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And the fun with Blagojevich has just *started*.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 9th, 2008 at 03:09 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Ah, Fitzmas. I don’t know what’s droller: this predictive post, or the querulous comments to it.

BlagoGate: Obama’s Burden

At a news conference just now, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald made very clear that he had uncovered no evidence of misbehavior on the part of Barack Obama. “I should be clear that the complaint makes no allegations whatsoever about the president-elect or his conduct,” he said. But he also made clear that his investigation was hardly complete. He still needed “to find out what happened.” And he said, as a policy, that the U.S. Attorney office is not in the business of “giving clean bills of health.”

That’s the reason that the fall of Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to continue to haunt Obama, not to mention Chicago’s Democratic establishment where he built his roots. The President of the United States has a higher burden than just about any elected official anywhere. His staff will be called on by the press to account for all their conversations with Blagojevich and his aides. Obama will have to explain what he knew about these discussions. The bit players in the complaint, like the unnamed Senate Candidate 1 and Senate Candidate 5, will have to come forward and explain their involvement. If the investigation continues into next year, which seems likely, there may even be calls for the appointment of something like an independent counsel at the Justice Department to avoid any hint of political interference. Obama’s staff and political allies may be forced to get attorneys of their own.

Probably the latter: there’s just something inherently funny about political virginity.

As Swampland itself notes, life is not fair. Yes, it is quite possible that Rahm Emanuel was the guy who went to the feds, thus precipitating the arrests (believe me, they were gearing up for it already); and I will not be surprised at all to hear that eventually President-elect Obama will be found to not have been directly involved in the crimes that Blagojevich committed. Alas, the word “eventually” is critical here: and the last thing that Obama or his staff want to do is look like they’re interfering with what promises to be a major corruption scandal. That includes smiling while Patrick Fitzgerald gnaws on their entrails.

That also means doing what Katon Dawson suggests, and releasing all of the Obama/Blagojevich communications. Hey, transparency, right?

Lastly: I think that not only should the President-elect fully endorse Senator Durbin’s call for a special election for the replacement seat; I think that Barack Obama should come back to his home state, mingle with his and Blagojevich’s fellow-Democrats, and heavily associate his name with whatever candidate that the Democratic wing of the Illinois Combine comes up with. It’ll fit in nicely with Blagojevich’s trial on corruption charges.

Fun day today, wasn’t it?

Moe Lane

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COMMENTS

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  • Dave_in_Fla

    Say what you want about the Foley situation in 2006, but timely removal of the problem at least limited the damage to FL-16 and the house leadership. The Dems refused to take action about Mahoney, Blago, Jefferson and still refuse to deal with Rangel, Dodd and Frank. They keep enabling these clowns, and eventually they get burned badly. Blago isn’t going to bring down Obama, BUT this is going to significantly distract from the message they want starting the new administration. And all because they didn’t deal with a guy they KNEW was ethically challenged before he became an embarrassments.

    Raise your hand if the statement “A Senate seat is worth a lot of money, and I’m not letting it go without getting value” was the most disturbing thing you saw today.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    I wanted to say butt, and wasn’t thinking.

  • naraht

    From my reading of the Illinois State Law, there is *nothing* that anyone other than the US Senate can do if Blagovich appoints someone in the next month (before the Illinois Legislature comes back into session and can impeach him) who fulfills the constitutional requirements to be a Senator. And while the Senate has refused to seat Senators who have committed crimes or won in close contested elections, they’ve never turned town a senator selected from spite (and there *were* some before the direct election of senators). He could appoint anyone from JJIII to Jim Oberweis to his cellmate (as long as his cellmate was 30 years old, etc,etc).

    The question is does *anyone* who was previously in the running to be Senator want the job if it is Blagovich appointing them in the next month or so.

  • Moe Lane

    Anybody who gets appointed by Blagojevich can expect a lively primary and general election season, particularly since the attack ads pretty much write themselves. And the next two years aren’t going to be happy ones for said appointee, either: this trial is going be epic, at least on the State level.

    Sen. Durbin’s got the right idea on this one by calling for a special election: it’s in the Democrats’ best interest to have a candidate with no obvious ties to Blagojevich. Mind you, the GOP gets something out of this, too: essentially, a free shot at a Senate seat. Even if we lose, we can try again two years later.

  • Robert A. Hahn

  • Josh Painter

    …and when did he know it?

    - JP

  • NightTwister

    You’ve been missed, Robert.

  • Darin_H

    I can buy a president for cheaper, and a president’s wife even less.

  • Patricia_C

    “Rod Blagojevich is just some guy who lives in my neighborhood.”

    Or

    “This is not the Rod Blagojevich I knew.”

  • Jlerner

    I’m not as well versed in the nuances of Illinois state politics, but do we have anyone good who could rise up and run for either governor or Senate? The only names I can think of are Patrick Fitzgerald (for obvious reasons) and Mark Kirk. Are there no good Republicans left in the state of Illinois?

  • naraht

    To get a Special Election, you would have to have an amendment to the Illinois State Constitution.

    Impeachment of Blagojevich requires a majority of the state house and two thirds of the senate. Amendment of the state constitution requires 60% in each house and then at the next statewide election (which will be 2010 anyway), either 60% of those voting on the question or a majority of those voting in the election.

    Democrats hold 67 of 118 (56%) of the Illinois State house and 37 of 59 (62%) of the Illinois State Senate, so they can’t do *either* of those things alone. Now I don’t know if the Illinois Republican Senators would deliberately get in the way of Blagojevich getting impeached, but they could, just as the Illinois Republican Representatives could get in the way of the amendment.

    Most screwed up scenario is probably he doesn’t get impeached and they don’t pass the amendment (which ends up being irrelevant). Blagovich refuses to name *anyone* even while sitting in Jail (He can still be governor from there as long as he doesn’t get impeached and convicted). A standard election for a six year term is held in November 2010 and the Democratic primary is a bloodbath.

  • Kowalski

    I disbelieve my droopy eyes. Hallellujah. Last I heard, you were in the jungles of Ecuador engineering the next deep-earth ultra-long wavelength transmissions that were going to set loose the next earthquake in Iran. It’s good to see you back.

  • SpL

    Merry Fitzmas was just so very special. Can some of the Democrat’s slogan team come over and run a focus group about what to name the delicious dish served up this blessed season?

    I got nothin’.

  • naraht

    In the next congress there will be seven Republicans from Illinois in the US house, down from eight in this congress (Jerry Weller in IL-11 was replaced by Debbie Halvorson (D)). Of those seven, Aaron Schock is a freshman having taken over from the retiring Ray LaHood in IL-18. This leaves Peter Roskam (IL-6) first elected in 2006, Mark Kirk (IL-10) first elected in 2000, Judy Biggert (IL-13) who was first elected in 1998, Tim Johnson (IL-15) first elected in 2000, Don Manzullo (IL-16) first elected in 1992, and John Shimkus (IL-9) first elected in 1996.

  • dantes

    Pat Quinn could be beat for Governor. He is pretty well-liked in Illinois.

  • Spartan4Life

    In his presser today Obama said he had had no contact with Governor Blago regarding the open Senate seat.

    Hannity has David Axelrod on tape from two weeks ago saying that Obama HAD been in contact with the governor.

    Just another Democrat hack politician. I say, let’s investigate! Maybe even bigger news today was that the grand jury had subpeonaed the records for Obama’s shady land deal with Rezkco, LMAO.

    Some of the bloom coming off Obama’s rose, maybe?

  • wag

    booster seat?

    I’m going keep thinking.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    Remember the Democrat mantra/precedent… It isn’t whether or not facts currently exist, but the SERIOUSNESS OF THE ALLEGATIONS!!!!

  • smokeandashes

    Pat Quinn is a Democrat. The Republican Party in Illinois is in such disarray, they barely have a voice or a thought these days. After the corruption on Gov. Ryan and the disasterous nomination of Alan Keyes to run against Obama in the senate race, don’t expect much from the IL Republican party. Plus, during most of Blago’s term, there has been barely a peep about his excesses, a point that should (IMHO) have been hammered and hammered hard.

  • smokeandashes

    I should have added that Pat Quinn is not exactly at the top of the list for next governor. AG Lisa Madigan and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias are the better candidates for the Democratic side.

  • cookcountyconservative

    I like Christine Ragdono
    http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2008/11/new-gop-leader.html

    Whoever it is will be up against Quinn or Lisa Madigan the Dem a/g who is very popular. Her Dad is the IL House Majority Leader and arch enemy of Blago.

    You know in IL it’s nice to keep everything in the family…

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    An aside, or sub-set, of this discussion is a little comment that has (thus far) flown under the radar…

    That Obama is looking to replace the 50 Prosecutors… Remember how Bill Clinton immediately dismissed all 50 (re-appointed 2)??? Bush WAITED and examined the posts, and caught the usual DOUBLE-STANDARD and general stirring up of a controversy that didn’t exist in the MSM, when Bush removed 8?

    This has become more of an issue, as it is now speculated that Patrick Fitzgerald may have SECURED his position as he can hardly be dismissed now without it looking to be blatant Democrat corruption/politics…

    EXPORTING CHICAGO THUG POLITICS (and more) via this RS: Election Issues recap (one stop reference Diary)

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    An aside, or sub-set, of this discussion is a little comment that has (thus far) flown under the radar…

    That Obama is looking to replace the 50 Prosecutors… Remember how Bill Clinton immediately dismissed all 50 (re-appointed 2)??? Bush WAITED and examined the posts, and caught the usual DOUBLE-STANDARD and general stirring up of a controversy that didn’t exist in the MSM, when Bush removed 8?

    This has become more of an issue, as it is now speculated that Patrick Fitzgerald may have SECURED his position as he can hardly be dismissed now without it looking to be blatant Democrat corruption/politics…

    EXPORTING CHICAGO THUG POLITICS (and more) via this RS: Election Issues recap (one stop reference Diary)

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    Time to STEAL AN ELECTION by any means necessary….

    IL calls for Special Election

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    I know he was sought to run for the Senate post that would have SAVED US from having the ObamaBeast

  • bk

    Would he be required to produce a BC?

  • jackbenimble

    I will not be surprised at all to hear that eventually President-elect Obama will be found to not have been directly involved in the crimes that Blagojevich committed.

    I won’t be surprised either. But both Blogo and Obama are proud members of the corrupt Illinois Democrat political machine and it would not surprise me if Blogo was aware of other non-related crimes where Obama was a player.

    Blogos behavior was so arrogant and blatant that he must have known that he would get caught. He was either stupid, insane or in possession of a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” (GOOJFC).

    One possible way to have a GOOJFC is to have the goods on a “bigger fish” that would entice a prosecutor with a proclivity for going after Presidents to cut a deal in exchange for information. There are only a limited number of fish bigger than a sitting Governor. Another possibility to have a GOOJFC would be to have the goods on somebody who could issue a Presidential Pardon.

    On the other hand, the GOOJFC game is dangerous. I would not be surprised if, in fine Chicago tradition, that Blogo did not end up wearing a pair of concrete overshoes. He probably knows too much about too many people and may be motivated to sing like a canary.

    As you say, the fun has just begun. Have yourself a merry little Fitzmas!

  • Next93

    If you removed the “ethically challenged” from Chicago politics, you’d wind up with a mayoral primary between two pigeons and a cat.

  • Moe Lane

    Fitz has never taken down a Chicago Mayor.

    I looked it up. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that anybody’s ever taken down a sitting Chicago Mayor.

  • Jaded

    It would be Christmas every day they were in court!

  • naraht

    In this case, I think the experience he gets may help him hold on in the Democratic primaries if he gets challenged. The one thing that nobody is going to do is try to tie Quinn to Blago. In Illinois, there is one primary in each party for Governor and a different one for Lt. governor. Then the winners run together as a ticket. Sometimes you get situations like Quinn and Blago that just don’t get along. I read someplace that Quinn and Blago haven’t had a significant conversation in over a year.

  • naraht

    While Illinois does lean blue, it shouldn’t be this blue, It should be possible to put together the Downstaters with the Collar counties and either win or at least keep it close statewide. And in Congress, it isn’t too bad. The Republicans only lost one seat in a year that tilted toward the Democrats and frankly Jerry Weller left skid marks leaving.

  • naraht

    Nothing that Fitzgerald had in the indictment went after people who would be considered to be in Obama’s faction of Illinois politics. His relation with Blago was “distant”. The major problem with this happening the way it did for Obama is that the headlines will read “OBAMA senate seat replacement SCANDAL” regardless of whether he had anything to do with it.

    I wouldn’t surprise me at all if Rahm went to Fitzgerald with this with Obama’s knowledge. Forget throwing Blago under the bus, this was spike him to the pavement, and go get a bus driver.

  • naraht

    Wikipedia doesn’t have any mayors listed who had to resign due to legal issues. Scarily enough, my first though with “ever taken down” was assassination, and I knew that Mayor Anton Cermak was assassinated when Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate FDR. I also found out that an earlier mayor of Chicago had been assassinated, Carter Henry Harrison Jr. was assassinated back in the 1890s.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    Ditka may have saved us from the wrath of the Radical-Elect if he had run before and at least given Oblahblah a run for his money and expose him as “radical” rather than the coasting he was able to achieve. Republicans need to remind Ditka of the headaches he might have kept us from as pressure to get him to run this time… very few will have name recognition and star-value to get attention for the Election than Ditka (that link is to an old CNN story about Ditka turning down GOP over request for him to run for the IL US Senate seat) Winning in IL against Democrats (especially now with the Senate control majority) is less a matter (yes, IMHO) than about the answers to the problems but more about POLITICS in general and celebrity will help (in this case, IMO).

  • DavidS1787

    Should be the targets of Patrick Fitzgearld!

  • SteveLA

    The fat lady is just warming up. There will be more from what I just heard on the news conference.

    Jessie “nut cutter” Jackson are you paying attention to this? Which number was he?

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    right!?!?

    In Chicago, it is all connected by only 1 or 2 degrees of separation. One crook, always knows another crook, linked to the first crook mentioned. Link Rezco, ACORN, whatever, and the connections will eventually surface. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg and all the associations and shady-activities get cross-linked/referenced!

  • DavidS1787

    an unkown Republican with no known ties……

  • http://www.rightsided.org/ Mark Kilmer

    that seat from the Blagman? Like you’ve said, Moe, the commercials write themselves. The insinuations will be even more powerful than the ads, spoken or unspoken.

    This almost has to go to a special election; Obama’s mentor Emil Jones who is going to start a motion in the Illinois State senate to that effect.

    Who’ve we got for that seat? This is one we have to win.

  • Kowalski

    I’m just really happy about the language that high-ranking government officials in Illinois use all the time when they talk about things they want to happen. There’s not as much overt racist talk as their used to be, but there are an awful lot of references to fornication and who should fornicated on, in, against, or with. Most of high-level Illinois politics is this way.

    Literary scholars and people who are used to parsing the language of esteemed public servants like Rod Blagojevich are going to spend a long time thinking about the kinds of words their elected officials use when they really talk about each other, and discuss the deals they want to see happen.

    It’s all so very low, so very brutal, so very Hobbesian.

    ?You know I sat down talked [to Cellini] a long time ago I said if you can convince those guys [Rezko and Kelly] to let us stay in place. . . We got a great machinery and if there?s an accommodation you know we?ll certainly try to accommodate but if they just wanna stick things in you know I?m gonna leave that?s no way to do that.?

    …

    Later in the May 12, 2004 recorded call, Cellini asked Levine ?did he tell you,
    too, that the big guy said Rosenberg means nothing to him.? Levine testified that he understood Cellini to be stating that Cellini had been told by Rezko that ROD BLAGOJEVICH (the ?big guy?) was aware of the extortion…

    …

    ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Individual A that, ?I could have made a larger announcement but wanted to see how they perform by the end of the year. If they don?t perform, ***k ?em.?

    —-

    ROD BLAGOJEVICH states: ?Yeah, now be real careful there. I mean, the FBI went to see [Lobbyist 2]. You understand??

    —-

    Lobbyist 1 suggested that it is better for ROD BLAGOJEVICH to make the call
    personally ?from a pressure point of view.? ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that he would call Contributor 1 and indicate that ROD BLAGOJEVICH wanted to do an event (fundraiser) downstate ?so we can get together and start picking some dates to do a bill signing.? Lobbyist 1 assured ROD BLAGOJEVICH that Contributor 1 would be good for the donation because Lobbyist 1 ?got in his face.?

    —–

    During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH?s wife can be heard in the
    background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A ?to hold up that ******g Cubs shit. . . **c* them.?

    —–

    ?Look, we?ve got decisions to make now. . . moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA helping with the Cubs sale) . . . someone?s gotta go to [Tribune Owner], we want to see him 45 . . it?s a political *****n? operation in there.?

    ——

    ROD BLAGOJEVICH said Tribune Owner should be told ?maybe we can?t do this now. Fire those ******s.?

    —–

    ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that ?our recommendation is fire all
    those *******g people, get ?em the **c* out of there and get us some editorial support.?

    There are so very many more, and these are from the **early** parts of the indictment text. What’s astonishing is really how brutal — even bestial — the politics in Illinois under Rod Blagojevich has become. And this was the cradle from which Barack Obama emerged to be the President-Elect of the United States.

    It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that the elected officials in Illinois are this vulgar; I know that very well. It’s good that the rest of the country is learning where their new President comes from.

  • Kowalski

    As a wee lad, when I lived in New Jersey I had insider access to the ** original ** recordings of the Jerky Boys. Occasionally over the years since I left, I’ve tried to tell a lot of people that Illinois politics sounds just like the early Jerky Boys tapes over the telephone.

    They’re not better people, they’re just more powerful. In many, many ways they’re much worse and more bloody-minded than the people they “serve.” The reason Chicago is such a “heavy” place when you’ve been there long enough to understand it is that you know that the very highest levels of government are run like something from Lord of the Flies crossed with the Jerky Boys. It’s terrible to have to live underneath the thumb of people who are essentially profane in their minds and in their spirit, but that’s Chicago for the most part, and Rod Blagojevich has just demonstrated how he’s run the Governorship the same way.

    None of them are worth the offices they hold. They’re not worth the people who voted for them. In one important sense in Illinois, the Anarchists are correct: their elected leaders are even more disgusting than they are.

  • cookcountyconservative

    His relation with Blago was ?distant?.

    His connection to Blago is Rezko!

  • mbecker908

    Alan Keyes?

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    Can’t be said enough… and when will we get someone on FOX to finally ASK THE F***** (to us BlahGo’s fave word) QUESTION!?!?!

    They are busy being “cautious” not to raise any Oblahblah inference… SO FAR!!! We must keep the phrase alive and on all the MSM about “What did Obama KNOW about THESE CROOKS and when did he know it?!?!”

  • Kenny Solomon

    Not one single iota of what’s alleged to have gone on surprises me…….. and that fact alone surprises me……. that I’m not shocked at all.

    This is most undoubtedly just scratching the surface. Wait a few weeks and watch the feathers a-flyin’.

    …..and it goes without needing to write this (but I will anyway), that whether he had any involvement at all or not, the media is going to protect “The Messiah” at all costs, including destroying their own brethren for even hinting or suggesting the possibility.

    Cheers !

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    … he’ll be looking to folks to take the fall and run interference for all his past connections that are inconvenient now (as we saw all election with Wright, Ayers, Rezco, and on and on)….

    Associations MATTER…. to bad peeps didn’t get that ahead of time!!!!

    “You have to know where you’ve been, if you want to know where you’re going.” Barack Obama nice how he admits/tells us his past associations matter. Hear Obama himself say it at: Caleb (absentee) Diary – Obama Video] and >Erick Erickson’s – LA Times withholding Obama with Rashid Khalidi, PLO, video

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    let it haggle out in the State’s House or Senate with NO SAY by the State Governor… let an Elected BODY of folks make the pick…. if they want to avoid the CO$T$….

    Every State should be looking to CHANGE THEIR LAWS/CONSTITITUTION (if needed) to never again have this as even a potential issue!

  • dld1717

    All these Democrat Illinois politicians and Illinois voters expressing disgust over this guy need to ask themselves why did they even vote to re-elect them?

    Topinka was not best candidate but she was better then him and yet they still rejected her.

    As for Ill GOP the party has no statewide candidates but Fmr Gov Thompson would be an excellent candidate although he is up there in age is still a very popular Republican.

  • Reede_Chesterton

    From MMN to FR to RS… and whatever stuff in-between those that I forget… it’s been a long ride… who’da thunk all this stuff gone over the damn.

    Merry Christmas to you and yours… I hope you are well my friend.

    HK

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  • redneck_hippie

    doubt whatsoever, that the big fish is Mayor Daley. The investigation into BigLieOvich is the forerunner to what would be a main event. If Daley could be brought down, it would be/Have been Fitzgerald’s crowning glory.

    There already have been four IL governors (I believe) convicted. So, yes, it is all about Daley.

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