MORE ON REZKO, from Rick Moran: “While the governor and other top politicians in the state almost certainly should be worried about what Rezko might tell the prosecutor, no one can say for sure if Rezko would have anything of interest to spill about Barack Obama.”

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus on “Fitzmas in reverse.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jeralyn Merritt: “Second, as to Obama, this trial was not about him. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest any connection between him and the illegal activity charged in the case. The Government said so. Obama’s name was barely mentioned at the trial. Rezko’s case is important in the context of government corruption in Illinois.”

MORE: Reader William Boggess emails:

I would kindly reinforce, as a resident of Illinois, that the Rezko trial is precisely an indictment of Illinois politics, and that Senator Obama is a direct product of that system. No more, no less. Republican or Democrat, at the state level, they’ve become intertwined, fighting over the spoils. There is a very specific reason that the second largest FBI office in the entire US is in Chicago. The level of corruption is to a point where it’s considered part of the “normal cost of doing business”, right down to garbage collection. It’s that pervasive. And taxes are the legal side of the extortion racket.

You have NO idea.

Well, I have some idea.