Like some of you, I had the following reactions reading the transcripts of Illinois’s Governor Blagojevich
1) Here in the 21st-century are we back to the 1860s of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, or the cesspool Chicago of Mayor Big Bill Thompson in the 1920s? All our moral claims about cleaning up government, all our postmodern sophisticated ethics, our vaunted notions of ‘transparency’ are reduced to a two-bit thug in the governorship of a large state like Illinois? For all our high-tech gadgetry, or our angst about situational morality, or self-help pop therapy, we revert to a foul-mouthed, profanity-spouting wretch, trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat the way a corrupt 4th-century AD emperor auctioned off proconsulships in the twilight of the Empire?
2) There are two types of felonious actors caught on tape: the first is the ambivalent Hamlet-type crook who frets about the honesty of it all, and confesses out loud that to take a bribe or offer one would be wrong, but in extremis one is forced to… Or couches his corruption in coded terms, or is remotely aware he has sold his immortal soul for money or power.
And then there is the Mafioso braggadocio of pure, unadulterated crudity: four-letter words, pomposity, no inhibition about admitting lust for money, gratuitous slurs about everything and everybody, constant threats, an entire family to dine at the table of greed. Blagojevich is something out of Dante’s Eighth Circle of Hell, a modern-day Malacoda in the 5th bolgia. One must resort either to Al Capone’s Chicago or the villains of classical literature to match these transcripts.
3) I was puzzled by Obama’s almost immediate denials that he had been in any way in contact with the Governor’s office. Why? Because for the last month it was simply understood, both by his own admission and by David Axelrod’s interviews, that his own preference for his Senate replacement was probably made known to the Governor. And fittingly so. Of course, there would be nothing wrong about Obama simply saying, “I am surprised as the next person, since I have discussed my replacement as would be natural with a governor of my own party responsible for the appointment, and I never detected anything out of the ordinary on his part.” Why instead the unbelievable denial of any communications that in turn earns the more unbelievable “misspoke” on the part of Axelrod? All that brings us back to the now familiar territory of “only a neighborhood acquaintance” and “not the (fill in the blanks) I once knew” and “I was only (fill in the appropriate adolescent age) when I was supposed to have (fill in the blanks)”. The problem with Obama is that any one “pal” (to use that now taboo word) from the past in and of itself is no problem. But each one thrown under the bus—a Rev. Wright, a Tony Rezko, a Bill Ayers, a Father Pfleger, a Governor Blagojevich, a Rashid Khalidi, et al—serve to expand the possibilities that any one of them might come clean (or come dirty) and give us a very different picture at just the time Obama needs unity to govern the country. E.g. A Rev. Wright memoir will come out with perhaps different memories of Obama’s attendance; a Tony Rezko plea bargain might reinterpret the Obama land deal; a creepy and conniving Blagojevich might have evidence of conversations that supposedly never occurred; and so on. The problem is twofold: Obama’s Chicago past was considered embedded within race and off-limits and thus never thoroughly investigated by a fawning media who did us all a disservice; and, two, the American public is not fully aware just how corrupt Illinois politics are, and thus how Obama is probably unusual by not being much more thoroughly tainted. (cf. The Blagojevich’s apparent anger that Team Obama is quite lawfully dictating a choice without ponying up any cash). I wish Obama well in governing us in times of peril, but I also wish he would just stop the stuttering in ex tempore settings, and come clean the first time.
4) On Monday the air waves were full of the Dan Rathers and Chris Matthewses lamenting the Constitution’s unfortunate rules of succession—why could not President-elect Obama save us even earlier by assuming office right now in December? Or why could not Bush resign now and allow our salvation to commence a month earlier?
Then suddenly on Tuesday morning, all such talk disappeared and instead the news was—“Of course, President-elect Obama did not… could not… would not…(fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the appropriate verb: know, communicate, hear, etc.) At least the Governor did us a favor by ending talk about amending the Constitution. (As a footnote: One wonders if Obama is less than successful, and, say, a Sarah Palin is elected in 2012, would a Chris Matthews ponder allowing her to assume office early in December? And, of course, it was never suggested of the once impeached, but not convicted yet ostracized Clinton in 2000 that he should step aside earlier than January 20. He did not, and should not have—and thereby on January 19 (or was it the very early morning of the 20th?) pardoned fugitive felon Marc Rich, who, via his ex-wife, had amply funded the Clinton library, furniture fund, Hillary’s exploratory campaign fund, the Democratic Party, etc. to the tune in aggregate of $1 million.
5) We don’t need this cloud over our next President. Everyone from financial speculators and Iranian mullahs to Big Three exec and Russian oligarchs are watching our POTUS for any crack in the up-to-now remarkable calm façade. I think Obama did nothing at all out of the ordinary, so he should frankly admit he talked with members of the Governor’s staff the last few years, and then say that one in politics regrettably gets exposed to such people—and quit the implausible denials and get on with the transition.
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92 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » Blagatrocious:[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:21 am 2. BillJ:Victor–You disappoint me. How can you rightfully carry on about the cesspool of Chicago politics and then in Tho’t 5 give Obama a whitewash (no pun). Anyone serving his apprenticeship in this atmosphere and apparently thriving in it can’t possibly be above it all. Count me as among those who will be weighing every move Obama makes in the next four years against this background.
Dec 11, 2008 - 4:01 am 3. Let the “fleecing” begin! « Mark Epstein:[...] Here’s the bottom line as noted at Works and Days: “All our moral claims about cleaning up government, all our postmodern sophisticated ethics, our vaun…“ [...]
Dec 11, 2008 - 4:24 am 4. Georgia:I too am puzzled by Obama’s reaction. It is clear someone, either Obama himself or a spokesman for Obama, had spoken with the Governor, otherwise how would he have known Obama wasn’t going to offer him anything in return for naming a particular individual to the post? And it’s obvious by the gov’s expletive-laced reference to Obama that he knew this. Yesterday, Sean Hannity referenced a Chicago newspaper article dated in November, post-election, that Obama and Gov. Blagojavich were meeting that afternoon to discuss the opening. Surely the meeting should be easy to confirm if it actually took place. I guess now we’ll be treated to the claim that Obama “mis-spoke” when he said he had never had any discussions about the seat with the governor. What he “meant” no doubt is that he had never had any pay-for-play discussions with the governor. No doubt. Of course! (The MSM can take a deep breath of relief now!)
Dec 11, 2008 - 4:57 am 5. JohnR223:Perhaps Andrew Sullivan can start resorting to the “I mis-spoke” claim anytime he’s called out on his less-than-truthful assertions. Aah, “I mis-spoke!” Now in my early 50’s, I wonder how that would have gone over with my parents when I claimed, at age 9, that someone else broke the vase in the living room and later had to admit I was the guilty culprit. Ah yes, I “mis-spoke.”
The rubes voted for Hope and Change (TM) and got Chicago thug politics for the whole nation. Thanks folks! Truly we live in perilous times. I feel like I have woken up this morning in the 6th bolgia.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:00 am 6. formwiz:As usual, extremely perspicacious. I love the reference to Boss Tweed. It says something about the state of the media that we have a surfeit of Chrissy Matthewses, but where is our Thomas Nast?
As for Andrew Sullivan, keep in mind that Dubya’s rejection of same sex marriage was an across-the-board deal breaker for him. Anything and everything (and everyone who might support it) even mildly related was now out of bounds.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:04 am 7. Seawolf15:I of course agree with Dr. Hanson whole heartedly.
Notes on Movies and Books.
First some mention of my fides may be in order as I am a real live “drug crazed “Vietnam Vet and Rambo was considered a mild, ill mannered bore in my circles. We were MUCH more thorough ! LOL!
I believe this may have some influence on my likes and dislikes as much of my personality was forged in the heart of war. LOL!
Now then, I agree that Kilmer can be brilliant in many roles. I have yet to see a portrayal of Doc Holliday as chilling as his work in Tombstone. Probably Russell’s finest acting effort as well. Not that he is a great actor, but he is a worthwhile journeyman.
I have not seen Heat but I shall.
I agree with your comments on Denzel Washington and Man on Fire. VERY good work and film. Close to reality and ”what must be done”, sadly!
I wonder if Mr. WASHINGTON knows this or he was acting! But, I digress!
Earnest Borgnine. What a superb and wonderful individual. I caught him, I am afraid I don’t see much in the way of television, on an interview the other day and was amazed. The man MUST be his 90-‘s and STILL has more horsepower and mind than most I have met and had the misfortune to work with in their mid 20s!
His body of work over the years is most impressive and his work in The Wild Bunch was beautiful. His last word was “Fight” what could be more fitting for all of us.
Fight!
Finally, may I humbly recommend a book by a minor author, Mr. David Drake. It his probably his best work, but that is a matter of your background. The title is “Redliners” and it is a story of redemption that all vets seek.
To support my point I refer to the book Band of Brothers. One of the characters comments to his granddaughter long after the WWII is over when she asks him why he can’t sleep at night. His answer is MOST telling.
When I go to sleep at night there are a LOT of ghosts that jump in bed with me.
Redliners is Drakes attempt to offer an explanation of how we come to return to the real world and restart our lives.
Words are WHOLLY inadequate, and a quite linear way to express oneself but, in the end, they are all we have, to describe what one goes through but if your a vet you’ll get it, if your not you won’t. Words can explain it.
Adios for now my friends.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:12 am 8. Jeff:Watch Mayor Daley. Notice he has said nothing. He is the puppet master, the rest, including Obama, are puppets.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:51 am 9. misanthropicus:Time and again, I’m shocked, shocked!
What can one say when seeing media’s attempts to dilute Obama’s looming shadow over this affair, and his twenty years-plus active presence in the Chicago Democrat Party’s malversations.
Obama careeer isn’t a iota different of Blago-s – the sole thing that keeps them (still) apart is that the Obama hasn’t been caught yet (or he was, but for overarching reasons, allowed to fly further).
I don’t want to vaste time writing about Chicago career similarities between Obama and Blagojevich – it would be like describing matches from the same box.
However, I’ll bring here a detail of the affair which should have for long attracted media’s attention, detail which is still vigurously ignored by Rather, Matthews & Perps:
In Blago’s indictment there is a point which is prudently referred to (by the objective media, of course – LA Times) as: “There was also frank talk of how to land Blagojevich’s wife a well-paying position on a private, corporate board.”
Isn’t Michelle’s historical salary blast from (was that $120.000 to $260.000? in one day), after Obama became a US senator, a perfect illustration of the rotten swill in which the Obama-s (and now the Blago-s) have seasoned their connections, character and morals for further applying them, edifying character and morals, in the White House?
And how to rate the brains of those who still declare Michelle Obama’s career (this woman who defeated so much adversity in her life, and who accomplished so much!) inspirational?
I can’t say that the Obama-s are corruption trail-blazers – but sure they are remarkable mile-stomes which other knaves like Blago and others to come admiringly follow.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:59 am 10. misanthropicus:PS to #9:
Monday Tony Rezko will have his day in Court – he’ll certainly add some more rotten ingredients in the swill that powers Blago and Obama.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:21 am 11. Ian Thorpe:I like that remark about Obama maintaining a calm facade – it was intentional irony wasn’t it, I mean anyone with eyes in their head would recognise the unchangingly blank expression of a dimwit.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:25 am 12. AnninCA:If Omama is so out of his depth already that all he can do is is make increasingly desperate denials and look gormless what will he be like a few months into his presidency when the Chinese, Russians, Arabs anf global corporations are shafting him?
I’m not in the circle of paid writers, of course. I’m just a reader. But once Sullivan pushed that absurd story about “Who REALLY is Trig’s mom,” he was relegated to being a crackpot to me.
I never bother to read him now.
What’s interesting is that he’s even a topic of discussion. Why?
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:31 am 13. mk:Obama’s chest deep in this. How do I know? He’s a politician from Chicago. There’s only one way you become a politician from Chicago and that’s playing the politics game there.
People can whitewash his connections all they want. But there is no way he could have gotten as far as he did as quickly as he did in the cesspool of Chicago without playing the game.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:06 am 14. k. pablo:Why on earth does anyone still read Andrew Sullivan?
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:09 am 15. Van:“For all our high-tech gadgetry, or our angst about situational morality, or self-help pop therapy, we revert to a foul-mouthed, profanity-spouting wretch, trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat the way a corrupt 4th-century AD emperor auctioned off proconsulships in the twilight of the Empire?”
Way, way back before the wizdumb of the modern age taught us that change! is more important than knowing what shouldn’t change, Plutarch noted in A DISCOURSE TO AN UNLEARNED PRINCE:
“For, as it is necessary at first that the rule itself should be right and straight, before those things that are applied to it can be rectified and made like unto it; so a potentate ought in the first place to learn how to govern his own passions and to endue his mind with a tincture of princely virtues, and afterwards to make his subjects conformable to his example. For it is not the property of one that is ready to fall himself to hinder another from tripping, nor of one that is rude and illiterate to instruct the ignorant; neither can a person govern that is under no government.”
The Founders generation was weaned on that type of Education, it seems that Blagojevich might have learned something a tad different from our ‘educators’. What is more shocking, is that anyone still feigns shock that someone of Blagojevich’s stature would do such a shocking thing.
Easier to do than honestly look at the ‘root causes’, I suppose.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:16 am 16. cfbleachers:Watching this latest parlor game, with buffet table filled with the moveable feast of characters from Chicago politics, for a semi-insider from the City of Big Shudders…it is sometimes more interesting to watch the spectators than the players on the field.
Folks around the nation do not have the same concept of “clout” and certainly are not to be faulted for their “tourists eye view” of the proceedings here.
Some of the comments, articles and “logical deductions” made stem from well reasoned minds trying to piece together a foreign landscape, using frames of reference that make sense at home, but the laws of reason simply don’t work the same way here.
Favors given, favors owed…family ties and ties to the “family”, “I know a guy who knows a guy”…folks, if you want a seat in the bleachers, sit down and let’s buy a program. This is the top of the first inning.
Do a little digging.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi081210senatecandidates_wgfx,0,7246189.htmlpage
If you take a gander at the folks who were on the field for this game, you will find a number of familiar names crop up, all you have to do is connect the dots.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:37 am 17. mike sullivan:I would like to object to the term “Sullivanism”
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:41 am 18. Robert Winkler Burke:Deep, hidden, mysterious lies have consequences,
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:00 am 19. BMoon:So does truth,
Behold the revealing of lies’ consequences: Horse,
Hide and hoof.
I have lived in Mexico City for 20 years, which relates to various points in the Hanson treatise this morning. One is how more and more simular Chicago seems to “The Big Taco.” I have naively assumed that no corruption in the U.S, no matter how barbaric (of course I do not drink the pervasive, idiotic Hollywood fantasies about moronic CIA-Republican-Christian-Neonazi conspiracy theories,) could approach the level of depravity and cynicism in politics as you see here. No reflection necessarily on the Mexican population of immigrants in Chicago, as it goes far beyond that, but the U.S is defintely becoming Third World. Is this what all the multi-culturalists and purveyors of relativist ideas in academia intended? Anyway, I am currently reassessing all my previous asssumptions.
Also, I thought about how glibly now we heave sighs of relief that Obama wasn’t implicated, while, as Dr. Hanson illuminates, it is still clear he is lying. Are we all so contaminated that we are now relieved he is only lying instead of selling (or buying) is old Senate seat? My parents would whip me silly for one little lie. What has happened to us?
Third, Man On Fire is one of my top ten faves of all time. It has a great redemption theme, but it also brutally and truthfully displays the truth we all live here daily –on police corruption as well as the monstrous malevolence of the kidnapping crime “industry.” I remember clearly when we saw it in the Mexican theater, and while the audience clearly sympathized with the first half of the film, they balked and grew clearly uneasy at the politically incorrect image of an American (and a black – the dirty secret here is that they are FAR more racist than we have been for 100 years) avenger dealing with their own police corruption. It was quite ironic to hear the police department here hilariously howling in protest about the film.
Then again, is that where we are heading? Our tolerance levels are definitely shifting in the wrong direction.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:11 am 20. TexEd:Looking at the process by which Blago was going to select Obama’s replacement is fine! But, how about looking at the process by which Obama was selected to be on the ballot for his Senate election.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:20 am 21. misanthropicus:Did Ayers, the unions, the mob put up the pay for Obama to play? Does Obama have outstanding obligations today as a result of that transaction?
“Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. caught up in Illinois governor investigation; his father defends him” – ABC NEWS/By ADAM GOLDMAN Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO December 11, 2008 (AP)
“Four days before the election, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich claimed someone came to him with a deal about filling Barack Obama’s soon-to-be open U.S. Senate seat. [...]
Wire-tapped conversations indicated that Blagojevich felt that Rep. Jackson could raise campaign money for him in exchange for being appointed to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
“We were approached `pay to play,’” Blagojevich said as FBI agents listened intently. The candidate would raise $500,000 for Blagojevich, and an emissary would raise an additional $1 million, according to the conversation.
The exchange contributed to charges against Blagojevich in which he is accused of putting his office up for sale, while raising questions about the identity of the candidate.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was the candidate, prompting him to hold an emotional news conference proclaiming his innocence. Jackson, the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said prosecutors have told him he is not the target of the bombshell investigation, nor is he accused of any wrongdoing.
“I did not initiate nor authorize anyone, at any time, to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf,” he said, without taking questions. “I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer or to propose a deal about the U.S. Senate seat.”
Jackson said he openly sought appointment to Obama’s seat but denied offering favors in return to Blagojevich. His lawyer, James D. Montgomery Sr., acknowledged the Illinois Democrat is “Senate Candidate 5″ in the 76-page federal complaint filed against the governor, who was arrested Tuesday.
U.S. attorney’s spokesman Randall Samborn would not confirm or deny Jackson’s assertions. [...]‘
Sure more to come -
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:22 am 22. uburoisc:I cannot seem to get too excited about the shenanigans in Chicago (though I am excited to watch rotten men fall apart on national television); nothing Blagojevich said struck me as out of character for a Illinois machine politician. The difference is we now get to sit in on exactly what is said at the table when the dealing occurred. When Fitzgerald breathlessly said that Lincoln would roll over in his grave at hearing such brazen acts of corruption, I rolled my eyes. Lincoln probably saw much worse in his lifetime. Kennedy obviously doesn’t have a very good grasp of the past, and I think Lincoln, like most worldly men, knew the close links between self-advancement and politics. If asked about the character of Blagojevich, Lincoln probably would have echoed Thaddeus Stevens comments made on the character of Simon Cameron: “I do not believe he would steal a red hot stove.”
Nobody with connections in power gives away a senate seat; you pay for it one way or another; it is just a matter of recognizing that the arrangement has to be made with subtlety, and after a long meeting with lawyers and political fixers. Politics is the art of reciprocity.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:26 am 23. David Thomson:Barack Obama’s presidential campaign unhesitatingly engaged in rampant “Chicago politics.” Have we already forgotten the obvious disabling of the software programmed to detect illegal contributions? There is already a very good chance that Obama should be going to prison instead moving into the White House. Sadly, a lot of legitimate questions were pushed to the sidelines due to the foolish and obsessive questions concerning his place of birth.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:40 am 24. Douglas Bogle:Never fear Obama is here.
I saw nothing, I know nothing. Is that right Col. Hogan?
And the American public still does not get it.
At least in the third world corruption is in your face, everyone knows how the game is played. That is why there is unbelievable wealth and suffocating poverty. Here everyone(in the past) has felt our leaders were honest. This new administration will make the nastiest third world leaders jealous.
Welcome to the newest member of the third world.
And the new king is ” O ”
Never fear Obama is here.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:49 am 25. misanthropicus:Michelle Obama as a role model for Blago – Obama’s dealings w/ Blago for the senate seat…
“Hospital officials say Obama’s wife deserved big raise” – USA Today, September 27, 2006
“Officials at the University of Chicago Hospitals say a promotion and large pay increase given to Sen. Barack Obama’s wife shortly after the Democrat was elected to Congress were well-deserved boosts for an executive who is “worth her weight in gold.”
“She’s terrific,” added Michael Riordan, who was president of the hospital in March 2005, when Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs and had her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962.
Hospitals spokesman John Easton told the Tribune that Michelle Obama’s salary is in line with those of the 16 other vice presidents at the not-for-profit medical center.
Riordan told the Tribune that the promotion and salary increase had nothing to do with Obama’s husband becoming a U.S. senator. “She was hired before Barack was Barack,” Riordan said.
——————— * ———————-
Distractions, coincidences, rumors, innuendo, racism, right-wing conspiracies, etc. – of course.
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:16 am 26. Peter the Sub Guy:And sure a huge amout of corruption and an equally huge amout of mental fuzziness amongst today’s open-minded, tolerant, non-judgmental, all-inclusive US citizenry – and this in not little extent owed to the remarkably successful process of national sillinisation occurring in the schools across the country.
Interesting how things dovetail – Mary Grabar’s piece on indoctrination (stupidification) of students in colleges, then the interview with Theodore Dalrymple, and the Blago/Obama affair which is already beginning to be covered by non-judgemental fog.
Anyone else feel like Obama may make history as the first President to be impeached BEFORE he is even sworn in?
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:48 am 27. chipvw:Prof. Hanson: Thanks, as always, for your insights. Re Man on Fire: I remember the original (with Scott Glenn and a more upbeat ending)as quite a good film. Don’t know how available it is now.
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:59 am 28. MattB:Thanks Victor, great piece!
It is times like these, that as a conservative, I’m extremely proud! The structure of the conservative movement has been based largely on anti-entitlement-ism. Whereas, to traditional America’s dismay(at least half) the entitlement mentality is a leading, positive tenet-and rallying cry for the Left(legends in their own minds)
Two America’s for sure.
Dec 11, 2008 - 10:20 am 29. zanne:Peter the Sub Guy:
Anyone else feel like Obama may make history as the first President to be impeached BEFORE he is even sworn in?
Would not bother me.
Dec 11, 2008 - 11:48 am 30. Banjo:I stopped reading Sullivan a long, long tine ago. Next I’ll stop reading anyone who quotes from his blog for whatever purpose. You have been warned,
Dec 11, 2008 - 12:08 pm 31. kevin c:can anyone in this room imagine a scum like BLAGO keeping his mouth shut when hes faced with 15-25 yrs in the GRAYBAR MOTEL. I can imagine BLAGO reacting like JESSE THE JACKASS JR did yesterday when confronted about the million dollar bribe offer to COMRADE BLAGO. REMEMBER WHO SAID HED LIKE TO CUT OFF OBAMAS FAMILY JEWELS ONCE? I WONDER NOW WHAT HED LIKE TO DO. SUCH TRAGEDY-THE REAL QUESTION I HAVE TO ASK-HOW DID THE LIKES OF A ROD BLAGOWITCH EVER GET NOT ONLY ELECTED, BUT RE-ELECTED? AND BY THE WAY FOLKS-DOT KID OURSELVES-THE OBAMICOMMIE IS HIP DEEP IN THIS BS. WATCH VALERIE JARRETT- HOW MANY OF US REMEMBER HER DADDY VERNON AND HIS SHOODY RELATIONSHIP WITH BUBBA DURING THE LEWINSKY MESS? AND HIS SHODDY MANAGEMENT OF THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE? THE CIRCLE OF CRAP GETS TIGHTER AROUND THE OBAMI COMMIE. HEY RAHM EMANUEL-I SUGGEST YOUR “CLIENT ” OBAMICOMMIE NEEDS A KORAN FLUSHING TOILET, THERES A LOT OF CRAPOLA THAT NEEDS TO BE FLUSHED. INCLUDING YOU RAHM.
Dec 11, 2008 - 12:17 pm 32. Rachel Peepers:If I were a Chicago Democrat who knew the Feds were onto the Hot Rod, and who knew it would become hot in the kitchen considering provable links with corruption covered people like Tony, Rezko, and I were the President Elect, my first order of business would be to name Eric Holder my Attorney General designate. For Holder has a history of being the most corruption friendly attorney to ever sully a federal building.
Dec 11, 2008 - 12:19 pm 33. Douglas Bogle:Never fear Obama is here.
Don’t kid yourself, if blago snitches on anyone, like “O”, Rahm, etc. daley will feed him and his family to the fishes. Chicago’s man is in the power position of a life time.
Unions are giddy, daley smug and proud to get him there, Ayers waiting to bomb some more, and get pardoned, Rezko = pardon and there is more.
Blago will take one for the team. there is not any witness protection program to protect you from the unions. All law enforcement institutions are Union.
never fear Obama is here.
Dec 11, 2008 - 12:53 pm 34. AnninCA:Blago take one for the team?
You kidding?
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:03 pm 35. Войска ПВО:zanne writes:
“..Would not bother me.”
Me neither, zanne. But one wonders if this nascent presidency — steadily steeping in the filthy cesspool broth of one revelation after another — will stand up to the American public’s approval? Or, put another way, when will we all collectively tire of the mantra that he be given a chance.
Protocol dictates that timers don’t start their watches until the starting gun is fired, but it is apparent that Chimpy the Kenyan (thank you, TexEd) is rolling off the blocks and may be DQ’ed, Allah willing.
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:10 pm 36. Sullihan:Please don’t go all Elliot Ness on us. I think you are a bit hard on William Hale Thompson, the last GOP Mayor of Chicago (1915-23, 1927-31). And the crime of Gov. Blagojevich is being overheard in expressing in rather vulgar language what almost every politician would think if they were in a similar position: “What’s in it for me?’ And while he had a 13 per cent approval rating and was under federal investigation anyway.
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:11 pm 37. Sullihan:And impeach Obama? And make Biden President? Oh, and impeach Biden, too? And make Pelosi President? Anyone for Robert C. Byrd? (After him its Hillary).
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:19 pm 38. zanne:Войска ПВО writes:
Protocol dictates that timers don’t start their watches until the starting gun is fired, but it is apparent that Chimpy the Kenyan (thank you, TexEd) is rolling off the blocks and may be DQ’ed, Allah willing… But, didn’t it start with the “President Elect” offical seal and all the press conferences?
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:35 pm 39. Ron Kean:Wasn’t Victor bolgia a piano player who cracked jokes and wore a tux?
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:39 pm 40. Princess:God help us…
I am so sick of this already, crap.
You dumb libbies and brainless others, why did you vote for a criminal?
Dec 11, 2008 - 1:55 pm 41. Jim Baker:This is an unmitigated disaster for our entire country. The media is circling the wagons. Blago has something on Obama or there wouldn’t be this Democrat talking point ( Blago is delusional ) that they all seem to be using to describe the Illinois Gov. They are trying to discredit him before he gets a chance to say anything. Obama is in this deal right up to his skinny neck.
Dec 11, 2008 - 2:02 pm 42. misanthropicus:RE #36/Sullihan: “[...] Please don’t go all Elliot Ness on us.[\...] And the crime of Gov. Blagojevich is being overheard in expressing in rather vulgar language what almost every politician would think if they were in a similar position: “What’s in it for me?’ And while he had a 13 per cent approval rating and was under federal investigation anyway. [...]”
Sullihan is another devastating illustration of the liberals’ superb success in imbecilising America.
Dec 11, 2008 - 2:22 pm 43. Jackstothemax:Blagojevich should definitely resign, because that is what would be the best thing that he can do for the people of Illinois since he obviously has not served them in the right capacity for the past couple of years. I found a piece on this news website called Newsy.com that gave some interesting facts on this developing story. The link is http://www.newsy.com/.
I think we should not jump to conclusions that Obama and his staff had connections with the criminal dealings that Blag perpetrated. We should come together as an American people and believe in our president-elect, a president that WE elected, not one that was appointed through shady dealings. We should have the confidence in our country that we elected someone who demonstrates the honesty, integrity, and loyalty that is asked for in an esteemed position such as the presidency. If Blag didn’t deliver, it does not automatically mean that Obama can’t.
Dec 11, 2008 - 2:44 pm 44. Войска ПВО:zanne queries:
“But, didn’t it start with the “President Elect” offical seal and all the press conferences?”
Possibly. But, arguably, perhaps with his “triumph-of-form-over-substance-we-are-the-world-vaporware Euro” tour back in April, nicht wahr? Also, remember the insipid pre-election possum seal?
Dec 11, 2008 - 3:03 pm 45. seven:Here is how I see it. This issue has heated up a lot in 24 hours. there are more untruths exposed by Obama on his own claims. Obama is hoping for eternity his casual brush offs will work. The FBI has dirt on him but excluded that from this charge.
As soon as it gets too hot, Obama will attack Bush even if that means criminal charges or Cheney and create a distraction scandel to keep this from the headlines.
Dec 11, 2008 - 3:11 pm 46. Hotpatch 6:I see this administration in scandle after scandle and totally dysfunctional.
I just hope that no one really believes that Barak Obama is the only virgin in the whorehouse of Chicago politics.
Dec 11, 2008 - 3:32 pm 47. emfp99:Froggy gah uh Bu-Font….
Gubenor Rod Blaggo
Lookin like white shadow
Fillin his pockets with big muny
Like a fat kat knockin down rhymes
Hittin the big time… Big time…
Till he got FED UP… oh, oh!
Froggy gah uh BU-Font… Bu font…
Headin fo the slammah… Slammah…
Froggy gah uh Bu-font… BU Font…
Soon he be in re-hab… Re-hab..
Wire tapped taukin trash
Slingin F-bombs like old school white trash Now he’s lookin at hard time… Hard time…
Move ova PLAX and OJ… Gub Frog face down wif da Po Po!
Froggy gah uh BU-Font… Bu font…
Headin fo the slammah… Slammah…
Froggy gah uh Bu-font… BU Font…
Dec 11, 2008 - 3:49 pm 48. Obama and Reality — The New Clarion:Soon he be in re-hab… Re-hab..
[...] VDH observes, I was puzzled by Obama’s almost immediate denials that he had been in any way in contact with the Governor’s office. Why? Because for the last month it was simply understood, both by his own admission and by David Axelrod’s interviews, that his own preference for his Senate replacement was probably made known to the Governor. And fittingly so. Of course, there would be nothing wrong about Obama simply saying, “I am surprised as the next person, since I have discussed my replacement as would be natural with a governor of my own party responsible for the appointment, and I never detected anything out of the ordinary on his part.” Why instead the unbelievable denial of any communications that in turn earns the more unbelievable “misspoke” on the part of Axelrod? …I wish Obama well in governing us in times of peril, but I also wish he would just stop the stuttering in ex tempore settings, and come clean the first time. [...]
Dec 11, 2008 - 4:04 pm 49. How Deep Is the Sea:If anyone has read David Freddoso’s book, the facts are very clear for the world to see regarding Obama’s Chicago Machine ties and the benefits Obama and his wife received, politically and financially. Obama clearly participated in “pay to play” while in Illinois. A few are completely proven yet unreported.
1. Blackwell’s money to Obama’s law practice to do NOTHING. Six figures worth when Obama had no business at his firm. Blackwell got millions for state sponsorship of his ping pong tournaments, much of which went into Blackwell’s pocket.
2. Michelle’s raise – Everyone knows that story – 1m earmark from Obama to Michelle’s employer in exchange for raise to roughly triple Michelle’s low 100’s salary, with no extra job duties of note.
3. Michelle’s Board membership in Treehouse – no explanation needed here – no quals, free money and stock, done as basis for political horsetrading.
4. The Rezko house deal – needs no outlining here*** other than to mention that Patty Blago was the real estate agent, something the MSM has yet to report, nor that Michelle is mentioned by Blago in the taps as an example of what his wife should be able to get (board memberships for nothing)
*** The timeline of the Rezko house deal are worth noting, though. It is the most damning act of corruption on Obama’s part, showing the effects of his associations on his judgment.
Patti Blago worked extremely closely with Rezko for eight years–2001-2008. In fact, some reports call them “partners” though she in fact owned her own real estate business, River Realty, out of her home. The Rezko deals netted her in the $700,000 range. After Rezko went to jail, Patti’s business dried up. One of the properties that Rezko handled was the Obama property.
In April 2005, a man by the name of Auchi, an Iraqi who had become rich from Saddam and then moved to Britain, wanted to come to the US, but he couldn’t get a visa. Auchi asked his good friend Rezko to see what he could do. Rezko hinted that he had connections with a US Senator and would look into it.
Later in April 2005, Auchi gave Rezko a loan for 3.5 million. June 15, 2005, the Obamas bought their home for 1.65 million which was coupled with an adjacent piece of land that Mrs. Rezko bought. The two together were in the neighborhood of 2.2 million.
It seems quite possible that Patti B was the agent who handled this deal as Rezko and her were “partners,” Rezko worked for her husband, and so did Obama (and Emmanuel) for a time.
This should be the focus of the media, actually delving into Obama’s dealings with the Chicago Machine.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:17 pm 50. Donna V.:Ayers waiting to bomb some more, and get pardoned
Nah. Ayers looks back fondly on his ‘plody-dope days, but what he probably waits for now is for Bernadette to remind him to take his antacid pills and blood pressure meds before he goes to bed.
He doesn’t have to physically set bombs anymore. That’s taxing work for a man in his 60’s and Billy was hardly robust even in his salad days. Ayers is subverting young minds – much safer (for him) and far more effective in the long run.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:29 pm 51. NCBob:Anyone who wants to see Blago behind bars should remember Jim McDougal.
Dec 11, 2008 - 5:43 pm 52. Ann:Jacktothemax….”we should come together as the American people….(because) WE elected him…..”
Leave me out of that thought. I did NOT elect him.
The only coming together of the American people that I’m interested in is the one where those who still have some grip on reality and some modicum of common sense begin speaking louder, and louder, and LOUDER….and stay energized to salvage what’s left of this country when the echoes of the financial bail-out collapses and the political carnage that is just beginning have died down.
There are 58 million of us. That should be enough to get it done.
Obama is not only corrupt. He’s a stupid, stupid man. He LOOKS like he’s lying all the time. Time will tell–if he’s lying 75% of the time or just 70%.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:07 pm 53. 49erDweet:Putting all this together, I’m waiting for the world premiere of the new movie taken from a book by Victor Davis Hanson with screenplay by Mark Steyn, titled “Hope and Change”, starring Denzel Wahsington in the role of BHO and Clint Eastwood in the role of GWB. Said premiere to be held in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and covered in part by the movie critiques from the Monterey Herald.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:41 pm 54. 49erDweet:OK, so add a preview feature for crying out loud.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:43 pm 55. ~Paules:Reading excerpts from the transcript caused my mind to pop with sudden recognition. I know Blagojevich, not personally, but I know the personality type. I’m not trained in clinical diagnosis, but I think I can offer a layman’s insight based on experience.
My former boss could be a Blagojevich doppleganger. The personality type is one part con artist with a flip side that erupts in private as a raging narcissist and complete misanthrope. Unlike most people this personality type also lacks for any sort of moral conscience. So malignant is the combination that dredging up the memory of my former boss is even now giving me the creeps.
I can only offer anecdotal evidence based on experience. The personality type is Janus-like. A carefully contrived public face conveys empathy and trust. My former boss was a terrific salesman: calm, controlled and measured when dealing with clients. But a second after the deal was sealed and the phone was dropped, he would fly into a purple rage over some detail that didn’t go his way. Most people I know show more or less the same face in public or private. Not so this personality type. The public face is but a facade disguising the lunatic behind the scenes. In pedestrian terms, yes, such people are simply “insane.” Blagojevich is a madman. Simply put and probably accurate. Should we excuse his moral failings because his brain suffers from faulty wiring? I shoot coyotes on my property without rancor towards nature for designing canine pests. The analogy strikes me about right.
I don’t know yet what this scandal means to the president-elect. I truly hope it means nothing. I want the administration of President Obama to be a success even though I voted against him. Yet even as my eyes dim with age and my hearing wanes, my brain radar is becoming ever more acute. The song in my mind resonates with the constant ping, ping, ping of a danger signal. I’ll take my place in the 15th rank with the other old men. But I’m still up for this fight. By God, I will fight! By God, I will fight for a republic, or damn me to hell.
Dec 11, 2008 - 6:54 pm 56. rachel:Obama is dirty and up to his neck in Chicago politics…because that is how Chicago politics works. You think he got where he got without getting the filth all over him? Please.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:21 pm 57. JMH:And impeach Obama? And make Biden President? Oh, and impeach Biden, too? And make Pelosi President? Anyone for Robert C. Byrd? (After him its Hillary).
I’m no big fan of Hillary’s, but when you put it that way, Hello Madam Preseident…
But in all seriousness, this is horrible for the country. We have enough problems and Obama is short enough on competence to handle them as it is. This development makes it even more likely his will be a failed presidency, and failed rather early, which won’t be good for anyone. Being able to say “I told you so, you idiot” to an Obama voter won’t make me feel a whole lot better if the country is in a depression and New York or LA get’s nuked by a jihadi cell.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:40 pm 58. Rachel Peepers:Rahm will be resigning in less than a week. The ball of corruption yarn is still in its first inning of unraveling.
Dec 11, 2008 - 7:53 pm 59. Rob:We are in for some rough times, but they would have been much worse without our victory in Iraq. Thank a soldier. We will probably survive this flim-flam man Presidency.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:35 pm 60. TLM:The shine came off Obama a long time ago. Maybe his more fervent supporters will now see that, and realize he’s a garden variety politician, not the Redeemer they hoped/voted for. Note, his transition team has been working to lower expectations of his first term. Hopefully, this will help in that regard.
But, I suppose that would depend on how the media plays any really damaging revelations about the Messiah, should they occur. Remember how much they have invested in a mythic Obama presidency. They burnished the Golden Calf. Hard to believe they would participate in it’s slaughter.
This latest chapter in the long history of Chicago gubernatorial shenanigans makes Troopergate look like the harmless family feud it always was.
Unfortunately, whatever revelations come from the Blago scandal — short of obvious corruption on Obama’s part — it does us little good to hamstring the guy politically before he takes office. That would only further empower Pelosi/Reid et al, and they’re far more worrisome to me at this juncture than our erstwhile community organizer and ACORN compatriot. I could do without Rahm Emanuel in the White House, though, so hopefully he’ll be the one to fall on his sword for Obama’s sake.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:49 pm 61. Lord Moonbatten:My goodness. The oceans may have stopped rising, but something else certainly seems to be piling up in a hurry.
Dec 11, 2008 - 8:54 pm 62. Obama and Corruption « Truth, Lies and In Between:[...] Blagatrocious [...]
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:04 pm 63. The Write Side of My Brain » Curiouser and Curiouser:[...] Victor Davis Hansen, Pajamas Media On Monday the air waves were full of the Dan Rathers and Chris Matthewses lamenting the [...]
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:10 pm 64. BMoon:Paules,
Dec 11, 2008 - 9:24 pm 65. ET:God bless you sir. you are a light in the enroaching darkness.
The desperation, of the news media and the citizenry alike, to look the other way in matters of fraud when they are connected to *Democrats* is quite possibly the most annoying thing about this – looking the other way during Obama’s ascent in the campaign from anything and everything he touched or was touched by him, and now the media’s impotent analysis of “Delusional” regarding Mr. Blogojavich, and the instant acceptance from the “Office of the President-Elect” (has the man never heard the word “Pompous”???) that Mr. Obama never knew, no how, no way, no nothing, and then the dismissive wave of the hands indicating that the discussion is closed – and the news guys all turn to leave, as their boss has given them permission.
What happened to all that “Speaking truth to power” jazz? Everyone thought of Helen Thomas as some sort of fiery inquisitor, but do we see the same treatment when a Democrat is sitting in the same seat?
Dec 11, 2008 - 10:27 pm 66. Ann:The hypocrisy never slows down, and is always exponentially on the rise. At least, as the professor has reminded us, the news media is finished, having traded in its “Independent” credentials for the glory of delivering Barack Obama to the White House – they got what they wanted, but as a result, they have nothing left.
Rachel (58)….I hope you’re right. An early and severe implosion with long lasting crippling effects on this “administration” is our best hope.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to be ANY of them this week!….wondering which perp is singing to which federal official to save their own hide. What a bunch of rats.
Dec 12, 2008 - 12:01 am 67. Dubrovnov:Some have wondered why Fitzgerald acted at this time. The explanation given that Blagojevich was embarking on a “crime spree’ is not very convincing. Most likely, there was concern that someone really important, like Jesse Jackson Jr., or Obama, or some agent of either one of them, might actually get caught on tape making an offer to Blagojevich for the senate seat.
Dec 12, 2008 - 12:43 am 68. Politics as organized crime — Cranach: The Blog of Veith:[...] Victor Davis Hanson has some good words on the governor who got wiretapped trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder: Here in the 21st-century are we back to the 1860s of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, or the cesspool Chicago of Mayor Big Bill Thompson in the 1920s? All our moral claims about cleaning up government, all our postmodern sophisticated ethics, our vaunted notions of ‘transparency’ are reduced to a two-bit thug in the governorship of a large state like Illinois? For all our high-tech gadgetry, or our angst about situational morality, or self-help pop therapy, we revert to a foul-mouthed, profanity-spouting wretch, trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat the way a corrupt 4th-century AD emperor auctioned off proconsulships in the twilight of the Empire? . . . . [...]
Dec 12, 2008 - 5:34 am 69. Jim:1. Rahm will resign,
Dec 12, 2008 - 7:21 am 70. Rachel Peepers:2. Obama will be tainted is his real estate deal with Rezko and Blago’s wife,
3. The MSM will ignore it all,
4. and Obama will cause a huge distraction early in his tenure.
Number 67 is the jackpot winner.
Dubro, either you have inside information or you’re more prescient than any main stream media person would ever dare to be.
You hit the old bullseye.
Dec 12, 2008 - 7:47 am 71. Magic:I am still confused. Why does anyone (with a brain) care about Andy Sullivan? He has more than proven over the last year or so to be deep deep into dementia.
Dec 12, 2008 - 10:59 am 72. Kiseta50:His arguments are at best weak and unsupported (always). His logic almost non-existant. He can’t or won’t supply any support for any of his foolish statements mainly because he can’t. He has become a bambling baffoon and at best laughable and an embarrassment.
I have read the Serbien paper Blic,, and they have been asking questions from people from Blagos fathers home town, the believe is that he was set up, that he is a good man, but the bad Americans set him up. It had a picture of the Blagojevic family, when Milorad was 8 or 10 years old. He was playing the tamburica, with his brother( who is a bank owner), . I guess he can practice playing it when he gets a few years in the slammer.
Dec 12, 2008 - 3:00 pm 73. Watching from below:Obama’s whole career has been one of “the fix is in”. This is the first campaign he has actually had to win; the rest of them, his team succeeded in disqualifying his opposition when it was too late to replace them with competent help. I wonder if McCain saw the way the press turned on him when he won the primaries, realized that he would be in for the same Bush Media Bashing, and decided he didn’t need the grief. He certainly left a lot on the table in the campaign.
Dec 12, 2008 - 3:12 pm 74. kevin c:Remember Hogan’s Heros? I KNOW NOTHING!!
For a guy who is supposed to be all that smart, Obama sure seems to know nothing about what is going on around him.
Did you hear about the plea bargain they offered Blago? Shave your head, or go to jail.
GOT NEWS FOR YOU ALL- THE OWNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HAS BEEN SUBPOENAED BY FITZ TO TESTIFY. IT SEEMS THAT BLAGO AND THE BOYS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRYING TO HOLD UP TRIB OWNER SAM ZELL OVER THE SALE OF THE CHICAGO CUBS AND WRIGLEY FIELD. ANY BETS THAT MAYOR DALEY OR THE OBAMSCUMMIE MIGHT BE INVOLVED. SEEMS TO ME THAT MAYBE THE DEMWITS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL ZELL TO BRIBE THE LOCAL POLS OR ELSE WE WILL HOLD UP THE SALE OF YOUR CLUB AND THE STADIUM. LETS WAIT AND SEE ON THIS ONE.
Dec 12, 2008 - 3:16 pm 75. Calypso:Blagojevich criminal complaint (pdf)
http://www.latimes.com / news / nationworld / nation / wire / sns-il-gov-pdf,1,2098730…
The criminal complaint is in pdf, large print, double-spaced, easy to read. It contains only enough information needed to arrest the Gov. and Harris. What else will be revealed?
As I read the complaint what was astonishing to me is the ease in which Blago and cohorts spoke about what the President Elect could and would do to help them.
Quite obviously they were all connected, knew what could be expected even though there could not be an overt direct connection at that time.
They KNEW the President Elect would be available to cooperate with their wishes as soon as O. found a way to put some distance between himself and the deed.
After reading the complaint I don’t think Blago and friends had a clue they might be taped.
It is well worth reading to learn from participants themselves how we citizens have been duped by politicians and their elitist friends.
The electoral college meets Dec. 15. Obama has already been untruthful about meeting with Blago. Obama supported Blago politically. In the complaint Rezko is deeply involved with Blago in demanding bribes from contractors before they receive state funding. How can O. be close to Rezko and not be involved?
For some unknown reason the Ill. State Legislature has refused to reveal Obama’s voting records. Is O. connected to some of the Ill. political corruption?
Seems Jessie Jackson, Jr. is candidate 5 who offered to raise funds for Blago in return for the senate seat. Jackson is an Obama Deputy Campaign Manager.
There are too many unanswered questions regarding Obama for the electoral college to vote at this time, the vote should be postponed.
Dec 12, 2008 - 7:17 pm 76. JL:Fact 1 – A politician needs money to run a campaign.
Fact 2 – Anybody giving money to a politician expects something in return.
Fact 3 – The larger the sums of money given to the politician the bigger the expected favors.
Fact 4 – The more money the politician has, the more likely he is to win election.
These facts are universal and unchangeable like gravity. No amount of idealism will change them.
Conclusion 1 – The more scrupulous the politician is in promising favors, the more money he will receive.
Conclusion 2 – The system is setup in a way that the more scrupulous the politician is, the more likely he is to win election.
Conclusion 3 – Stop wining, or start working to change the rules by which the politicians compete against each other.
Opinion 1 – Politicians should be in debt to voters and voters alone.
Opinion 2 – The obvious yet not perfect solution:
1) Make it illegal to receive donations from any one organization or individual bigger than a certain size above which the donor will likely want to receive more than normal gratitude in return.
2) have the political entities receive money from the governmental entities based on the number of votes received in the last election. Thus making the politician owing “favors” to his voters like it ought to be.
If these solutions does not fit into a particular set of political views, then I suggest that the people abiding to those views will stop complaining about corruption and accept and live with the unwanted results of their ideology.
Dec 13, 2008 - 7:38 am 77. fmfnavydoc:Obama is a product of Chicago politics – this is probably the start of numerous “scandals” involving members of his “inner circle” or himself. The media and his followers, who espoused “hope and change” are going to see it firsthand – Chicago-style politics played out on the national stage. “Pay for play” will replace “quid pro quo” on the 24 hour news outlets…congratulations MSM and libs/progressives, your messiah is as dirty as the rest of the pols in DC.
Barack Hussein Obama – first “thug” president
Dec 13, 2008 - 11:04 am 78. Boss Mongo:Heat: While the acting was good (yada yada)…
Dec 13, 2008 - 11:05 am 79. Chris:-The Armored Car takedown was one of the best Direct Action scenes captured on film.
-The bank robbery gone bad is the best “break contact” drills ever filmed.
Man on Fire: Try the original with Glen Scott; less pyrotechnic, more tense.
ANY pol coming out of Chicago is dirty. You can not come up in that system without being touched by graft.
Question. What party wouldn’t be corrupt if they had total power for 60 years – as in Daley’s Chicago?
Dec 13, 2008 - 12:52 pm 80. Gilligan:Michael Barone gives one of the best analyses of Blagojevich. He’s not crazy. He’s stupid. And he got his job thanks to his father in law who is a wheel in Chicago politics. In Chicago politics, Governor of Illinois is considered a minor job appropriate for an idiot son in law.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/12/11/rod-blagojevich-the-stupidest-governor-in-the-country-puts-obama-in-a-bad-light.html
Dec 13, 2008 - 2:58 pm 81. Butch Baker:I love reading all the hand wringing from the right wing who gave us the most ignorant, dangerous, embarassment of a presedent in history, TWICE. Y’all can’t wait to fire up the wild speculations of dishonesty and deciet on the part of those who have finally toppled your horrible excuse for a government. Eight years we have had of republican led money wasting, debt compiling, greedy deregulating, ruiners of all they hold dear. Enough of the bathroom sex having, drug addicted, immoral, liars, dunces, and stooges in power repeating “talking points”. Now look at you pussies cry. When real conservatives can free themselves from ignorance and fear, we will all be better off.
Dec 13, 2008 - 3:20 pm 82. Ben Florsheim:Baby boss Richard Daley of Chicago PUBLICLY said this:
“He has to figure out what’s best for him and his family and the state of Illinois,” Daley said. “He will have to do the right thing.”
See Chicago Tribune http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/12/daley-wont-say.html
Is it paranoid to see this carefully worded, ambiguous statement as a threat?
Dec 13, 2008 - 8:22 pm 83. kabud:A question on the Constitution:
what if Obama will have to GO , well away , anyway, just go before the resignation?
What if Blago and Rezko and others will sing a lot of songs to the Fitz and what if Fitz already has THINGS on Obama directly?
Possible? Of course!!
SO, what will happen?
Baiden?
Bush?
McCain?
New elections?
Dec 13, 2008 - 9:30 pm 84. kabud:70. Rachel Peepers:
Number 67 is the jackpot winner.
Dubro-> is a winner!
But little black man jesse will go down anyway
just saw that piggi on tv: where they catch that kind of fish i wonder?
I used to think that clintons are the worst scum earth can bare without crackin
God knows i was wrong : there is no limit for stink.
obama hired one of them and now this
Why Fitz did not wait for an deal ?
May be was afraid for his own life? clintons are in the game: he should be afraid
Dec 13, 2008 - 11:40 pm 85. Rachel Peepers:Than was then.
Remember during the Democratic primaries when Barack said he’d get all American troops out of Iraq within 16 months after elected? Where did that figure, 16 months, come from? Was Obama so smart he figures things out to the second?
This is now.
“Oh, did I say 16 months and the troops would leave? I meant combat troops. Some combat troops.”
The that was then, this is now game can be played over and over. That is Barack’s style.
With the Blago scandal, though, it doesn’t take Barack months to tweak his protestations, giving people time to forget what was actually said.
Now, he plays his verbal games, but makes the changes within hours.
“Neither I nor members of my staff had contacts with, Blago, the new third rail of Democratic politics,” contradicting Axelrod, who emphatically said they had.
What your President Elect Obama really means when he says “Had” is within the last five days. He defines had as “very recent contact”.
Almost simultaneously, Axelrod says Axelrod misspoke about the contact with Blago, the discussion about who to replace Barack as senator.
My point being, Barack is playing with words. They’re really bold faced lies, but his media slaves conveniently ignore them. Barack thinks he can continue to skate on thin ice. But the ice is getting thinner and thinner. And, unlike Chicago temperatures, the political kitchens are heating up.
Luckily for Barack, the Dems started leaking the story of Pat Fitzgerald’s wiretaps and we’re ready to give it all to the papers. Which effectively neutered the wiretaps, hence the investigation was compromised.
Did anyone understand what Fitzgerald meant when he said the Feds decided to arrest Blago now before this gets out of hand? I didn’t.
The Dems ruined the investigation. If they hadn’t acted,
Pat would have gotten all kinds of Barack people on tape talking about illegal, dirty deals.
You may ask: “Why didn’t Fitz scream to the papers about the Dems ruining the investigation?”
Because, obviously, Barack offered to keep him on after Jan. 20 and told Pat that he and his selected people would have a prominent place in the Obama administration.
This, my friends, is the way government works.
Fitzgerald’s rationalization: Catching Barack red handed was probably impossible, and catching his people on tape could be delt with case by case. If Rahm has to resign, he would have.
The big rationalization, of course, was that getting Barack caught up directly in the scandal would do too much damage to the country.
Politics. It’s a dirty business, but, I guess, somebody has to do it.
Dec 14, 2008 - 12:58 am 86. ~Paules:@Butch Baker
“I love reading (about) the ignorant, dangerous, embarassment of a presedent in history (sic).”
*You are illiterate and know very little about history. The Johnson and Carter administrations were abject failures in both domestic and foreign policy. President Bush at least has a war victory to his credit.
“Y’all can’t wait to fire up the wild speculations . . .”
*Chicago is a political cesspool. Perhaps our president-elect negotiated the maze without taint, but it’s fair to ask how he did so.
“Eight years of republican . . . ruiners . . . repeating talking points.”
*Right. It will be better now that a compliant press is reduced to repeating Democratic talking points. We can ignore role of Congress in the mortgage meltdown.
“Now look at you pussies cry.”
*Vulgar language and gloating are always the mark of an educated and informed mind.
“When real conservatives can free themselves from ingnorance and fear . . .”
*And then the condescension. Because VDH lacks for erudition and the rest of us must be ignorant hillbillies clutching our Bibles and guns.
Go away, boy. This thread is for adults.
Dec 14, 2008 - 8:10 am 87. Ron Kean:Butch Baker
You are ill informed. Congress and the presidency acted together. There’s no Rezko blowing the whistle on Bush. Bush has no illegality connected to him. Nothing illegal. All lawful. Approved by congress. That’s why there was no impeachment, no arrests, and no hiding.
Your guy won. Life goes on. He has a opportunity to change our world. I hope it’s for the good. I hope he’s not a part of the illegalities. The distraction will complicate an already complicated world.
Dec 14, 2008 - 8:30 am 88. DEK:Dear Butch (above):
Dec 14, 2008 - 11:00 am 89. Jack Marcotte:Your little red herring of boilerplate invective is so trite, repetitive and passe–not to mention as hyperbolic as BO’s rhetoric–that it falls as flatter than the IQ that shovels it. (Hah!, this diatribe stuff is kinda fun….we’ll have loads of laughs here for the next 4 years of Barry’s term. (Best turn off your pc, Butch.)
Essential vdh
Obama, due to America is now caught in a web of his own making. America is not what he has been “conditioned” to believe. And conditioned himself to believe. It never was.
An “African American”, a product of Affirmative action along with his wife. No merit there. As such a believer in the “injustice” of America, he along with the others– Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the “Rev Wright” and others have conditioned themselves with anti American beliefs to simply “cash in”. And worse we let it happen.
They must “believe” in the injustice to justify the extortion of American Companies and Americans through the tax structure supporting groups like Acorn that have destroyed integrity in the “vote” and Welfare projects that have destroyed the only values that can produce real Americans and make Americans (black or white) productive citizens.
For the last 50 years we have failed to create a sense of personal responsibility and integrity within our school systems. Taking responsibility for the results of one’s actions is no longer required. Neh! is is not even desired.
Groups like Acorn, welfare programs like affirmative action and new programs every year, layer upon layer, condition people to believe that they have been wronged—and they haven’t been. Life can be tough. We must be tough. Taught to be tough to take care of ourselves and others.
Obama is in a no win proposition. Currently we are now all in a no win proposition. The MSM is psychotic and to believe what they say one has to believe in free lunches, free housing, free medicine and of course none of that is possible.
Not even in the Wizard of Oz during a daydream did such a parting from reality occur.
Current American politics is not even a fairy tale with morality–it is a screeching nightmare.
Maybe enough Americans will come out of their stupor and recognize the problem so that something can be done about it before we all “crash and burn”.
Due to the MSM, and power hungry politicians (idiots all, some RINOs and mostly Dems,with a John Kerry as the poster boy for slow thinking stupidity) talking, thinking and acting as if we are on the road to heaven, all the while we are descending quickly into hell.
Hard working Americans who have invested in America have seen their retirement money go up in smoke.
Old boy networked Ivy League educated Whites and Affirmative action blacks know only enough to maximize their bonuses—not enough to profitably run the companies in their trust.
What to do? Maybe next time around we will do a better job.
Maybe we will not allow Teachers Unions to control our education process.
Maybe higher education will become higher education not just political indoctrination of and by “losers”.
If eventually we get back to where we once were.
Dec 14, 2008 - 9:05 pm 90. kabud:То 85. Rachel Peepers with great respect.
Your analysis is superb
i would appreciate if you can email me by clicking at my name
and may be we will prepare some material for publication ?
S.K.
Dec 14, 2008 - 10:04 pm 91. Abu Nudnik:If it’s Sullivanism and Matthewsism, why isn’t it Conservativism instead of Conservatism?
Sorry, we agree on politics but not on art. “Heat?” De Niro’s acting has gotten more and more stuffed and so has Pacino’s. They both act like mobsters deserving respect that’s got to be earned film by film. What a pity! Pacino was completely transparent in Dog Day Afternoon – you could see everything in his head.
Dec 14, 2008 - 10:45 pm 92. Cybergeezer:Why should Blago quit and set a precedent for Barney Frank, Charles Rangel, and William Jefferson? Who would be left to represent the criminal wing of Democrats? Without felonious activity, the Democrats can’t survive. Another citizens revolution is needed to clean up corrupt politicians.
Dec 15, 2008 - 2:07 pm