I've always bookmarked from conservative blogs that I read rather than search for stuff like that on google. I've always been a little fearful of what search engines would say was news.
G-man, this is really pathetic of you. Obama has already said that he nor anyone on his team talked to the Gov.'s office about this. If that isn't good enough for you (and I don't see why it shouldn't be), Obama's lawyer said that his investigation has shown that Obama and his people haven't done anything wrong. I mean.... those are like facts, man.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
Yeah, this isn't my proudest moment, I admit. After all, when has a prominent and beloved black man's defense lawyer ever lied about his client's innocence?
CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state's senior senator, Dick Durbin.
But there was always one call Blagojevich regularly took, say his aides, and that was from Rahm Emanuel — his congressman, his one-time campaign adviser and, more recently — and troubling for Emanuel — one of his contacts with President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff.
The friendly rapport Blagojevich and Emanuel shared over the years has suddenly become a troubling liability for Emanuel and the new president he will serve as chief of staff.
Emanuel and Obama have remained silent about what, if anything, Emanuel knew of the governor's alleged efforts to peddle Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Emanuel did contact the governor's office about the appointment and left Blagojevich with the impression that he was pushing Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama friend, so he wouldn't have to compete with her in the White House for Obama's attention, said a person close to Blagojevich. The person was not authorized to talk about the governor's discussions regarding the vacancy and requested anonymity.
It was not clear whether Blagojevich inferred Emanuel's motive for advocating Jarrett, or whether Emanuel discussed the appointment with Blagojevich directly or with John Harris, the governor's then-chief of staff who also is charged in the case, according to the source.
Emanuel's refusal to discuss the matter publicly, and the few comments offered by Obama to date, have prompted questions about Emanuel's ties to Blagojevich and what fallout he'll face as the criminal case unfolds, although sources have said he is not a target of prosecutors. Even so, any hint of scandal for Emanuel threatens to tarnish Obama's promise of new political leadership free of scandal and corruption.
Obama has said he will release a full accounting of his transition staff's interaction with Blagojevich and his aides over his Senate replacement once he receives the OK from prosecutors sometime this week. Until then, Obama has said it would be inappropriate for him or his aides to comment further.
Prosecutors refer in the 76-page complaint to the governor's discussions on FBI tapes about a "president-elect advisor," believed to be Emanuel, but they do not specifically cite contacts with Emanuel or anyone on Obama's transition staff.
Instead, the taped conversations reveal Blagojevich telling others to float his idea by the president's adviser of forming a nonprofit that he hoped would, with Obama's help, receive millions of dollars that the governor could tap later.
Blagojevich said he didn't want the idea associated directly in conversations about the Senate appointment or filling Emanuel's seat in the House, according to the complaint. However, Blagojevich is quoted as saying "I want it to be in his head" for later discussions about Emanuel's successor.
It was Blagojevich who, seemingly out of nowhere, yanked Emanuel into his scandal when answering reporters' questions the day before his Dec. 9 arrest, invoking his name in an apparent attempt to shrug off any perception of wrongdoing.
He said he wasn't concerned about a report in the Chicago Tribune that confidant and former aide John Wyma's cooperation had helped lead federal prosecutors to tape the governor's conversations.
Big deal, Blagojevich said. He said he's "always lawful" whenever he speaks, and he was confident Wyma has been "an honest person who's conducted himself in an honest way. That's the John Wyma I know and it's the John Wyma that Rahm Emanuel knows and a lot of other people know."
Blagojevich is right. Wyma does have ties to both him and Emanuel, those close to both have said. And Wyma's clients contributed to both — more than $100,000 to Emanuel's campaigns and causes, and more than $445,000 to Blagojevich's, according to campaign finance records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Wyma and his attorney, Zachary Fardon, did not respond to interview requests.
Emanuel's defenders say he is hardly an ally of Blagojevich.
"They were in different worlds personally and politically," said Peter Giangreco, a political consultant on Blagojevich's 1996 congressional campaign and his two gubernatorial races. "They only dealt with each other because they occupied the same political geography."
Emanuel's effort to promote Jarrett or anyone else for Obama's vacant Senate seat was more a part of his new job description and less a reflection of close ties, Emanuel's supporters have said.
But there was more to their relationship than a polite acquaintance. The two share a political past, rooted on Chicago's North Side, and a friendly relationship — although not a close friendship — that made Emanuel the obvious choice to push Obama's preferences to fill his vacant Senate seat, current and former Blagojevich aides said.
They at times joined forces politically, like in 2005 to promote importing prescription drugs from Canada and in 2006 to push for an increase in the state's minimum wage. Blagojevich, his aides say, wasn't shy about seeking the help of Emanuel, referred to in a 2006 Tribune article as his "Washington-based mentor."
Blagojevich was a congressman before he was governor and he represented the Fifth District, a small but heavily populated district in Chicago's northern and western suburbs, not far from O'Hare International Airport. His rise to Congress has been well documented of late, including the help he received from powerful Chicago Alderman Dick Mell — his now-estranged father-in-law.
When Emanuel returned to politics in 2002 after some years spent in investment banking, he targeted Blagojevich's Fifth District seat as he launched his reformist campaign for governor.
Due to his personal wealth and his national fundraising base dating to his work in the Clinton administration, Emanuel didn't have to go to Mell or to powerful unions because he already had acquired political clout.
Nancy Kaszak, who ran for Congress against Blagojevich in 1996 when both were state representatives and had a nasty battle against Emanuel in 2002, said she believes Mell quietly backed Emanuel. On Election Day that year, she recalls, Mell's poll workers passed out literature for both Blagojevich and Emanuel. Mell declined to be interviewed for this story.
Emanuel has described himself as a one-time adviser to Blagojevich. David Wilhelm, one of Emanuel's close friends who worked with him in the Clinton White House, informally assisted on that campaign for Blagojevich.
Emanuel, who has declined to comment since Blagojevich's arrest, told The New Yorker magazine over the summer that he, Wilhelm and Obama met once a week during the 2002 race to plot campaign strategy for Blagojevich. Wilhelm has said Emanuel overstated the group's role.
Also, Emanuel, Blagojevich and Obama all have hired David Axelrod, the Chicago political consultant who helped engineer Obama's presidential victory. Axelrod helped Blagojevich in 1996 and Emanuel in 2002.
The coming days will offer the first answers about Emanuel's recent interaction with Blagojevich and discussions about filling Obama's Senate seat.
Obama already has insisted that his aides did no bartering with Blagojevich to advance candidates for the appointment. But refusing the deal is only the first step to fighting corruption in a political culture that promotes it when others look the other way, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said earlier when announcing the charges against Blagojevich.
"We're not going to end corruption in Illinois by arrests and indictments alone," the prosecutor said. "What's going to make the difference is when people who are approached to 'pay to play' first say no, and, second, report it."
Obama Report 'Clears Emanuel': Aides to the president-elect say report on staff contact with embattled Gov. Blagojevich will 'exonerate' the chief of staff
Well, case closed. Obama has issued a report that his staff did nothing wrong.
I get a kick out of every news story about this ends with, "It should be noted federal authorities have stated none of Obama's staff are suspects in this investigation".
I am oddly going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on this one. Should he have been more open about Emanuel talking with Blagojevich? Sure. But, I can also see why he would want to shy away from during the transition period. I do believe that it will all eventually come down on Blagojevich and his chief of staff.
As for Obama, I think his greatest fault in this and much of Illinois's "interesting" political ways and means is turning a blind eye.
And, that is about the best backhanded compliment I can give him in regard to all of this.
President-elect Barack Obama’s aides plan to release a report Tuesday absolving incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel of any impropriety in his contacts with the disgraced Illinois governor’s office, Democratic sources tell Politico.
The report has been delayed at the request of federal prosecutors but now will come out Tuesday, the sources say.
The complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose conversations had been secretly taped by federal investigators, tested the smoothly running Obama transition, with some Democrats fretting that the case presents a distraction that could last into the new administration.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, host of “This Week,” said during the roundtable on his program Sunday that the Obama legal team's review of contacts with Blagojevich found that Emanuel had only one phone conversation with the governor, and it was a “pro forma” conversation.
“I have been briefed on the review that Obama has done,” Stephanopoulos said. “The sources I talked to say that what it will show is there were actually far less contacts than we had heard — that Rahm Emanuel only had one phone call with Gov. Blagojevich. It wasn’t even really about the Senate seat.”
Stephanopoulos elaborated in a blog posting: “Most of the discussion concerned Emanuel's congressional seat (which had previously been held by Blagojevich), with only a ‘passing reference’ to the Senate vacancy, according to these sources. No deal for the Senate vacancy was discussed.
“[T]he report will show Emanuel also had four phone calls with Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris. During those conversations, the Senate seat was discussed. The pros and cons of various candidates were reviewed, and the sources say that Emanuel repeatedly reminded Harris that Blagojevich should focus on the message the pick would send about the governor and his administration. Sources also confirm that Emanuel made the case for picking Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett during at least one of the conversations. In the course of that conversation, Harris asked if in return for picking Jarrett, 'all we get is appreciation, right?' 'Right,' Emanuel responded.”
Stephanopoulos said on “This Week”: “According to these sources, absolutely no deals.”
ABC’s Cokie Roberts added: “It would be political malpractice if somebody from the Obama [camp] had not talked to the governor.”
President-elect Barack Obama’s aides plan to release a report Tuesday absolving incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel of any impropriety in his contacts with the disgraced Illinois governor’s office, Democratic sources tell Politico.
The report has been delayed at the request of federal prosecutors but now will come out Tuesday, the sources say.
So...'the most transparent President-elect in history' has released his report on contacts his staff had with Blagojevich at 5:00 p.m. on the day before Christmas Eve ...while he's in vacation in Hawaii, and won't take any questions on the matter.
Heh. When Burris shows up in Washington to be sworn in, he is likely to be met by armed guards at the Senate door:
Should Roland Burris show up for duty in the Senate on Tuesday, armed police officers stand ready to bar him from the floor.
This cinematic showdown is among an elaborate set of contingencies that Democratic leaders are planning if, as expected, the former Illinois attorney general appointed by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich shows up with newly elected senators to press his claim that he is the legitimate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama.
Democratic leaders hope to avert such a standoff. And Burris, in an interview Wednesday, said he hoped to claim the Senate seat without added drama.
"We're not going to create a scene in Washington," Burris said. "We hope it's negotiated out prior to my going to Washington."
Still, the Senate leaders' planning, detailed by a Democratic official briefed on their deliberations, even covers scenarios such as Blagojevich appearing in person to escort Burris.
Ironically, as a sitting governor, the scandal-plagued Blagojevich is allowed floor privileges. But Lucio Guerrero, Blagojevich's spokesman, said the governor had not decided whether to go to Washington with Burris.
With Democratic leaders vowing to bar anyone appointed by Blagojevich because of federal charges that he attempted to sell Obama's seat, leaders hope to stall Burris with paperwork. Senate rules require that an incoming senator's selection be certified by the secretary of state for his home state, and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has declined to sign a certification of Burris' appointment.
But Senate Democrats also have a follow-up plan: refusing to seat Burris until the Senate Rules Committee completes an investigation into whether the appointment process was tainted by corruption.
The plan is for the Senate investigation to extend longer than the Illinois Legislature's impeachment process underway against Blagojevich, leaving open the possibility that a new governor will make a rival Senate appointment that the Democratic leaders could seat.
What a great symbol of Democrat Party inclusiveness!
Well, well, well....it appears that Harry Reid might not be acting out of the purest of motives. Reports the New York Times:
Some highly placed Democrats have begun to question privately why Mr. Burris is being denied the seat if there are no problems with him personally. They said Democrats could dispose of the issue - and gain a reliable Democratic vote in the process - by acceding to the appointment if it met all legal requirements.
Mr. Blagojevich seemed on Friday to try to raise questions about the motives of Senate leaders' efforts to block Mr. Burris,disclosing for the first time that Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, had - before Mr. Blagojevich's arrest on Dec. 9 - called the governor to talk about whom he was considering appointing to fill Mr. Obama's seat.
Lucio Guerrero, a spokesman for Mr. Blagojevich, said that Mr. Reid called on Dec. 3 to discuss possible appointees, and expressed concerns that some being considered might not be able to win re-election when Mr. Obama's Senate term ended in two years. Mr. Burris was never mentioned in the conversation, Mr. Guerrero said.
"I think the governor thinks that it shows that Harry Reid may have a horse in this race, and it's not Roland Burris," Mr. Guerrero said.
An Illinois court will eventually decide if Governor Rod Blagojevich is guilty of corruption. But on at least one issue he is more law-abiding than Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats: the seating of Roland Burris to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. [Review & Outlook] AP
Roland Burris and Rod Blagojevich.
Mr. Blagojevich appointed Mr. Burris to represent Illinois on Tuesday, ahead of the official start of the 111th Congress next week. This was certainly an act of brash defiance given that nearly everyone had warned the Governor not to do so after he was heard on tape contemplating the sale of the seat for personal gain. But under Illinois law, Mr. Blagojevich had every legal right to do so.
As the Governor said in his announcement, the Illinois public also deserves its full measure of representation in Washington. Mr. Burris is a former state attorney general who is untainted by the charges against Mr. Blagojevich. After the Blagojevich tapes were made public, Democrats who run the state legislature said they'd pass a law to require a special election for the Senate. But their passion for that option ebbed when it became clear that a Republican could win, especially amid this Democratic fiasco. When the legislature failed to act, Mr. Blagojevich saw his opening to name Mr. Burris. The Opinion Journal Widget
Meanwhile, Mr. Reid and Washington Democrats are refusing to seat Mr. Burris, never mind their lack of authority to do so. As an initial matter, they're hiding behind the Illinois secretary of state, who is refusing to certify the appointment. But Mr. Burris has asked a court to order the secretary of state to carry out what under state law would typically be a nondiscretionary duty. In any event, Beltway Democrats can't inject themselves into what is clearly a matter of Illinois law.
The legal precedent here is the Supreme Court's 7-1 decision in Powell v. McCormack in 1969. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell had been accused of corruption but was nonetheless re-elected in 1966. House Democrats declined to seat him, Powell sued, and the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had acted unconstitutionally in denying him his seat. Congress could have expelled Powell with a two-thirds vote, as stipulated in the Constitution, but it couldn't deny him the seat in the first instance.
While the Constitution says the Senate can determine its own membership, the Court in Powell interpreted Article I, Section 5 to say that "in judging the qualifications of its members, Congress is limited to the standing qualifications prescribed in the Constitution." Nowhere in the Constitution is there a "qualification" saying that a Senator must not have been appointed by an embarrassing Illinois Governor.
Mr. Reid is also attempting the dodge of referring the matter to the Senate Rules Committee, which is run by Democrats, but the Powell precedent ought to be clear even to political lawyers. If Mr. Reid wants to banish Mr. Burris, he must first seat him and then persuade two-thirds of the Senate to expel him. Needless to say, the last thing Mr. Reid wants to do is create turmoil in his party by expelling an African-American Democrat whose only offense has been to accept an appointment to serve. But if Mr. Reid does go that route, we'd suggest worthier expulsion possibilities, such as Connecticut's Chris Dodd, who received sweetheart mortgages from Countrywide Financial while sitting on the Banking Committee.
Republicans want Illinois to hold a special election for the vacant seat, and we recommended that ourselves (as did Mr. Obama) when the Blagojevich tapes first became public. But now that Mr. Burris has been appointed, Mr. Reid can't legally deny him his seat. If this is the way Democrats are going to use their new monopoly on Beltway power even against a member of their own party, we're in for an ugly couple of years.
it's scary the way Obama and his far left cronies just want to throw the Constitution away.
Report: Reid Snubbed Jackson: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pressured Blagojevich not to appoint Rep. Jesse Jackson to Senate seat, report says:
The Nevada Democrat made one call to Blagojevich on Dec. 3 to discuss the seat vacated by the president-elect, Reid spokesman Jim Manley confirmed. Six days later, authorities arrested Blagojevich for allegedly trying to sell Obama's seat.
The Sun-Times reported Friday that during their discussion Reid pressured Blagojevich not to appoint Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones because he feared they'd lose to a GOP opponent in the next election.
Jackson and Davis are both Democratic congressmen from Illinois, and Jones is the Illinois Senate president and Obama's political godfather.
Instead, Reid pressed Blagojevich to appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the newspaper.
William Walls of the Committee for a Better Chicago called Reid's opposition to the appointment of Jackson, Davis or Jones, all of whom are black, an act of racism.
Reid is a Mormon. During Romney's Presidential run, I seem to recall some people, including members of this board, arguing that the Mormon church is institutionally racist against blacks.
Feinstein: Let Burris In. Key Democrat breaks with Senate colleagues to support Roland Burris in his bid to assume Obama's U.S. Senate seat.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee that soon could take up Burris' case, said Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has the right to appoint a senator despite the allegations of corruption against him.
"Does the governor have the power, under law, to make the appointment? And the answer is yes," Feinstein said, urging the Senate to settle the matter. "If you don't seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America. ... Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician."
The more I think about this, the more I think that Burris has the more legitimate claim to a Senate seat right now than Franken does.
Franken’s election result is in legal limbo for now, due to court challenges. But Burris has been appointed by his governor, the legitimate legal and constitutional authority on the matter.
Eventually the court challenges will be settled in MN though while Burris will always have gotten his seat from Blagojevich. But I think at this point the party has done everything it can reasonably do to try to stop Blagojevich from getting someone in and it's time to give it up.
HYPOCRISY AND RACISM OF DEMOCRATS, DOUBLE-STANDARD OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA IN NOT REPORTING IT by Patrick J. Buchanan 01/06/2009
About the appointment by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, somebody big is lying, big-time. It is either the governor or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Last week, Reid declared that he would not permit Burris, the African-American elder statesman of Illinois politics, to fill Obama's seat, or even to enter the Senate chamber, though no one had suggested Burris is other than an honorable and able public man.
Reid declared Burris "a tainted appointment," not because of any ethical defect of his, but because of the cloud over the governor who had appointed him.
Saturday, however, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, in a story sourced to the governor's office, that Reid personally phoned Blago on Dec. 3, six days before the scandal broke, to urge him not to name any of three high-profile candidates for the Obama seat.
On the Reid blacklist were, according to the source, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Rep. Danny Davis and State Senate President Emil Jones.
What do the three have in common? All are black.
Reid reportedly urged Blagojevich to pick either state Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth or Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
What do these women have in common? Neither is black.
As Prince Riley, a senior consultant to Burris, told Politico, "It's interesting that all those who are viable are white women and the ones who are unacceptable are black men."
It sure is, Prince -- if the story is true.
Confronted by David Gregory on "Meet the Press," Reid called Blago a liar and said he thinks Jackson would make a fine senator. Said Reid:
"This is part of Blagojevich's cloud. He's making all this up. I had a conversation with him. I don't remember what was in the conversation, other than the generalities that I just talked about. I didn't tell him who not to appoint. He's making all this up ..."
However, this brings us back to the contents of a conversation Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly had with Blago, also before U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald busted the governor for allegedly hawking Obama's seat to the highest bidder.
Valerie Jarrett, Barack's confidante, had by then withdrawn.
Rahm reportedly told Blago he should choose from one of three names: Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Rahm then reportedly called back to add Lisa Madigan.
All four are white. Conspicuously missing from Rahm's list were all four black candidates: Jackson, Davis, Jones and Burris.
Are Blago or his people all lying? The truth is on Fitzgerald's tapes.
As Gregory pressed Reid, whose re-election in 2010 in Nevada is no sure thing, the majority leader suggested his feet were not so set in concrete and he may be open to a deal with Burris:
"I'm an old trial lawyer. There's always room to negotiate."
The deal being talked about is that Reid may let Burris take the seat if he agrees not to run in 2010. For the fear Democrats have is that no black male in Illinois can for sure hold Barack's seat.
Now, if any such deal is what Reid has in mind, one hopes Burris will slap it away. He has as much right to be in the Senate as Harry Reid does. And for Burris to enter that body as a professed lame-duck would mean that not only would he be last in seniority, he will have neutered himself.
Reporters need to get to the bottom of this. Did Reid and Rahm convey to Blagojevich that Jackson, Davis, Jones and Burris were all unacceptable? Or is the governor's office putting out malicious lies against Rahm and Reid? Again, the truth is on the tapes. And the ball is in Blago's court, as Reid has all but openly called him a liar.
Incidentally, can one imagine the firestorm if Mitch McConnell, GOP leader, was reported to have called members of the Republican National Committee and told them all the candidates for party chair were acceptable, except for Ken Blackwell of Ohio and Michael Steele of Maryland, the two African-Americans?
McConnell would suffer the fate of Trent Lott, the GOP leader who in 2002 had to resign his post over a toast to 100-year-old Strom Thurmond. Lott observed that Strom had run for president on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948, that Mississippi had voted for him and that, had Strom been elected, we might not have all these problems.
Lott was maliciously accused of endorsing the segregationist stand Strom had run on, 54 years before, though Lott never voted for segregation, and Strom's voting record had been consistent for decades with that of other Southern conservatives.
Al Gore, whose father, Sen. Albert Gore Sr., stood beside Strom and voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, called Lott's remarks racist and urged his censure by the Senate.
Let us see if the media, and his colleagues, are as tough on Reid as they were on Lott.
Pat Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, "The Death of the West,", "The Great Betrayal," "A Republic, Not an Empire" and "Where the Right Went Wrong."
