If you look down on page 8 of the Blagojevich indictment complaint, it seems he wasn’t happy with Obama since he wasn’t willing to play ball.

In a conversation with Harris on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”

“Harris” is John Harris, Blagojevich’s chief of staff, who was also arrested this morning.

We’re trying to confirm the identity of “Senate Candidate 1”. It appears to be Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett.

A few of you have written in to ask whether this is a case of Siegelman redux — that is, something akin to the case of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, a Democratic governor sandbagged by Republican partisans in the US Attorney’s office.

Short answer: Don’t bet on it.

Needless to say, I haven’t had any real chance to evaluate the specific charges themselves. But I would be extremely cautious about jumping to such conclusions. Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney in Chicago, put the previous Illinois governor away too. That was Republican George Ryan. Fitzgerald was also the special prosecutor who investigated the Plame Leak case.

I remember a few years ago I was having lunch with a prominent Democratic consultant who told me that Fitzgerald was “naive” about how politics worked — relative to his work in Chicago. I just listened and waited to move on to another subject. What is true is that Fitzgerald takes a pretty stringent view of political corruption. But that’s not such a bad thing.

In any case, if he’s stringent, I think Fitzgerald’s record as US Attorney in Chicago and as special prosecutor in the Plame case has earned him more than enough credibility as a hard ass irrespective of people’s party designation to assume that this case has nothing to do with Blagojevich being a Democrat unless and until there’s very persuasive evidence to the contrary.

Everything I know about Fitzgerald tells me he’s exactly what you want in a US Attorney. The real thing.

At TPMmuckraker, Zach Roth is poring through the documents released this morning by the feds. Blagojevich is comically corrupt, by the feds’ account. Here’s a guy who has been under federal investigation for three years but who still thinks he can appoint himself to Obama’s Senate seat and remake himself for a run for President in 2016:

“I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.”

Even setting aside the primordial level of corruption of trying to sell the senate seat of the President-elect of the United States, I never fail to be amazed at the brazenness and stupidity of some political crooks. I mean, I think everyone involved in politics or interested in political corruption in the country had to know that Blagojevich’s phones were tapped and probably his offices were bugged, and that Pat Fitzgerald had him under the craziest level of scrutiny. And he tries to sell the senate seat with that hanging over his head? That’s simply amazing. I guess you could say he’s just a traditionalist, trying to keep up heritage of Chicago machine politics. But with some of these characters, it must just be pathological.

Late Update: TPM Reader PW has another theory …

Don’t underestimate one key factor here with Blago: sheer stupidity.

My sister works in the legislative and advocacy circles in Illinois and she’s said for a long time that Blago is simply not a bright guy. People in Chicago have repeatedly saud that he’s like George W. Bush but not as bright.

Kind of explains how he could believe that he could set himself up for a Presidential run in 2016 by appointing himself to this seat even while everyone in the world could see that it was just a matter of time before he was indicted. And like you say, how could he not assume that he was under serious investigation?

Stupidity explains it all.

Question: if he goes to prison could he share a cell with former GOP Gov. Ryan, jsut to show Americans that Democrats and Republicans can live together in peace?