Top 8 of '08: No. 2 - Blago Busted
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 31, 2008 5:00PM
Today we're wrapping up our look at the top 8 local stories that captivated us in 2008.
Painting by Lauri Apple
2008 was the year Gov. Rod Blagojevich's house of cards came tumbling down. When Blago was arrested by the feds on Tuesday December 9th, we weren't all that shocked. What surprised us was why he was arrested: having nothing to do with the Rezko case, he was charged with extorting the Chicago Tribune and trying to sell the state's U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. What has followed has been a tragicomedy of errors:
- The federal complaint with wiretap transcripts that read like a Scorsese movie
- That lego hair
- Those Cabbage Patch looks
- The Chicago Way
- The artistic interpretations, even in the nude
- The Madigan Maneuver
- The Ballad of Jesse Jr.
- Rahmbo, First Blood
- The impeachment clusterfuck
- Hiring the man who got R. Kelly off (so to speak).
And it's the gift that keeps on giving with yesterday's appointment of Roland Burris to the Senate. Somehow, it seems kind of appropriate that one of 2008's biggest stories will drag on - you could say it will fight, it will fight, it will fight - into 2009.
Previously
No. 8 - Chicago, Cultural Epicenter
No. 7 - Chicago On Trial
No. 6 - Chicago's 2016 Olympic Fever
No. 5 - Chicago's Violent Year
No. 4 - Budget Crunch
No. 3 - NIU Shooting