'Friends of Blago' Goes Live, Seeks to Bring 'Change' to Illinois

You knew this was coming before long. And now it's live.

The Illinois Republican Party launched a new Web site that it says will link 12 different state Democrats to scandal-ridden Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The site, Friendsofblago.com, is the latest incarnation of the state party's hopes of turning President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat over to the GOP.

It comes on the scene just days after the governor's arrest on charges that he'd tried to sell Obama's vacant seat to the highest bidder. And it even adopts Obama's signature mantle, urging visitors to "Join the fight - Bring change to Illinois."

Prior to the arrest, the seat had been certain to remain Democratic since the governor has sole discretion to appoint the new senator.

Now, though, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is calling on Blagojevich to resign or be ousted, and the may be filled by a special election, giving Republicans a chance to win just their second senate seat in the state in 38 years.

"Blagojevich Democrats are all part of the same tainted Web in Illinois," a banner on the site reads.

The state GOP drives this point home with a spider web image that features a picture of Blagojevich in the middle.

Currently, though, the web with strands connecting 12 postage-stamp sized squares to the embattled governor, links Blagojevich to only one other Democrat, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. The other slots contain a question mark, and the words, "WHO'S NEXT?"

It'll be over a week before visitors to the site find out.

The state GOP says it will "unveil a new Democrat and their Blagojevich connection each day to remind voters that Blagojevich Democrats should not be choosing our next U.S. Senator."

Meanwhile, now that people are finally waking up to the reality Illinois is steeped in corruption, it's drawing comparisons with Louisiana.

David Merriman, a professor at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that while the Blagojevich scandal is "definitely a black mark," it could spark reform that eventually could help Illinois' economic prospects.

"If I was a company thinking long term about Illinois, I would think, 'This is the kind of shock and publicity that means Illinois will really get it together to clean up in the long run,' " Merriman said.

I have to laugh at this reform talk. You only hear that when they're exposed. Sure, let's reform! But how can you have any reform when you have a corrupt one-party machine dominating the state. It can't happen and won't happen. It's laughable.

Delusional NY Times columnist Frank Rich takes the opportunity today to claim the non-crimes of Scooter Libby were far worse that those of Rod Blagojevich.

Really, he does. He also somehow works Enron in to the mix, although their crimes pale in comparison with those of Bernard Madoff, prominent Democrat contributor. Funny how nobody has put two and two together. Well, except me.

In the chuckle of the day, I heard a report on Fox News this morning suggesting Barack Obama may do a speech on corruption. Funny how he never had the urge to do one before this. He always waits for embarrassing associations to pop up, then thinks he can dazzle the adoring masses with his soaring rhetoric interspersed with an endless series of uhhhs and ummms. He figures it bamboozled enough people with his race speech after the ugly Jeremiah Wright tapes surfaced, so let's try it again.

Sorry. The illusion of a man above the fray has been shattered, perhaps permanently.

At this point, Obama may simply want to avoid contracting feditis.