Entrepreneur by another name

The governor of Illinois wanted to sell Obama's Senate seat so bad he couldn't help but talk up it's worth to potential buyers. "It's fucking golden... and I'm not going to give it up for fucking nothing," he declared.

His best efforts have since erupted in scandal, owing namely to how "fucking golden" the governorship of Illinois is to aspiring governors and the political parties of aspiring governors.

His crime is severalfold: One, he exposed politicians as corrupt and self-serving. Two, he antagonized other powerful groups by openly flouting agreed-upon protocols when "selling" something of political value: he got caught. Three, his failures may cast a negative light on others who are "in it" solely "for the money."

This leads me to conclude that if only Rodney Blagojevich had pursued a career in the private sector he could have made these kinds of deals with the protection of the law, and made a lot more money doing it, too. Offending the powerful is a crime, but denying kids with HIV antiretrovirals is a perfectly legal, patent-protected money maker? Often the biggest crimes aren't in violation of the law but in compliance with it.