Definitive

Obama Takes Down Blagojevich

Phone call indirectly led to governor's demise.

With Rod Blagojevich's machinations now laid bare, everyone's wondering about the Illinois governor's relationship with the president-elect. It turns out, reports The New York Times, that it was a phone call three months ago from Barack Obama that indirectly led to Blagojevich's downfall. A call from Obama to the president of the Illinois Senate helped spur the body to override Blagojevich's veto of a state ethics bill. Blagojevich then began pressing state contractors for campaign contributions, which led to the wiretap that eventually overheard him trying to auction off Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Beyond that bit of chance, The Washington Post reports that "Federal prosecutors said flatly that there is no evidence of involvement by the president-elect in allegations that Blagojevich attempted to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder."