As crooked as can be?

The news arose today that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested and charged with corruption.  And the news was no shock to anyone who has done business across the Mississippi.

In a nutshell, Blagojevich is accused of offering to appoint the highest bidder (or the hand-picked choice of the highest bidder) to Barack Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Blagojevich has been accused of corruption before.  And Illinois has been viewed as corrupt before, but this might just take the cake.

It looks like one more corrupt Chicago politician could be going to the penitentiary . . . but a fellow Chicago politician and a friend of Blagojevich's will be moving to the White House next month.

Barack Obama is connected to the governor of his home state.  According to Jake Tapper of ABC News, Obama "not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, [he also] served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house."  Obama and Rahm Emanuel (Obama's selection for White House chief of staff in his administration) were two of the four people who "met weekly" to "lay out the general election" of Blagojevich in 2002.  This, according to Emanuel himself, though he later retracted the statement - downplaying their connection to Blagojevich.

The question is this, should be judged by the company he keeps?  Especially if that company includes Jehrimiah Wright, William Ayers, and Rod Blagojevich?