As I reported yesterday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday on federal corruption charges. There's been a lot of speculation and rumor about who knew what and who was involved in his schemes. Politicians now need to assure voters that they are serious about the way politics works in this country.Here's what Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart told The Nation this morning:"Especially with the leading advocate of public financing in the US Senate now being [Illinois Senator] Dick Durbin, and with another Illinois former Senator about to take the White House -- both hail from this state and yet both are strong reformers. And so, one thing they could do, is to seize upon this scandal as the reason why we need to have public financing. It doesn't prevent corrupt people from serving in office and committing crimes, but it does take away a major avenue of transactions for corruption. And it relieves all those pressures. So our hope is that they'll seize upon this moment to illustrate why it is that we need an alternative system of funding bids for office…. The Blagojevich example is politics at its absolute worst. We want politics to be something other than a cesspool. It sends the wrong message to the public about what politics can be about. Our current elected officials have the opportunity now to separate themselves from the pay to play system -- of private financing of campaigns -- they should take it." Nyhart joined with other reform organizations and released a statement about the scandal today as well. Here's part of it:“We renew our call to the next Congress and the President-elect: Take up and pass comprehensive public financing of congressional and presidential elections. In doing so, the next Congress and the President-elect can free our elected officials from the campaign money chase and allow them to focus entirely on doing the people’s business.”