Sure send me one of those birthday presents too

From AP-

CHICAGO - For months, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been fending off accusations he bungled government programs and awarded jobs and contracts to contributors and cronies. But suddenly, one issue has cut through the clutter: a $1,500 gift to one of his daughters.

The check came from a lifelong Blagojevich friend, and it arrived soon after the friend's wife got a state job.

The governor has said he is unsure whether it was a birthday gift for one daughter or a christening gift for another, but he insisted it had no connection to the job. At the same time, he acknowledged asking his chief of staff to help the woman.

With just weeks to go before Election Day, the $1,500 check has gotten voters' attention in a way some of the other allegations — involving audits, contracts and bureaucratic procedure — haven't.

Blagojevich's GOP opponent, Judy Baar Topinka, is using the $1,500 check to paint him as corrupt. She is running an ad that shows Blagojevich fumbling to answer questions about the money. And at a recent debate, her supporters held up huge, fake checks and shouted, "Hooray for birthdays!"

While it is not illegal in itself for Blagojevich's family to accept a gift from a friend, it would be if the money was a thank-you for the new job.

The governor's office initially said the check was a gift for his older daughter, Amy, on her seventh birthday in 2003. Blagojevich later told reporters it might have been a gift for his younger daughter, Annie, who was christened about the same time.

Blagojevich said there is nothing odd about his close friend Michael Ascaridis giving such a large gift. At the same time, pleading a faulty memory, he would not say whether Ascaridis has given similar gifts in the past.

Ascaridis has told the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the gift Sept. 10, that the money had no connection to his wife's new state job.

Still, the notion of a $1,500 check for a child seems fishy to some voters.

Sure its fishy, the check is a payoff. What person gives a $1500 check for a non-relative's birthday? Anyone with common sense, and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich apparently has none of this because he is a crook, will know this is some kind of political payoff.

Looks to me as if Illinois traded one crooked Governor for another. If anything good can be said for Rod Blagojevich's corruption is, it's that he doesn't have a dead family's blood on his hands. Don't matter, he should be out of office and behind bars for selling his power. That's if Illinois voters show some common sense.

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