Blagojevich's name comes up in first 10 minutes of Rezko case

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

It took only about 10 minutes for Gov. Blagojevich's name to surface in the corruption trial of Tony Rezko.

In the prosecution's opening statement today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Hamilton told jurors the Rezko case focuses on a violation of the public trust orchestrated by Rezko and Stuart Levine, a member of two state-government boards over which Rezko held considerable sway.

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Rezko was a key Blagojevich political fund-raiser in 2002 who "gave names of people" to the Blagojevich administration for key state posts," Hamilton said. "The administration took his recommendations very seriously," eventually appointing many of the people Rezko had recommended to seats on various state boards and commissions.

Hamilton told jurors Rezko was "the man behind the curtain" who controlled a nine-member board that oversaw hospital construction in Illinois.

Isn't nice to know that you need Tony Rezko's approval to open up a hospital in Illinois??