Winner of the Marion Barry Award: Governor Blagojevich Arrested by FBI for Being a Damn Dirty (and Stupid) Politician

In a year when a number of high profile, formerly respectable negroes have been arrested for political corruption, it is nice to end 2008 with the biggest fool of them all-Mr. "Auction off Obama's Senate Seat" Rod Blagojevich. Bribes, a job for his wife, and assorted goodies--it seems the governor wanted it all. And as they say, if you are gonna go for the gusto, you got's to go all in...it seemed that Rod was certainly listening.

In the grand tradition of Marion Barry, let's quickly highlight some of our favorite political scandals (the Teapot Dome scandal would have been on the list, but the 1920s was before the invention of Youtube and Wikipedia so it doesn't count--I must be hanging around my students too much):

Then mayor of Washington D.C., Marion Barry is caught using crack in a seedy hotel room with a prostitute. The surveillance video is great, but the in Living Color skit is even better:



William, "Cold Hard Cash" Jefferson, a congressman from Louisiana, is caught with 90 grand in his freezer. It seems he was going to bribe the Vice President of Nigeria--how random is that? Does one simply wake up one day and spontaneously decide to bribe an African leader, or is it something long thought out? Maybe, Jefferson wanted to buy into those "request for urgent business relationship" scam emails from Africa?



ABSCAM. I just love saying that word. During the early 1980s the FBI had an elaborate sting operation where they posed as Saudi oil barons who wanted to bribe some U.S. politicians. Featuring the one and only Fred Murtha:



The one and only Mayor of Love, Kwame Kilpatrick. Notice how the Billy D Williamsesque news commentator puts on his "cool" Mr. loverman voice to narrate the text messages:


Mr. Blagojevich we salute you! As the first recipient of the Marion Barry Award you have a high standard to live down to. As the details of your corrupt administration unfold over the coming days, we know that you will not disappoint us.