I was only 8 years old when Rod Blagojevich was elected the governor of Illinois in 2002, and all I can remember is thinking that some man with a funny last name had become the new governor.

As a child that was all I knew, but after looking at "The Recent Road of Illinois Political Corruption," an interactive timeline by The New York Times, I found out that the Blagojevich administration had been under federal investigation since 2003, when the administration was accused of illegal activity.

Surprisingly, Blagojevich was re-elected in 2006, despite the continuing investigation. He won the race with 49.8 percent of the vote. How could this happen? Didn't people care about the investigations going on about illegal activities? Apparently not.

In June of this year, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a fundraiser for Blagojevich, was convicted on 16 counts of federal offenses such as wire fraud, mail fraud, bribery, and money laundering. During Rezko's trial, some talked about how Blagojevich was also involved in pay-to-play politics (basically where someone pays money to be involved in politics). Sound bad? Just wait, it gets worse.

On Tuesday, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested for trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

When I first heard this I was really surprised and shocked by how corrupt and money-hungry he was.

Blagojevich had been trying to sell the Senate seat for an ambassadorship, lucrative positions on corporate boards for his wife, and other ridiculous things like that.

He had also threatened to cut funding for a Chicago children's hospital because the executives hadn't given him money. And he tried to pressure the Chicago Tribune by threatening not to help the Tribune Company sell Wrigley Field if the paper didn't fire members on the editorial board who had criticized him.

Wow, that is corrupt.

Something I don't understand is how Blagojevich could have acted so stupidly. Even if he was trying to sell the Senate seat, why didn't he try to be more careful? I mean, he already knew that he was under investigation and his phones were being tapped.

As Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said, "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."