Spoil The Rod To Spare The Children's Hospital

Here's the indictment of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his bro, two staffers and two associates.  Here's the worst allegation, IMHO: 

On Oct. 8, 2008, defendant Blagojevich advised Lobbyist A that he intended to take official action that would provide additional state money to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and that Blagojevich wanted to get $50,000 in campaign contributions from the hospital's chief executive officer.

On Oct. 17, 2008, Blagojevich called the hospital's CEO to tell him of his intent to increase the Illinois Medicaid reimbursement rate for speciality-care pediatric physicians. Shortly before this, Blagojevich had directed Deputy Governor A to initiate such an increase, which Illinois providers of pediatric healthcare, including Children's Memorial Hospital, had actively supported for years.

On Oct. 22, 2008, Blagojevich spoke with the Children's CEO and asked him to arrange to raise $25,000 for Blagojevich prior to Jan. 1, 2009. On Nov. 12, 2008, after the Children's CEO had not returned additional phone calls from Robert Blagojevich and no political contributions from the Children's CEO or other persons associated with the hospital had been received, Blagojevich spoke to Deputy Governor A about the increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rates for specialty-care pediatric physicians, asking whether "we could pull it back if we needed to. . . ." As a result of this conversation, Deputy Governor A instructed the Department of Healthcare Services to stop its work on increasing the reimbursement for specialtycare pediatric physicians.