Opinion: Rod Blagojevich found guilty on 17 charges, Twitter says goodbye

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Rod Blagojevich, the bushy haired former governor of Illinois, was found guilty Monday on 17 of 20 federal corruption counts, including attempting to sell Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat.

After the verdicts were announced Monday, Blagojevich said he and his wife, Patti, were shocked.

‘I frankly am stunned,’ he said. ‘There’s not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them and then try to sort things out.’

Blagojevich, who could be sentenced to 20 years in prison, will be the fourth Illinois governor thrown in the pokey. Democrats Otto Kerner, Dan Walker and Republican George Ryan all found their way behind bars. Ryan is still serving time in federal prison.

This is the second time the Democrat has been in court for the Senate seat corruption charges. Last August Blagojevich, 54, dodged a bullet when the jury deadlocked on 23 of 24 counts, convicting the boisterous politician on only a single charge of lying to federal agents.

The 2011 trial lasted only three weeks because prosecutors decided not to charge Blagojevich with racketeering, instead focusing primarily on the allegation that the former governor was serious when he said on a tapped phone line that Obama’s seat was a ‘valuable thing’ and that ‘If I don’t get what I want ... I’ll just take the Senate seat myself.’

Although the governor may have been shocked, those on Twitter were not very stunned at all. Nor were they sad to see him go. A selection of the mostly jovial reactions after the jump.

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-- Tony Pierce
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