There's way more in the Blagojevich indictment than anyone is talking about yet.
Not only was he trying to sell the Senate seat. He was trying to buy the Tribune editorial board.
And Sam Zell was willing to talk.
The indictment shows that Blagojevich's people talked to "Tribune Financial Adviser", who promised to talk to "Tribune Owner." The goal was to say they wouldn't agree to have the Illinois Sports Finance Authority buy Wrigley unless Zell canned John McCormick, the editor who was pushing editorials urging impeachment of Blagojevich.
The financial adviser reported back that Zell would do it!
This is all from p. 42 to p. 54 of the indictment:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
It looks like McCormick was going to get whacked as part of the cuts related to the bankruptcy filing:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The great American hero, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."
I'll say. If they'd waited a week, they'd have brought down Sam Zell too. At this point, it looks like he's merely tainted simultaneously by the bankruptcy of a company he sent into incredible indebtedness even as the credit crunch was already visible, and the simultaneous implication of his staggering corruption. Sadly, he probably can't be prosecuted since without his actually firing McCormick, there is only hearsay that he was willing to do so.