Matt Belcher [Belcher Law Office, Chicago]: "As the "Governor Rod" story ends (for the time being) I wonder if "Citizen Rod" – the future "Defendant please rise Rod" – ever looks in the mirror and wonders how this all happened. It is a fascinating story – almost Chi-town Dostoevsky.

The average cable news viewer probably only knows the two-minute version of the story: "Illinois Governor with funny name, Burt Convey hair helmet, who channels Elvis and quotes Tennyson, attempts to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, so says U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald."

Yet beyond the pompadour and circumstances — the back-story of our young Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich is compelling.

The young protagonist, Милорад "Rod" Благојевић, born in Chicago of sturdy immigrant peasant stock, struggles against adversity, prejudice and a stacked-deck to succeed against the odds to the soaring heights of the Governorship of the great state of Illinois…by first selling his soul to the Chicago political machine and then marrying it (literally). Suddenly getting too big for his britches and his pride wounded, Rod began burning bridges and taking no prisoners, and thus he ultimately overstepped the protection of the very Chicago machine that allowed his success -leading to his tragic downfall from grace and into the dark pit of a federal penitentiary.

The novel Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemma of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a poor Russian ex-student who plans and commits the murder of an unscrupulous pawnbroker to solve his financial woes while simultaneously ridding the world of a worthless parasite. Raskolnikov also strives to be an extraordinary being, on par with Napoleon, believing that murder may be justified if committed in service to a higher purpose.

Since the MTV generation may not have the patience for a new 500 page novel, is this scandal the setting for the Rod Blagojevich made-for-TV movie? Or, should we believe the "Rod is Solzhenitsyn" ala The Gulag Archipelago media blitz as witnessed on The View and David Letterman?

So much depends on the rest of the story. Blagojevich may be the underdog in the criminal trial if even only a small part of the evidence offered by Fitzgerald pans out.

Assuming the worst, does our protagonist then go quietly and suffer in silence like a good Chicago machine soldier – or does the egomania set in and he vindictively decides to take everyone down with him?

We will have to wait and see if there is a cyrillic version of "omertà" (the code of silence) and whether the cold, gray walls of prison convince "Inmate Rod" to sing because no one swims to the top of the Chicago machine without knowing the secrets which lay in the darkness of the deep."