Maureen McDonnell spent $6,000 around the time of Bob McDonnell’s January 2010 inauguration and complained to the PAC the family did not have enough to finance her first lady wardrobe – Photo courtesy of AP

Guilty!

Actually, she’s guilty of spending $50, let alone thousands on that dress. But that’s not why they were convicted.

 A federal jury on Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption — sending an emphatic message that they believed the couple sold the office once occupied by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson to a free-spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in sweetheart loans.

After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the ­McDonnells’ alleged misdeeds unanimously found that the couple conspired to lend the prestige of the governor’s office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse.

The verdict means that Robert McDonnell, the first governor in Virginia history to be charged with a crime, now holds an even more unwanted distinction — the first to be convicted of one.

That is!

In other news yesterday, Joan Rivers died. If you want accolades and tributes, click here. You won’t find them in this post. I feel for her family and friends, and do have fond memories of her from many years ago. Sadly, she turned into a mean-spirited, angry and ugly person. I’m sorry for those who lost someone they loved.

This Sunday, the newest incarnation of Meet the Press will premiere. It’s bad enough that Chuck Todd will be the new host (meet the new host, same as the old host), but now we find out some of the regular panelists, courtesy of the NY Post’s Page Six:

NBC is bringing in Luke Russert, son of the late beloved “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, as a regular panelist on the Sunday morning show in a bid to turn around its catastrophic ratings slide, Page Six has exclusively learned.

Luke Russert, the guy who shows up in the dictionary as the definition of “nepotism” is the savior that will turn the Meet the Press ratings around? Excuse me while I finish this fit of laughter.

But if that’s not ridiculous enough for you, try this one on for size:

Also joining new moderator Chuck Todd’s team will be former Republican congressman and “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, who sources say “is taking on a larger role within NBC News as a senior political analyst and would be one of the regular Sunday panelists.”

We’re told the move is part of a plan to bring a right-leaning voice to the program to appeal to viewers turned off by the show’s famously left-leaning former hosts including the ousted David Gregory.

They did just write “the show’s famously left-leaning former hosts including the ousted David Gregory.” No, that wasn’t a misprint or typo… just a foray into Opposite World and very, very funny.

Now I get it… They’re going to position MTP as a comedy show!

This morning on the show, I was joined by my friend Greg Basta, deputy director of NY Communities for Change, who worked on yesterday’s Fast Food Workers strike which struck 150 US cities and some others around the world!

Steve Horn, research fellow at DeSmogBlog, joined in to tell us about the Keystone XL clone that’s already in operation and more dirty oil news too.

And for today’s Flashback Friday, I found two interviews I did with Chris Isaak. Although I’ve been lucky enough to talk with Chris many times over the years, I only have two of our conversations on tape. The first was the pre-show interview from a nationally broadcast Halloween concert at the House of Blues in 1996 that I hosted. The second was the first in-studio performance in the then-brand-new Channel 103.1 in Los Angeles in Dec of 1998.

None of these pictures were from either of those dates, but they’re all fun pictures nonetheless…

Chris Isaak and Nicole Sandler at KSCA/Los Angeles under the watchful eye of station owner Gene Autry

Chris Isaak and Nicole Sandler at KSAC/Los Angeles under the watchful eye of station owner Gene Autry

Chris Isaak, Kenney Dale Johnson, Herschel Yatovitz and a very young Alison Sandler

Nicole with Chris & Kenney (aka dirty old men)

If you’re a football fan and want to play along with my experiment in using my dad’s system to win big, check out How To Beat the Bookies at Pro Football blog… More on that next week.

And with that, we’re done for another week. See you back here Monday, radio or not…