From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

In American politics is corruption, business as usual.

Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is charged with offering Barack Obama's Senate seat for sale

to the highest bidder. The president-elect says there are two separate traditions in the United

States, public service, and what's in it for me? But in a political system that's based on

wheeling and dealing, what constitutes

breaking the law? Just how did Blagojevich step over the line? Does the incident reveal anything about

Obama? With the U.S. preaching democracy, how does it look to the rest of the world? On reporter's

notebook later on, Bush, Obama, and closing Guantanamo Bay. First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation, supporting social entrepreneurs around the world, uncommon heroes

dedicated to the common good. Learn more at Skoll.org. Hello again, Wormon Alney, back with To the

Poet. Is politics for public service or personal gain? That's one of the many questions

raised when a U.S. Senate seat is put up for sale. Today we'll talk about what constitutes

corruption in a political system based in large part on trading favors. On reporter's notebook,

will new trials before military commissions make it harder for Barack Obama to close Guantanamo

Bay? First is news update.

Republicans in the Senate killed the big three bailout last night. Now the Bush White House may be

ready to do what it has said it would not, help Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors with some of the

$700 billion originally appropriated for Wall Street. Here's Democratic Senator Chris Dodd

...