the buzz log

2008 may be careering to an end, but nothing like a foul-mouthed, wiretapped, old-school political corruption scandal perks up a weary populace during the holiday season. Despite the 24-7 coverage on the Illinois governor investigation, including our own Buzz Log reaction coverage and birthday watch, rubberneckers have still pelted the Search box with many questions on the people, places, and phrases involved.

Here is a program to track who's who and what Rod Blagojevich wanted from all of them.

  • "quid pro quo." Journalists and pundits have been working the phrase overtime, as congressmen Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr. deny engaging in a "quid pro quo" to fill Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat, and the Chicago Tribune disputes an "alleged quid pro quo" to fire editorial writers to secure a $100 million in state aid. The phrase was only used once in U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment, in a conversation about avoiding the appearance of "a selfish grab for quid pro quo."

The Latin phrase literally translates into "something for something" and has taken on both legal weight and mafia implications in modern use. Trade-offs aren't necessarily a bad thing and are common political practice, but they can get down-and-dirty in the hands of a whacked-out narcissist. Bloomberg describes the philosophy most colorfully as the Chicago's unwritten motto, "Where is mine?"

  • "who is the lieutenant governor of Illinois." The answer is Pat Quinn, the successor who would sit in the governor's seat, after wiping it down first. Is he any better? A St. Louis Dispatch profile gathered up descriptive nouns like "reformer, gadfly, relentless campaigner, showboater" to describe a former outsider who spent 30 years "against the political status quo" (another Latin phrase basically meaning "as things are"). One observer called him "a thorn in the side of what you would call conventional politicians."

  • "who is senate candidate 5." To recap: When Fitzgerald filed his indictment and described the scenario of Blagojevich trying to fill the Senate seat in exchange for favors, there were six possible candidates. Fitzgerald didn't identify these potential appointees, because he didn't want to blacken their names simply because Blagojevich and his chief of staff talked about them. But of course, the mystery demanded answers. The New York Observer's offers guesses on nearly all of them, including Jesse Jackson, Jr., as No. 5. (not to be confused with the Jackson 5).

  • "patti blagojevich bio." Behind every profanity-spewing politician stands a woman with a potty mouth. The governor's wife, Patti Blagojevich, also got caught on secret recordings suggesting, in colorful language, to mess with the Tribune editors. As her family rushed to her defense, Searchers rushed online to check out Mrs. Blagojevich's background as a daughter of influential alderman Richard Mell (also known to Searchers as "blagojevich father in law"). Her husband's problems not only turned the spotlight on investigations into her own "real-estate dealings," but also on the hostilities between her father and her husband. Mell has said to regret backing his son-in-law for governor.

  • "valerie plame." What, is the CIA involved in this one? Not that we know of—actually, lookups for the former blonde spy surged because of Patrick Fitzgerald, who had been the special prosecutor in the spy leak case that led to the conviction of Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. As for Fitzgerald himself, queries have been popping for his bio, website, and the "patrick j fitzgerald fan club."