Well, it turns out that selling senate seats is frowned upon even in a state where politics are controlled primarily by the mafia. Frankly, though, with the media interest, comical characters, and obvious guilt of the governor, the state legislature was left with little choice. They didn't want to blow their own covers, after all.
The Blago fiasco has been one of my guilty pleasures of the past few months. I realize that the entertainment value in political intrigue appeals strictly to my appetitive nature, but it's something that I'm willing to admit. Nothing has entertained me more, aside from Blago's man-bouffant, than his sodden T.V.-circuit defense. Instead of, say, hiring a successful lawyer or paying attention to the proceedings, he went on Larry King Live to explain to the peasants how messy politics are and to proclaim his innocence. He diversified his audience by hitting up Oprah and The View, which probably made housewives more, not less indignant. His publicity blitz, at least to me, seemed antithetical to what he should have been doing if he actually thought he stood a chance.
They've yet to acknowlege it on their site, but it's gotten out everywhere that the awkwardly-named Culture11, the conservative opinion magazine that hoped to compete with Slate, has dismissed its staff and will close either immediately or in the near future. Details appear to be on lockdown; everyone who knows anything seems to have been told not to talk about it.
What we do know: The staff was released sometime yesterday and rather unexpectedly. There were "signs," says one source who spoke to a Culture11 editor yesterday, but the announcement was a shock. The financial backers lost money in the downturn, and suddenly decided the expensive Culture11 needed to be profitable. (The site has, in its five months of operation, only occasionally displayed small ads.) How things proceeded to an overnight shutdown, we don't know. If you worked at C11 or know more, feel free to share.
Update, 4:31 p.m. Culture11 editor David Kuo speaks on Twitter: "Culture11 suspended operations, will try to keep platform alive for discussions, horrible economy, did best we could."
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