Sorry if this is a hasty diary, but this just happened, and you know ... someone has to be first.
And so, the case of the loopy governor turned wacky ex-governor, comes to a conclusion.
Lying to the federal government was the only unanimous decision reached by the jury, so maybe it's all over. That's one count of 24. Hard to believe. What an embarrassment for the Feds. It almost seems like this whole thing was a waste of time.
He faces a maximum of five years in prison.
As jurors filed out, Blagojevich's wife Patti collapsed into her seat and the former governor's attorney, Sam Adam Jr. moved next to Blagojevich and put his arm around him, rubbing his back.
The verdict was announced shortly before 4:30 p.m. after 14 days of deliberation.
Blagojevich and his wife arrived at the courthouse for the announcement around 3:45 p.m.
"God bless you, God bless you, I didn't let you down," Blago said as he shook hands with admirers. He also high-fived spectators.
Blago, it appears, will be retried, but it's hard to figure out why. And then, hopefully, Blago will be able to appear on reality shows, late night TV and maybe get a radio show somewhere down the line.
Or maybe - as is most likely - he'll just go away.
But what an anticlimax. But then again, with Patrick Fitzgerald, we've gotten somewhat used to anticlimaxes.
From Dave Weigel's twitter page:
RT @lehmannchris: Maybe Patrick Fitzgerald should start indicting ham sandwiches, and then gradually work his way back up to the humans
Local radio station WLS has live coverage (not sure if they're a conservative station, but this broadcast seems fair).