Opinion: Today’s political corruption low-lights condensed to 4 minutes

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Maybe you too feel a tad overwhelmed by the volume of political corruption news erupting out of the Windy City today.

It surrounds Illinois’ second-term Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blu-goy-uh-vitch) who, based on intercepted phone calls and bugged office conversations, is accused of selling the nomination to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s now-empty U.S. Senate seat, as well as other crimes involving issuing or withholding state contracts in return for political fundraising money.

We have two quick videos that summarize the situation -- one just below on the federal news conference and the other on the jump (Click the ‘Read more’ line to get there) concerning the overall corruption investigations there.

If you do want to read and watch the longer versions from earlier in the day, they are available here with the full news conference video of U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald and here’s the initial arrest story. A lengthy background report on the governor, Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko and Illinois politics is available here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Brief version of the day’s arrest story and Illinois corruption investigation background.