I have a piece on the homepage today about the Rezko trial, Barack Obama, and political corruption in the state of Illinois. Yesterday, the government’s star witness, a disgraced political fixer named Stuart Levine, testified that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich knew about a plot to extort money from a financier with business before a state board. Devastating, if true. Levine’s testimony appeared to be backed up by a phone conversation between Levine and a co-conspirator that the government recorded using a secret wiretap and played in court.

Today, Rezko’s chief defense attorney Joseph Duffy is getting his first chance to cross-examine Levine, and Duffy’s opening question says it all: “Mr. Levine, you have been involved in criminal activity for all of your adult life, have you not?”

Levine cracked up the media overflow room by asking Duffy to define “adult life.” It doesn’t matter. Everyone who’s been watching the trial knows the answer is yes.

Duffy is now asking Levine about his three decades of heavy drug use and its effect on his memory. The government’s wiretaps had better be ironclad, because this is going to get ugly.