* There is so much wrong with this commentary that I don’t quite know where to begin…

We don’t need to spend $25 million on a face-saving do-over for Patrick Fitzgerald. The next trial will probably last twice as long as this one, as Fitzgerald calls in witnesses he neglected to cross-examine the first time around — partly because he didn’t realize Blagojevich wouldn’t put up a defense, leaving him with half a case.

We can also do without a retrial because it will give Rod Blagojevich another six months to repeat his wearying claims of innocence. Maybe he wants that, but the rest of Illinois doesn’t.

It wasn’t a total defeat for the government: they got Blagojevich on one count. It wasn’t a total defeat for Blagojevich: he can say he was never convicted of selling the Senate seat. Maybe Fitzgerald wants a rematch for vindication, and Blagojevich wants one so he can get more attention. But Illinois doesn’t want a rematch. We just want to put the Blagojevich years behind us.

$25 million just for the retrial? What credible person is saying that outside of Sam Adam, Jr.? Also, I got news for you, Blagojevich clearly showed yesterday that he’s not gonna keep his big yap shut. A trial, at least, will force him to stay off the airwaves for a while, giving us a respite, no matter how brief.

And who says Illinois doesn’t want a retrial? Our infamous commenter Bill most surely doesn’t, but he’s not exactly representative of the state at large. Sheesh, what a goofy mess.

I’ll stand with the Sun-Times editorial board on this one…

Fitzgerald’s view was — and remains — that Blagojevich shouldn’t get a pass just because he was as lousy a schemer as he was a governor.

And that seems exactly right to us. […]

A couple of hours after the jury’s verdict was read, Blagojevich’s lead attorney, Sam Adams Jr., ripped into the prosecutors for declaring they would retry the case. Adams asked, “Is this worth it?”

To which we say again: You bet. Elvis has not left the building.

Blagojevich and his brother, Robert, were exonerated of nothing, and Illinois remains too crooked a state for the feds to start looking the other way now.

Admittedly, Blagojevich has already been a gift to reform in Illinois. In the wake of his arrest, the state Legislature was shamed into passing a host of bills designed to promote a cleaner and more transparent government and politics. Illinois now has tighter state procurement laws, stronger freedom of information laws, pension board reforms and stricter limits on campaign contributions.

But only by prosecuting public corruption to the fullest extent of the law, retrials and all, can Illinois one day hope to arrive in that happy land of honest government.

And the Tribune…

We very much anticipate that second trial. The government’s accusations of racketeering and conspiracy are too serious to go unresolved. We trust that another jury will tell the people of Illinois whether the state’s only impeached and ousted governor is guilty or innocent of more than one felony.

Blagojevich offered his opinion on that question after jurors offered their verdict: “This is a persecution!”

No, Governor, this is a prosecution. And we’re thankful that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and his team were swift in assuring citizens that they would take their case to a second group of jurors.

Judge Zagel, never one to dally, could move as early as next Thursday, Aug. 26, to set a date for jury selection to begin. Good for him. The sooner all of us know whether Rod Blagojevich’s criminal record stops with one federal felony, the sooner all of us can concur that justice has been served.

And pretty much every other sane person outside Blagojevich’s inner circle.

* And speaking of goofy arguments, more than a few people have criticized Patrick Fitzgerald for not waiting until Blagojevich sold the US Senate seat before moving in. This is a fairly decent counter-argument…

His backers said that if Fitzgerald had waited to arrest the governor until Blagojevich carried through with an alleged plan to appoint U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., to Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat in exchange for a sizable donation, it would have created a constitutional crisis.

“What should he have done?” former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer said. “Wait for him to sell the seat? It would have been a disaster. The arrest was not only proper, it was necessary.”

My own opinion is that Fitz was worried that Blagojevich was busily concocting an alibi. The Tribune reported the week before his arrest that the feds had the governor on wiretaps. Blagojevich knew the net was about to drop, so he started undoing things. If they had waited, he most likely would’ve appointed anybody but JJJ.

* Back to the verdict. Mark Brown makes some interesting points today…

I will say this, though, and it might surprise you. I would almost rather have seen the Blagojevich jury fail to reach a verdict on any counts than to convict him only of the chicken-bleep lying to a federal agent charge.

We certainly should have an expectation that our elected officials would tell the truth to the FBI, and there are times when their failure to do so deserves punishment, as when George Ryan tried to throw the agents off his scent by lying about how he paid a state contractor for use of his Jamaican vacation home.

That was hardly the case with Blagojevich. Here is the false statement on which he was convicted: “Rod Blagojevich does not track, or want to know, who contributes to him or how much they are contributing to him.”

As many witnesses testified and wiretaps confirmed, Blagojevich obviously did track his campaign contributions. In fact, he monitored them quite closely.

But here’s the problem: There’s nothing particularly wrong with a politician keeping track of their campaign donations. It’s certainly not illegal. In fact, he was in his rights to sit there at his desk in the governor’s office and make fund-raising calls on his cell phone.

Were federal agents thrown off the track, or was their investigation impeded in any way when Blagojevich was stupid enough to tell them such a lie?

No way. They probably just said to themselves: “Gotcha!”

And remember the false statements were made in March 2005, more than three years before the wiretaps.

Fitz should’ve busted him before the 2006 election and saved us a lot of trouble.

* Related…

* Retrial could hurt Democrats’ fall campaigns

* Roeper: 1 out of 24 enough to ruin ex-gov’s victory-lap dream

* Sneed: Blagojevich trial is not over yet

* Sweet: Rod Blagojevich Convicted for Coverup, Not the Crime

* Erickson: Did Blagojevich’s media onslaught make a difference?

* Kadner: No sympathy here for Toxic Blago

* Southtown Star: LIAR

* Pantagraph: Blagojevich verdict doesn’t yield winners

* SJ-R: Would a retrial be worth it? Yes

* Register Star: There are no winners in Blagojevich trial

* Journal Star: Still no end for sorry Blagojevich saga