Is there anything illegal Rod Blagojevich hasn’t done? That list may be shorter. An informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation says he told authorities years ago that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was a bookie who paid the mob in order to operate during the 80s.

The ABC7 I-Team has learned that an attorney who went undercover for the FBI in the late 1980′s says he told federal authorities years ago about wrongdoing by Blagojevich.

His name is Robert Cooley.

Cooley was a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago in the late 1980′s who became one of the most potent witnesses against Chicago corruption, testifying for federal prosecutors in cases that resulted in dozens of convictions.

Cooley says that before Rod Blagojevich got into politics he was a bookmaker on the North Side who regularly paid the Chicago mob to operate…

He told ABC7 that Mr. Blagojevich regularly paid a so-called street tax to Robert “Bobby the Boxer” Abbinanti, a convicted outfit gambling collector. In the early 1980′s, Abbinanti was working for convicted West Side mob boss Marco D’amico. Bookies pay street taxes to the crime syndicate in exchange for being allowed to operate such a racket.

“I predicted five years ago when he ran the first time that he was a hands on person who would be selling every position in the state of Illinois and that it exactly what happened,” said Cooley.

Seriously, is Blago in some kind of lifelong bet with someone to see who could break the law the most times?

I’d tend to be very skeptical of someone only going public with this now, but Cooley is going on record with something that would be pretty easily disproven by the feds. Cooley’s secret recordings brought down other mob members. Besides, it’s not like hearing that Blago was involved in illegal financial transactions would provoke shock.

Blago’s defense attorney challenged Cooley to come and testify specifically in Springfield tomorrow. The ABC7 reporter notes that Cooley’s location, combined with the expected bad weather, would make that pretty impossible. I’m sure the attorney was aware of that when the challenge went out.