31 Comments

1. Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » “Obama’s Effort on Ethics Bill Had Role in Governor’s Fall”:

[...] brings us to the real news from Chicago; still, I agree with Roger that As it happens, I also think it unlikely that Obama had anything to [...]

Dec 10, 2008 - 7:25 am 2. Dan Smith:

You will be able to carry out a large number of thought experiments in the coming months. For example, if violence erupts in Iraq during the upcoming drawdown of American troops, what would be the response of the MSM to President McCain vs President Obama? Or if the recession worsens? Or if there is a successful terrorist attack in the US at some point in the Obama administration?

Dec 10, 2008 - 8:23 am 3. Tina Trent:

Corruption doesn’t necessarily have to be illegal in politics. In fact, legal corruption — institutionalized, open corruption — is far more damaging to the system. Look at Michelle Obama’s “community outreach” job. That’s nothing but graft, paid by the taxpayers at a thousand dollars a day, money that is taken from and entrusted by the taxpayers to treat illnesses. More sophisticated than Blagojevich’s demands, certainly, but how is it different otherwise? The Mercy Hospital graft is just country cousin to the more sophisticated pay-to-play schemes that went into Obama’s pockets.

I’m not saying that Obama is worse than any other politician at his level, Republican or Democrat. Few actually resist the power that comes with purse-strings, campaign fund-raising, and political appointments. But the idea that he is above such behavior is risible, and the fools who cling to his image as someone with clean hands are fostering dangerous delusions. I’m amazed by the willful naivety of well-educated, middle-aged people who should certainly know better how these things work in politics. A twenty-one year old addled with idealism is one thing. A forty-year old is something else.

Dec 10, 2008 - 9:05 am 4. Jason Esposito:

I have no doubt that this same type of scandal would have been used to discredit a Republican as thoroughly as it could have been used to do so. If Illinois were a Republican state we would be hearing ad nauseum how we should be putting an end to political corruption endemic in state and local government in essentially one-party states. I lived in a city Western New York and the government is undoubtedly corrupt but beyond reform because there is no competition coming from Republicans for any city council seats or for mayor. Despite some intrepid local talk radio DJs no one addresses the problem that a one-party government presents to an ever-declining section of the country. No one even asks the question if the Democrats, who have been in politicl control since the New Deal, may in fact be to blame, at least somewhat, for the decline.

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:03 am 5. Instapundit » Blog Archive » KATIE GRANJU: Axelrod recants on Blagojevich; I don’t. “So I’m supposed to believe that Axelrod ‘m…:

[...] The real news from Chicago. “Sure, the name Rod Blagojevich came into the story, but each announcer in turn tripped over [...]

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:33 am 6. Mrs. Jackson:

I do think it’s rather delicious that world’s most intelligent woman, Mrs. Clinton has been duped again as well as had her professional ambitions stymied by smooth operator. She has signed onto Obama’s Administration and this scandal will be a cloud over Obama’s first months, if not years. John Edwards is laughing today….

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:48 am 7. Mike Miller:

The timing of the indictments is curious. It seems that more malfactors could have been revealed if the FBI had waited. Who was willing to pay what for the Senate seat? Union bosses, politicos, money men, I suspect all could have been caught on tape making their bids, if they haven’t already. Why was the investigation cut short? Did they have everyone they wanted or were they afraid someone they didn’t want might end up in the net? A fish too big to land, so to speak. Blagojevich was recorded saying that Obama wanted him to appoint a new senator without renumeration. “Their not willing to give me anything but appreciation. F&%# em” if I may use a spicy quote from the wiretap transcripts. This would seem to indicate two things 1)Obama was not willing to dirty his hands by making a sordid offer to Blagojevich and, more importantly 2)Obama knew that Blagojevich was placing a price on the Senate seat. It will be interesting what kind of deal the Governor is willing to make and which names he will name at his trial.
Perhaps an underappreciated player in all this is Mr. Harris, Blago’s chief of staff and co-conspirator. He may be the first to crack and make a deal with the feds. He can feed them Blago and everyone else in the network of corruption.

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:56 am 8. cthulhu:

The big news is that the media is journalistically and politically bankrupt, soon to be joined by financially?

I would say, rather, that the big news is that there are so many leaks in the boat that the hull of the entrenched interests and the bailing of spin may no longer keep it afloat.

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:58 am 9. Cold Fury » You did realize my “is he lying” question was purely sarcastic, right?:

[...] Roger Kimball tells it true: The real news was that BARACK OBAMA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. It is not my regular practice to [...]

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:26 am 10. cfbleachers:

NPR, are you listening,
In the press, facts are missing
To keep up the fight,
We battle the right,
Dying in our splinter wonderland.

Gone away is the true word,
Here to stay is our new word
We backed Viet Cong,
Then til now all along,
We killed the truth in splinter wonderland.

Kill a tree and then we build a strawman,
Then pretend that he is treated fair

He’ll say: Have you honor?
We’ll say: No man,
But we let our lack of ethics
Fill the air.

Later on, we’ll conspire,
And throw truth on the pyre
To face unabashed,
The truth that we’ve trashed,
Lying from our splinter wonderland.

Killed a tree, and we built a strawman,
Then slandered him so that he’s seen as a clown
We’ll have lots of fun with mister strawman,
Then hide the truth so we can knock him down.

Going broke, ain’t it thrilling,
Truth’s a joke that we’re killing
We’ll frolic and play, the journalist way,
Dying in our splinter wonderland.

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:33 am 11. Letalis Maximus, Esq.:

Tina Trent is dead right. Institutionalized corruption is built into the system. Quickie examples: Representative Murtha’s brother Kip lobbies for the defense industry. Former Senator Daschle’s wife, Linda Hall, was FAA director and now lobbies for the airlines/defense industry. One of Daschle’s sons, Nathan, is Executive Director of the Democrat Governors’ Association. Google Diane Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum, Alan Mollohan and the West Virginia non-profits to whom he steered millions in earmarks, Trent Lott and his brother-in-law Dickie Scruggs, Pelosi and the minimum wage in American Samoa in the context of the big investments Pelosi’s husband has made in the Heinz company which happens to own Del Monte which happens to own Starkist.

It just goes no and on and on and on and nobody much gives shit. Which is why it goes on and on and on.

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:38 am 12. Chicago Corrupt? NO! Short roundup. « DaTechguy’s Blog:

[...] Glenn stresses Roger Kimball take on what the primary media message is. BARACK OBAMA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH [...]

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:44 am 13. Solane71:

C’mon, read what Obama said carefully (”I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening,”) and remember that these guys don’t work directly, but through intermediaries.

He decided, mid-sentence, that he couldn’t say “we were not aware” and changed it to “I was not aware.” There might be proof that one of his people was aware, but it is harder to prove what Obama himself knew.

But then again, it probably depends on the meaning of what “is” is, or something.

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:45 am 14. Mike G:

It seems likely to me that Obama in fact distanced himself from an impending Blagojevich implosion by pulling Valerie Jarrett out of consideration. Good for him, but it’s important to remember that Obama played a direct role in bringing the state of Illinois hands down its most appalling and incompetent somebody’s-relative public officials at the moment, over manifestly better qualified candidates: Blagojevich over Paul Vallas for governor, and Todd Stroger over Forrest Claypool for Cook County Board President. Obama’s fingerprints may not be on Blagojevich’s crimes but they’re on the tragic train wreck that has been six years of Blagojevich’s “administration” of the state. Now that he’s beyond needing Mayor Daley’s help for anything, maybe Mr. Hope and Change would like to do something to support good government for Illinois a little over the cronyism and backscratching he’s been part of in his rise to the White House?

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:51 am 15. Brian Hancock:

Hod Rod was just a guy in his state.

Dec 10, 2008 - 11:56 am 16. Daily Pundit » Good Qustion:

[...] Roger’s Rules » The real news from Chicago: a thought experiment Corruption doesn’t necessarily have to be illegal in politics. In fact, legal corruption — institutionalized, open corruption — is far more damaging to the system. Look at Michelle Obama’s “community outreach” job. That’s nothing but graft, paid by the taxpayers at a thousand dollars a day, money that is taken from and entrusted by the taxpayers to treat illnesses. More sophisticated than Blagojevich’s demands, certainly, but how is it different otherwise? [...]

Dec 10, 2008 - 12:02 pm 17. Chas C-Q:

Cut and paste: “… Fix that scenario in your mind’s eye and then ask yourself how the legacy media would react. Would NPR instantly fall over itself to assure everyone that MCCAIN was in NO WAY connected with the scandal? Would The New York Times offer similar assurances and even go so far as to suggest that an ethics bill MCCAIN supported helped bring about the governor’s downfall? …”

Also: JAKE Tapper.

Dec 10, 2008 - 12:13 pm 18. Mwalimu Daudi:

The notion that Obama could rise so fast through the sewer called Chicago machine politics, have so many psycho friends such as William Ayers and Rev. Wright, run the sleazy political deals with Tony Rezko, maintain his connections to a voting fraud organization like ACORN, and yet somehow remain as pure as the driven snow defies belief. It is almost a kind of political virgin birth.

Dec 10, 2008 - 12:36 pm 19. jmod46:

A Modest Proposal

If people are truly sick and tired of corruption in politics, why don’t we require the following?

Require that all office holders at the state and federal level complete an ethics questionnaire annually. Disclosure of possible ethical or fraudulent activities required under penalty of perjury. Said documents confidential and collected by the state’s attorney generals or by the DOJ. Make it non-political. I’m sure there would be a work-around needed for self-incrimination, etc.

Make this simply a requirement of employment, much like drug-testing for transportation workers.

I’m sure this would work. At least we could nab the really egregious crooks. On the other hand, it might select (in an evolutionary sense) for really, really smart crooks.

Dec 10, 2008 - 12:44 pm 20. Joel Rosenberg:

It is, to use the tired term, the narrative. The narrative about Obama is that he managed a meteoric rise through the cesspool of Chicago politics without getting any on him; he doesn’t smell like Chicago, but like a new car.

Hence the Axelrod retraction, and the headline at HuffPo — “Whatever Happened, Obama Not At Fault” (Okay, I’m making that up, but … )

Expect a lot of that, and a lot of cause for it. Obama came up through the Chicago machine, and it’s not credible that — just to pick the obvious example — when he and Emanuel and Wilhelm had earned enough merit badges and hit points to plan strategy for Blago’s gubernatorial campaign, all three of them hadn’t gotten close enough to see how things are done there.

Dec 10, 2008 - 12:58 pm 21. Letalis Maximus, Esq.:

Mike Miller:

The timing is curious. A cynical old cuss might be forgiving for suspecting that Fitz didn’t in fact want too big a fish to land in his net. The timing/date of Blago’s statement about all Obama only being willing to give “appreciation” might go a long ways toward answering that question.

If that statement was only very recently recorded, a really cynical old cuss might be forgiving for concluding that as soon as Fitz got that statement, a statement that gives Obama iron-clad protection, he knew it was time to go public and save everybody a whole lot of big problems.

Fitz, being no strapling fool, knows better than most that you don’t fight the battle you can’t win. Taking on Obama in a criminal investigation? What kind of an idiot would try that? After all, it worked so well when the GOP tried it with Clinton.

Dec 10, 2008 - 3:44 pm 22. mac:

Bama’s just another lying black pol, except dirtier because he’s a Chi pol. He knows crooked from every angle there is. The lying bastards in the media knew this jerk was a crook from day one and they didn’t give a damn. They very happily carried his water and flatly refused to investigate him, or even tell the known truth. The lot of the MSM is a bunch of Obama whores and that is unarguable fact.

The question for them is whether they’ll survive it. They got Bama in office but at the rate he’s going, he’ll be lucky to last a term. Judging from what has been made public about their financial woes, however, the MSM is looking like they’ll be gone before Bama is. One thing is absolutely, unequivocally certain: there are lots of Americans who wouldn’t trust the MSM to tell them the truth about which direction the sun will rise tomorrow morning, much less the truth about anything less sure. They’re voting with their wallets and the MSM is going down to crashing defeat.

Screw the MSM. The sooner those lying bastards are broke and shut down, the better. Go PJ Media–you’ll soon have an open field!

Dec 10, 2008 - 4:14 pm 23. Cris:

In a surprise move late today, Governor Blagojovich issued an executive order requiring all convicted murderers whose sentences were commuted by convicted felon and former Governor Ryan returned to death row.

Dec 10, 2008 - 4:54 pm 24. Charles:

Here is Gov (commerce secretary elect)Bill Richardson
saying in Spanish that Obama is an “immigrant.” (So he understands
understands “immigrant” issues.)The context suggests that by
“immigrant” bill richardson means “illegal immigrant”

Of course Obama has nothing to do with this. And surely it must be an unfair characterization. After all Obama has only spent $800,000 to avoid releasing a $10 birth certificate.

On Monday there were over 500 articles from around the world in google that mentioned that the supreme court had rejected the Donofrio petition. On Tuesday there were another 200 articles. On wednesday another 100 articles clocked in. On Monday as well Wrotnowski v. Obama was referred by Judge Scalia for conference for this friday Dec 12. It was the same case as Donofrio’s only better crafted. On Friday the judges will decide whether to take up the case. There needs to be four judges. Two have already suggested that they would be interested in taking up the case. Scalia and Thomas.

imho this is why the liberal media is falling over themselves saying that obama is not involved in the illinois governors problems. They know that Obama is already damaged goods.

Dec 10, 2008 - 9:19 pm 25. marymcl:

@10 That’s really well done – the only thing missing is Mitch Miller

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:40 pm 26. tanstaafl:

Look at Michelle Obama’s “community outreach” job. That’s nothing but graft, paid by the taxpayers at a thousand dollars a day, money that is taken from and entrusted by the taxpayers to treat illnesses. More sophisticated than Blagojevich’s demands, certainly, but how is it different otherwise?

The culture is rife with subtle graft masquerading as charity and do gooderism.

Insidious graft in all its forms is more offensive than the arrogant Blagojevich doing what Illinois pols. are (especially) infamous for doing.

(Obama’s denial of contact with the Governor on the topic of Senate succession and David Alexrod’s “misspoke” disclaimer both feel disingenuous, to put it mildly)

Dec 11, 2008 - 7:29 am 27. Marginalized Action Dinosaur » Rod Blagojevich Governor of Illinois indicted for corruption MSM’s unable to determine his democratic party.:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/12/10/the-real-news-from-chicago-a-thought-experiment/2/ [...]

Dec 11, 2008 - 8:01 am 28. Hazy Dave:

Roger,

I think you want to replace the name “Obama” with the name “McCain” twice in this section of the above paragraph. (Gotta keep the characters properly designated in this little experiment.)

“Would NPR instantly fall over itself to assure everyone that Obama was in NO WAY connected with the scandal? Would The New York Times offer similar assurances and even go so far as to suggest that an ethics bill Obama supported helped bring about the governor’s downfall?”

And isn’t it funny how nobody makes fun of Obama when he says “you betcha”! He must say it with more insight, nuance and gravitas than Sarah Palin ever could.

Dec 11, 2008 - 9:14 am 29. Augie March:

Roger:

You wrote: “Threatening a newspaper? Dumber.” Actually, threatening Sam Zell is borderline insane. Anyone who thinks they can tell Sam who to hire or fire has lost all touch with reality. Seriously, ask anyone who has ever worked for him.

Love the columns, btw. Will continue to visit.

Dec 11, 2008 - 1:29 pm 30. robert:

But what about the past? If Gov. Blagojevich finds selling a Senate seat unremarkable, doesn’t that imply it’s the norm–and that Sen. Obama’s seat was also bought? It makes the Govenor’s verbal fury understandable–at the ungrateful Obama.

Dec 11, 2008 - 11:58 pm 31. stuart Williamson:

I’m really tired of pundits prefacing their statements with the likes of: Mr. Obama has a brilliant mind, is is a great political strategist – when all the evidence is to the contrary. Would a great strategist permitted himself to be blind-sided by the Rev. Wright revelations? Would he repeatedly insist that Bill Ayers was just a neighbor he bumped into occasionaly? Would he attempt to put a lid on any reference to his role in the Annenberg Challenge project? All things which were on public record and bound to come to light.

A good strategist knows that any connections with a rogue political figure are going to investigated and is ready with a plausible response when the inevitable happens. A good strategist or smart politician would have said, “Naturally, I have an interest in who might succeed me as Senator in Congress, and the Governor would reasonably be expected ask for my opinions in the matter. Bt I can assure you that on no occasion have I discussed the matter on a basis of quid pro quo or any form of compensation”. Knee jerk statements on the order of “I had no knowledge….” are pitifully weak.

Blago and Obama are the creatures, the appointees, of the Chicago machine, and have marinated in its foul brew of blatant corruption every day of their political lives. Nobody could be more aware of how it operates than they. Yet this brilliant intellectual stalls and stammers every time a critical, but totally foreseeable,event arises. It is so obvious that Obama has to check in with the boss before he commits to ANYTHING.

Maybe somebody can tell me why the conservative media waited until after the election to find dig up the dirt on the Great Puppet.

Dec 13, 2008 - 12:35 am

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