>My favorite of Rod's transgressions is probably the most well known, trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat. When Obama was elected president it fell to the governor to name a successor for the remainder of the term. He did not waste much time in the pose of The Thinker, pondering who was the most qualified and would do the best job. It was an auction. Rod's quote for the ages, captured on wiretap, was "This is f*****g golden. I'm not going to just give it away."

I guess he was doing what's always been done there, but the rules of the game have changed and he wasn't notified. Instead, he was wiretapped (aka eavesdropped), which goes (somewhere) to show that he was already designated as the fall guy. Which makes the Chicagoans' reaction understandable - it's the same politics as ever.

The folks in his village back in Serbia remember him as a good guy, at least when talking to reporters (which I read when the whole mess was originally revealed). "Rođa was a fine boy, always ready to help" and such. BTW, his full name, Rodoljub, literally means patriot :).