The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering .They allege that (Ill. Gov. Rod) Blagojevich put a "for sale" sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism...U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a news release this morning.

Fitzgerald has prosecuted a lot of political corruption in his years in Chicago, so you really have to go some to find acts that would stagger him. I find no record in the news archives of Fitzgerald ever before describing corruption charges as "staggering."

Yet the charges in the criminal complaint (text version) are, in fact, staggering. They are stunning. Eyepopping. Gobsmacking. Jaw-dropping. Appalling. Unprecedented in their alleged brazenness.

These charges say that even as his predecessor sat in prison after a corruption conviction, even as his associates and fundraisers were going down, even as it was widely reported that he was at the center of a federal corruption probe ... even then, Blagojevich was selling out his office and otherwise abusing his power.

In a profile of Blagojevich in last February's Chicago Magazine, writer David Bernstein reported:

Privately, a few people who know the governor describe him as a "sociopath," and they insist they're not using hyperbole. State representative Joe Lyons, a fellow Democrat from Chicago, told reporters that Blagojevich was a "madman" and "insane."

That struck me at the time, as over the top. Today it strikes me as brave and prescient.

If these allegations are true, Blagojevich is not just sleazy and venal, he's also recklessly compulsive. But an allegedly recklessly compulsive sociopath cannot and does not act alone -- his abetters and enablers included his major donors and his advisers. They, too, should be called to account.

Comments are limited to one word only -- your adjective or other evocative word to describe today's indictment.