to annoy any sliver of their remaining customers

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
The NYT reports adding 260K digital subscribers in Q3, for 11.9M in total, with digital ad revenue up 8.8% YoY to $81.6M, and The Athletic had its first profit

Alyson Krueger / New York Times:
A profile of Town & Country EIC Stellene Volandes, who is trying to keep the Hearst-owned 178-year-old magazine relevant via social media and its website

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page