Judge: Wiretaps reveal talk, but not much ‘got done’

Perhaps stealing a page from the defense team's upcoming closing argument, U.S. District Judge James Zagel just described Rod Blagojevich as "desperate" and "out of touch with reality" in the months leading up to his arrest.
 
During a hearing outside the jury's presence this afternoon, the judge suggested Blagojevich may have been blowing off steam when he talked about various schemes, specifically one plan to fill Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat with someone who would step down in two years and let Blagojevich take the seat. In one secretly recorded conversation, Blagojevich refers to himself as a "heavy-hitter" -- a suggestion that Zagel said he found "striking."