To win a conviction in a criminal case requires establishing opportunity, means and motive. Recent testimony in the ongoing corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich reveals more than a few clues as to the motive part. Blagojevich and his wife, Patti, as it turns out, had about $200,000 in outstanding consumer debt at the time of his December 2008 arrest. Anxiety, if not desperation, over how to pay the money back was likely a major explanation for the ex-governor's eagerness to peddle President-Elect Barack Obama's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. Worse, Mrs. Blagojevich's real estate firm during 2002-04 apparently received roughly $150,000 or more in suspect "consulting" and other fees from a company co-owned by Obama's original paymaster, now-jailed (and awaiting sentencing) real estate developer/political kingmaker Tony Rezko. The revelations reinforce the popular image of the couple as willing to do anything for money.
