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" A single guilty conviction and a mistrial on 23 counts, deadlocked by a lone holdout. The government may have failed and we may have seen this coming, but the jury isn&amp;#039;t the only thing left hanging after Tuesday night&amp;#039;s decision. Indeed, the legal adventures of Rod Blagojevich that I&amp;#039;ve been following for The Politics Blog this summer are nowhere near complete. So here&amp;#039;s what you need to know looking ahead as the former governor moves toward another trial \u2014 a trial, by the way, for which the people are paying. Could a retrial mess with the election? It&amp;#039;s close to certain that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., will be taking the stand in the second go-around of The Trial of the Decade. The lawyer of Blago&amp;#039;s brother, Robert, has publicly lamented not calling the congressman to refute the Senate seat-selling charge against his client. And don&amp;#039;t forget that Rod may actually, you know, mount a defense next time. Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, Harry Reid, and all the other O&amp;#039;Hare-to-Reagan pols might be swinging by the courtroom this October (October!) to talk backroom politics. If you think 2010 is already in the toilet for Democrats, Blago might just be the cherry bomb. One holdout stopped more charges? Really? Well, not exactly. We learned on Tuesday that the counts were largely hung up on a single juror, who was actually in agreement on the more explosive Senate seat count... until he backed off upon further review of testimony from Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk. But word is that more than a few jurors were confused and that the case was not exactly open-and-shut for everyone held up in that room all month. Some votes, contrary to the whole 11-to-1 hyperbole were more like 7-5, 6-6, or 9-3, reports the Sun-Times. This was certainly no Steve Bartman, Cubs fans, stealing the prosecution&amp;#039;s conviction out of the stands. Does the single conviction still stand? I&amp;#039;ll answer that question with a question: If only one count could be proved while 23 others are heard and result in a mistrial, can the prosecution get away with retrying Blago on all the other charges except the one they already scored on? Also: does the government keep all those charges or do they pare down to be less confusing to jurors? Probably the latter, with a short burst of a trial that&amp;#039;s less of a headache for everybody. How does the prosecution take down Blago next time? Of the few jurors we heard from Tuesday evening, most thought the prosecution was too scattered in its presentation. (You don&amp;#039;t say?) The broad sweep of Blagojevich&amp;#039;s alleged corruption was not provided in a chronological order, they said, making the schemes harder to follow. So expect the next incarnation of attacks to rebuild the Blago administration in a more step-by-step fashion. The U.S. Attorneys have had several weeks to rethink their original plan, though they already seem raring and ready to go again, which could indicate they will not be revising much. Or that they&amp;#039;re just streamlining things. Can star lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald still be the next Attorney General? Fitzgerald&amp;#039;s bright prospects have dimmed even more than we thought before. Local journalist Carol Felsenthal said something very interesting last night on the Chicago public radio station, WBEZ \u2014 that Attorney General Eric Holder might be on his way out after the midterms and that Fitz fancied himself the replacement. Not anymore. Team Blago&amp;#039;s post-court press conference focused all of their vitriol at the star U.S. Attorney, saying he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;nuts,&amp;quot; abusive, media-hungry, and a liar. They&amp;#039;re marching around asking why Fitzgerald is willing to spend tens of millions in tax dollars \u2014 $25 to $30 million by their liberal estimates \u2014 for a second trial? It won&amp;#039;t work, but the press will admit they have a point. Fitzgerald talked the talk but couldn&amp;#039;t walk much beyond a perp walk \u2014 the first time out, anyway. Next time out could be his last time to shine. Can Blago still afford his own star lawyer? Now that his campaign fund has completely dried up and the public is footing the bill, some of Blagojevich&amp;#039;s lawyers can make a noble exit. Their fees were set low by Judge Zagel early in the proceedings to keep the kitty from being kicked too early, but they certainly earned their keep in free media attention. It seems lead attorney Sam Adam Jr., has let his Jackie Gleason gusto shine on Blago&amp;#039;s behalf for the last time. Another trial&amp;#039;s not going to pay so well. And it might not end with something to crow about. Will there be a victory tour? A reality show? Make no mistake: Chicago still hates Blago. The Trib&amp;#039;s editorial this morning? ROD BLAGOJEVICH, FELON. The Sun-Times says &amp;quot;the bad Elvis movie continues.&amp;quot; But what of the national scene? Unless there&amp;#039;s a huge payday in it for him to pay those lawyers \u2014 and by payday he is not, I repeat not, thinking reality show \u2014 don&amp;#039;t expect to see a media blitz by Blago between now and his next status hearing, on August 26. The man has just been convicted of a count that can (but probably won&amp;#039;t) send him away for five years. Yes, the last Blago jury ended up hung, but they didn&amp;#039;t take the gallows down with them. CLICK HERE FOR JOHN R. BOHRER&amp;#039;S COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE BLAGO TRIAL &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a8193/rod-blagojevich-verdict-explained-081810/>