* A lot has been going on in the Rezko trial since last week. I’ll spare you the play-by-play, but the prosecution’s case was greatly buttressed on Friday:

One of the last things jurors heard before heading into the break was Rezko’s voice on a wiretap recording apparently discussing how to manipulate a state hospital board. Prosecutors allege he corrupted the hospital panel and another board that controlled a $30 billion pension fund to extort kickbacks from firms seeking regulatory approval or state investments.

This is important. Several witnesses have testified that they believed Rezko was pulling the strings on the two panels, but the wiretap was the first time that the jury actually got to hear it from Rezko himself.

*While the tapes themselves aren’t incriminating, they help to illustrate Levine’s ongoing tale about his Godfather. Among Levine’s most damaging testimony against Rezko was that he agreed to split a $1.5 million bribe to approve the Mercy Hospital application for a Crystal Lake site.

In a tape of Rezko and Levine made May 18, 2004, Rezko tells Levine to ignore prior direction by Kelly that Levine should be the one to instruct a new board member, Danalynn Rice, on how to vote on key issues. Rezko said when Rice called, Levine should have her call Beck.

“We’ll do it the way we have been handling it in the last few months,” Rezko says. “Tom should not know you and I are having this conversation. You and I will still do what we need to do,” assures Rezko.

* As the State Capitol Notebook says today though, Tony Rezko may be the defendant in an ongoing federal corruption trial, but an all-star cast of Illinois politicos is getting dragged into the case, too:

Star witness Stuart Levine has dropped the names of powerful Illinois political figures such as Chicago Ald. Dick Mell, the estranged father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich; William Cellini, a high-powered Republican insider; Robert Kjellander, a Statehouse lobbyist and another GOP insider; former Chicago Ald. Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, who is charged in a separate corruption case and has pleaded not guilty; and of course, the governor himself.

Levine allegedly arranged for Ald. Mell to receive a cut from a finder’s fee. However, Mell denies the charge, and says that he never received any money.

Cellini and Kjellander joined the fray when Levine testified about how he helped steer clients to the lobbyists’ firm, among other things. Kjellander has denied any wrongdoing, and neither has been charged with a crime.

Levine admitted to two bribes that involved Vrdolyak, who has spent years inside the powerful world of Chicago politics, as a middleman. Vrdolyak quickly denied any wrongdoing.

That’s a whole lot of collateral damage. Finally though, Blagojevich remains as the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Levine told the jury this week that Blagojevich told him, “You stick with us and you’ll do very well for yourself.” Levine said to him, this meant he stood to get a lot of money if he did what the governor wanted.

The governor’s name was all over the case Wednesday, with Levine uttering it at least 30 times in under three hours and in ways that often did not appear to paint Blagojevich in a flattering light. The administration then issued its standard response:

“Stuart Levine’s assertions about the governor are wrong,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said later. “As we’ve said before, that’s not how the governor does business.”

In Rich’s column today, he answers the perennial question of the trial, will the governor be indicted?

It certainly looks that way. It’s more than obvious the prosecution is working its way up the ladder toward him. Rezko is an extremely high rung on that ladder. If U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald convicts Rezko with evidence that shows the governor’s office was corrupted by money and influence, Blagojevich’s goose could be cooked.

* Everything hinges on Levine’s credibility. The defense can argue that Levine was a weasel who made his career by lying and scamming others. Oh, and did I mention that he was in a constant drug induced state that purportedly cost him $25,000 a month and included Special K? No, not the cereal, but a drug that can be enough to sedate a horse.

However, it may be hard to sway a jury against Levine’s testimony when Rezko does such a good job of filling in the gaps himself on those tapes.

More Rezko stuff

* Suit says Rezko, doctor stole man’s mansion
* Rezko trial: Listen to Tony Rezko
* Jurors hear recordings of Tony Rezko talking to Stuart Levine
* Phone tapes give Levine testimony added credibility
* Jury hears Rezko calls
* Sometimes, throwing mud is a dirty game