If you were wondering what Fox News was going to be up to all day while Washington flooded with ironic liberals rallying for sanity and against, well, Fox News, here’s a taste: former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich told Neil Cavuto this morning that, while he is still unsure what his positions are, he believes “Donald Trump is a very capable, obviously very successful person” with “a voice” who could impact the 2012 elections.

Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel‘s campaign for mayor of Chicago is going… well, mostly as expected. The feisty former Congressman has been conducting “listening tours” of the city where he’s been caught using hand sanitizer (!) after talking to constituents and driving reporters to paroxysms of violent rage. Now he brings the fun to the Chicago Sun-Times, who describe him as “characteristically combative” and “downright annoyed” at some of their questions.

Apparently political reporting is one step away from fisticuffs. Following Carl Paladino‘s altercation with New York Post reporter Fred Dicker the other week, Rahm Emanuel had his own Paladino moment with reporters the other day…sort of. Actually it seems two reporters had a Paladino moment with each other.

Nitpicky? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes. Politico is reporting that the campaign video Rahm Emanuel released yesterday, in which the former Chief of Staff tells Chicagoans that he’s “glad to be home” and makes liberal use of the word “here” in regards to the city, was actually filmed in a Washington DC office. Can you blame him though? I mean, there’s no place in Illinois that he could have possibly found a gorgeous wall that white and bland.

Former White House Chief of Staff (and soon-to-be Chicago mayoral candidate) Rahm Emanuel learned the hard way that a reputation for being the “dead fish guy” at work is not easy to shake off. During one of his final senior staff meetings at the White House, his colleagues presented him with a dead Asian carp as a going away present as “something to show how we feel about you.”

Well, it’s official—after weeks of speculation, President Barack Obama‘s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel will be stepping down tomorrow in order to launch his campaign for mayor of Chicago. Obama is expected to name Pete Rouse, a senior adviser, as his new chief of staff.

While the decision has not yet been made official, ABC News is reporting that their sources tell them White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel may be making an exits sometime later this week, and that the rumors are true: he is eyeing the mayorship of Chicago in the wake of Mayor Richard Daley‘s departure.

It’s been a big week for Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who made a name for himself after committing acts that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald declared would “make Abe Lincoln roll in his grave.” Except the jury couldn’t convict him on 23 of those 24 charges, and now the tables have turned on Fitzgerald, with the media rallying against a retrial and the Wall Street Journal calling for Fitzgerald’s resignation.

After two and a half months of deliberation, tension, confusion, impersonation and the one of the most impressive manes in American politics, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been found guilty of one count of lying to federal prosecutors– but not much else. The jury has yet to decide on the other twenty-three charges, including the bribery, extortion, and wire fraud, and the alleged attempt to sell Barack Obama‘s Senate seat. Judge James Zagel has called a mistrial.

Last Monday, we wondered what could possibly be going on with the corruption trial of America’s favorite coif, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. What could be taking them so long? Well, today the tragic hero himself made an appearance at the court, along with his brother Rob, because the jury has told the judge they are unable to agree on “any given count” of the 24 Blagojevich has been charged with.

A former Lifetime movie actor and civil attorney who had been told by several people that he resembles former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich decided to fly to Chicago and visit the court in which Blagojevich is being tried. According to reports, Jerry Kroll‘s decision was “for kicks,” and he was given the full “Blago” treatment.

One of the saddest indirect consequences of the Shirley Sherrod story—after the obvious direct ones— has been the fact that it has completely eclipsed what could have been one of the summer’s most fascinating spectacles: the Rod Blagojevich trial. In today’s chapter of the ongoing dramady, Judge James Zagel sent the jury home after objecting to the defense’s attempt to attack prosecutors for not calling certain witnesses to the stand.

If those rumors that surfaced across the pond that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is gearing up to quit the Obama administration pan out, he should have enough to keep him busy at him with the trial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. The latest from the greatest show in Springfield is that reports show Emanuel, then a Congressman, may have traded a supportive letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune for a $2 million public school grant.

In the middle of broadcasting the daily news brief, a local Chicago news team was pleasantly interrupted by Ellen DeGeneres, who showed up unexpectedly to take command of the newscast, cheer up the place and hand out all sorts of freebies. Ellen doesn’t seem to realize she interrupted a live newscast, though, until it’s too late. And then she reports the weather!

It’s been almost two years of outrageous comments, ill-advised reality show appearances, and bearable anticipation, but finally, the trial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is on the way, and the governor is getting his one wish with a slow trickle of FBI wiretaps leaking out of the courtroom. So far, twenty new conversations have been released, and they show the governor trading laws for dollars and judging potential donors by how much they love his hair.

The day of reckoning has come for former Illinois governor and reality TV star Rod Blagojevich, and he’s still singing the same song of innocence he gave the media on Day 1. Arriving at the courthouse for the first day of his corruption trial, Blagojevich received a spirited defense from his wife, Patti, who called this a “good day,” because it was the first step towards her husband’s vindication

The conditions could not have been worse in Chicago for President Barack Obama to give an outdoor speech, and while he tried to deliver his Memorial Day address as long as he could, he was finally forced to direct people back to their cars to avoid the dangers of lightning strikes.

Chicago-area talk radio host Rod Blagojevich is planning to dip his feet in the frigid water of Illinois politics sometime in the near future, he announced on his weekly WLS AM 890 show yesterday. Unlike most Chicago-area radio personalities, Blagojevich has a bit of a hurdle standing in between himself and winning any election—his previous career as governor of Illinois, and the corruption trial that resulted when an FBI investigation found evidence that he was trying to trade a Senate appointment for profit.

Keith Olbermann and his writers are at their absolute best when they take on Sarah Palin. Today, Palin got the top spot on Olbermann’s “Worst Persons in the World”– which, by the way, Olbermann really wants you to know is just a joke!– for committing the most heinous crime of making fun of Rachel Maddow‘s ratings and taking a few jabs at the partisanship on MSNBC.

The defense in United States v. Rod Blagojevich just received the devastating news from the federal judge in the case that their request to subpoena President Barack Obama to testify in favor of the former governor has been denied. For media insiders and lovers of the political circus, it’s a sad day in America.

The big day for Rod Blagojevich’s dubiously categorized “ethics” lecture at Northwestern University has come and gone and, judging from the footage college’s newspaper has released, it lived up to the hype. America’s fanciest gubernatorial coif and its disgraced owner proved he still has some tricks up his sleeve.

The No-Spin Zone has met its match. Bill O’Reilly welcomed disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to The Factor last night to discuss his recent federal indictment for a bevy of corruption charges and, after a few pleasantries, it took one question to send Blagojevich running behind the curtain of his court ordered silence.

And so it begins.

Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins did a fine job, the other day, of cataloging the right’s sudden antipathy for chants of “USA! USA! USA!” Now, with the news that the IOC has rejected Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid in the first round, conservatives are in the awkward position of trying to slam the President for failing to achieve the very thing they just said was a horrible waste of time.