Illinois Governor arrested for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat by Geezer

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Illinois Governor arrested for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Friday, December 12, 2008 11:19
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Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:07 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Live press conference now:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887506#22887506

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Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:43 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
I think Republicans specialize in Whatevergate... endless, meaningless allegations w/o a shred of evidence.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

Greatest example of projectionism and hypocrisy, BRAVO !

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

Coming from the expert, I'm sure that means a lot.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:03 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Just more information:

Prosecutors depicted Rezko at trial as a fixer for Blagojevich and the man to see to secure a high-level appointment with the governor's administration. Rezko had been a longtime fundraiser for Blagojevich and other Illinois politicians, including Obama.

Obama was not implicated in the months-long trial (of Rezko), and he has said that Rezko sought no favors from him. At a news conference on Tuesday, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, went out of his way to dampen speculation about Obama.

"I should make clear, the complaint makes no allegations about the president-elect whatsoever," Fitzgerald said. "We make no allegations that he's aware of anything, and that's as simply as I can put it. . . .

"There's no reference in the complaint to any conversations involving the president-elect or indicating that the president-elect was aware of it. And that's all I can say."

Legal experts said it was unusual for a prosecutor to make such a blanket statement while an investigation was continuing.

"That carries a great deal of weight," said Jan Witold Baran, a Washington lawyer who represents politicians on ethical complaints and campaign finance matters. "It is really unusual for a U.S. attorney to say someone is not implicated."

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Silence is consent.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:03 PM

DREAMTROVE

Rue.

Personally, I like Sarah Palin. I don't think she was insane. She was given no prep time for the job, and the party ran her like she was some sort of fashion model. Now River is insane, and there ain't nuttin wrong with that.

But, I relate to Sarah. I considered writing her in. Now chew on that.

Btw, here's a clue, in between me an the people here, there is a culture gap a parsec wide, sarah I can understand. I think she would have been a better choice. I'm personally looking forward to Huckabee Palin. If King Rahm can screw it up enough, the ticket might have a chance.

I know you probably disagree with everything I just said, just file it under "different people see things differently" because I suspect that despite our wildly differing world views, we would come to the same conclusion about a whole lot of major issues.

Keep an eye open on this new Obama admin, and the Clinton one before it. If things start to head south, consider the possibility that they are not in fact opposition to one another, they are the same perpetual administration.

Oh, and here's an unsolicited opinion: OBL is in Saudi Arabia living the life of Reilly, or would be, if he wasn't under constant medical care, and has been for some time, he's not up in the hills of Tora Bora. This is a mislead, like the WMD, to draw us into a war in Pakistan to create chaos, to prevent China from upholding its treaty obligation to defend Iran, if attacked. Because the US and Israel are jonesing to attack Iran, and neither one is really that happy about the prospect of a retaliation from China. About this, I am really very certain. There's nothing else major going on here. Now if Obama is on board with that plan, that's worrisome.

Sure, it would be easy as it was for Bush to claim stupidity, but that's absurd. The reality is that these guys are career politicians, and the sad truth is that they will play along with whatever the agenda is, and that it's far worse than that they're evil, they just don't care. IMHO.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 3:42 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
CHICAGO (AP) - Barack Obama insists he didn't have any contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich or anyone else who might have been scheming to sell the president-elect's U.S. Senate seat. But he has not yet given his transition staff the same clean bill of health _ perhaps with good reason.

Apparently still questions about whether anyone on Obama's transition team had contact with Gov. Blagojevich concerning the Senate seat. Apparently one of Obama's supporters and confidants did.

Quote:
According to the complaint, Blagojevich met Nov. 5 with an official of the Service Employees International Union-Local 1 who is believed to be Tom Balanoff, a longtime Obama supporter who spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Blagojevich "understood" that the SEIU official was "an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1's interest" in the Senate seat. Though just a day after the election, media reports had already identified Jarrett as being interested in the job.

http://wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1547171

Also a lot of unidentified(as yet) 'Advisors A, B, C' et. al. out there.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Friday, December 12, 2008 3:50 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:

Coming from the expert, I'm sure that means a lot.

Dunno about 'expert', but I have dealt w/ the likes of you here for almost 5 years now.

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Friday, December 12, 2008 6:26 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

"She was given no prep time for the job ..."
Not true. She was given, and strongly encouraged to participate in, LOTS of prep opportunities --- which she refused, by the accounts of the people who were there.

"But, I relate to Sarah. I considered writing her in." She's a religious whack job whose beliefs are dangerous to the survival of the country.

"... there is a culture gap a parsec wide ..." I come from a socially conservative Polish family that was nevertheless very liberal when it came to religion, and had a strong belief in the benefits of education. I understand about commitment to family, about the need for hard work and making a contribution if you can (some people are too disabled) rather than being a drain. What I DON'T get is the reverence for ignorance, bigotry, hypocrisy and religious extremism.

"If things start to head south ..." Too late for that 'if' ...

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Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 6:30 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

"Apparently still questions about whether anyone on Obama's transition team had contact with Gov. Blagojevich concerning the Senate seat. Apparently one of Obama's supporters and confidants did."

NO

Obama confident staff clear in Ill. gov scandal
By PHILIP ELLIOTT – 1 day ago

CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama says he's confident that no member of his staff was involved in discussing deals for his Senate seat with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 6:31 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Rap

I have dealt w/ the likes of you here for almost 5 years now.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 7:50 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
"Apparently still questions about whether anyone on Obama's transition team had contact with Gov. Blagojevich concerning the Senate seat. Apparently one of Obama's supporters and confidants did."

NO

Obama confident staff clear in Ill. gov scandal
By PHILIP ELLIOTT – 1 day ago

CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama says he's confident that no member of his staff was involved in discussing deals for his Senate seat with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

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Silence is consent.

Frankly, I'd be a little concerned if there WASN'T at least SOME contact between Obama's staff and Blagojevich's office. I'm not by any stretch saying that that means there was deal-brokering going on, but I think there SHOULD HAVE been at least a few phone calls or meetings to try to work out the logistics of Obama's resignation and the naming of his successor.

That doesn't mean that there's anything sketchy going on between Obama and Blagojevich, just that they may have had a discussion or two regarding who was going to replace Obama. You can talk about who's going to replace you without getting into any illegal areas or naming prices.

Mike

"It is complete now; the hands of time are neatly tied."

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Friday, December 12, 2008 7:56 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

It's exactly what Obama's been saying, and you don't have to parse what the definition of 'is' is to understand his statements.

He said no one was involved in any deal making.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 8:14 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
"Apparently still questions about whether anyone on Obama's transition team had contact with Gov. Blagojevich concerning the Senate seat. Apparently one of Obama's supporters and confidants did."

NO

Obama confident staff clear in Ill. gov scandal
By PHILIP ELLIOTT – 1 day ago

CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama says he's confident that no member of his staff was involved in discussing deals for his Senate seat with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Obama says it, so it must be true. So simple. Don't have to wait for the media to do any investigation or for grand juries and trials. If he says they're innocent, of course they are.

So I guess since Gov. Blagojevich denies any wrongdoing, he must also be innocent. Or does that only apply to the man who's the Second Coming?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Friday, December 12, 2008 8:21 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

"Obama says it, so it must be true."

No, Fitzgerald says it, so it's nearly certainly true.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 8:22 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Don't have to wait for the media to do any investigation or for grand juries and trials

An investigation is occurring right now. And the investigator, Patrick Fitzgerald, took the unprecedented step of saying right out front that Obama is in no way involved. We don't have to "believe" Obama.

It is as it is.

BTW- You have unmasked yourself as a partisan jerk of the first water, not a rational person. But I've known that for some time. You can go sit in the corner with Rappy, Whozit, Dreamtrove and the rest of the idiots club.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 8:28 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
It's exactly what Obama's been saying, and you don't have to parse what the definition of 'is' is to understand his statements.

He said no one was involved in any deal making.

My take is he had no 'official' knowledge, but probably had an idea from the grapevine- which still makes him about the squeeky-cleanest guy to win the Presidency in...EVER!

The gauging Chrisisall

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Friday, December 12, 2008 8:28 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Frankly, I'd be a little concerned if there WASN'T at least SOME contact between Obama's staff and Blagojevich's office. I'm not by any stretch saying that that means there was deal-brokering going on, but I think there SHOULD HAVE been at least a few phone calls or meetings to try to work out the logistics of Obama's resignation and the naming of his successor.

It's also entirely possible that Obama had a pretty clear view of what Blago was all about and "blacklisted" the governor for concern of being tainted, no matter how indirectly.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 9:36 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Or does that only apply to the man who's the Second Coming?

Just another rightie singing the same pathetic old song...

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:19 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT RESUMES
By Joe Conason

Dec. 12, 2008 | Questions are raised. Connections are drawn. Conspiracies are theorized. Guilt is imputed, implied, asserted and very widely associated. And more of the same feckless fingerpointing is exactly what Barack Obama should expect from the Republicans, the right-wing propaganda machine and their enablers in the mainstream media -- even after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has met whatever fate he deserves.

From the kooky obsession with his place of birth on WorldNetDaily to insinuations about his Chicago pedigree by the Associated Press, all of the attacks launched lately on Barack Obama give off the same familiar smell. Even a quick sniff is enough to bring back memories from a decade ago, when no perfidious accusation against Bill or Hillary Clinton was too crazy to deserve attention.

The madness that was eventually classified under the quasi-clinical rubric of "Whitewater" began, in no small degree, with the dubious idea that Arkansas, the Clintons' home state, was a peculiarly corrupt place -- and that any politician from Arkansas by definition was suspect (but only if he or she happened to be a Democrat).

Many of the familiar figures and institutions that should be permanently discredited by their roles in the Clinton drama have emerged again to smear Obama. Newsmax, the big right-wing Web site founded by Richard Mellon Scaife, sugar daddy of the Arkansas Project, dispatches daily news alerts with blaring headlines: "Obama Birth Certificate Battle Not Over" and "Obama, Blagojevich Tied to Same 'Godfather.'" Rush Limbaugh, who has never stopped hinting that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, no matter how many investigations concluded that Foster's death was a tragic suicide, now wonders how Obama could be unaware of "all this stuff swirling around him."

Such are the "questions" darkening the great forensic brains of the right. "Did Barack Obama's transition team know this was going on? Heck, did Barack Obama himself know this was going on?" demands radio talker Neal Boortz. And asking a question is tantamount to winning a conviction, or at least an indictment, according to the perverse norms of discourse established during the last Democratic administration -- or what my friend and coauthor Gene Lyons calls "the Clinton rules."

...

Moreover, everyone knows how easily the equations of guilt by association can be constructed: Obama and Blagojevich are both Chicago Democrats and they know lots of other Chicago Democrats, some of whom gave money to both of them; therefore, both are products of a corrupt political machine. Suddenly, it is time to measure the tall, skinny guy for an orange jumpsuit.

But Obama has long been among the luckiest of politicians -- and the circumstances of the Blagojevich case come as close to instant exoneration for him as any political scandal possibly could. Not only does the indicted governor complain on tape that Obama won't give him anything in exchange for the Senate appointment, but he curses out the president-elect for that annoying probity in obscene terms.

Or as the federal indictment quotes from the months of wiretaps on the Illinois governor: "Rod Blagojevich said that the consultants are telling him that he has to 'suck it up' for two years and do nothing and give this 'motherfucker' [Obama] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him."

If Blagojevich's own pungent words don't answer the supposed questions about Obama, then perhaps the explicit exoneration offered by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who ran this investigation, should suffice. The quoted portions of the Blagojevich wiretaps represent a very small percentage of the conversations taped and monitored by the FBI. Knowing Fitzgerald, it is safe to assume that his agents heard nothing that implicated Obama or members of his transition staff in the Blagojevich scheme.

While that should be obvious, don't expect the excited Republicans to calm down anytime soon. Having nothing to sustain them for the moment except a whiff of Democratic scandal, they can hardly help themselves. They will persist in their partisan efforts to undermine the new president.

As for the rest of us, including mainstream reporters, perhaps we should be mindful of the vast amounts of money, time, and journalistic, prosecutorial, congressional and presidential effort that were squandered on the mythical crimes of the Clinton era.

Can America still afford that kind of stupidity?

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:35 AM

RIVERLOVE

While it seems clear from the wiretaps released so far that Obama and staff did not play ball, there are years of this pay for play stuff and possible corruption between all the friendly players. Blagojevich, Emmanuel, Jones, and Obama, and others are all linked & deeply inter-twined in each other's pasts as they each were building their careers. No one knows where this thing is going.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:41 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Can America still afford that kind of stupidity?

No.

I think willfully self-deluding peeps should be dumped in a big bag and off the pier.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:43 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
there are years of this pay for play stuff and possible corruption between all the friendly players.

Your assumption. And you know what they say about assuming? It makes an ASS out of U and ME.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:46 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

"Blagojevich, Emmanuel, Jones, and Obama, and others are all linked & deeply inter-twined in each other's pasts ..."

I think it depends on how deep it has to be before you consider it deep. Is knowing someone who knows someone considered to be a 'deep' association ?

I'll give you an example: I work in an organization, as do many people, whether it's business, non-profit or government. Let's suppose I (A) know someone (B) who worked with someone else (C) on a project some years back. Now let's say C's contribution was found to be invalid. Does that make B's contribution invalid ? Does Does that mean B knew about C's invalid work ? that make B 'deeply involved' in C's invalid work ? Does that make A's (my) unrelated work invalid b/c I knew B, who knew C ?

Unless you can find direct ties, simply being in the same group, or even working together for a common goal, isn't suffcient to implicate anyone - not even E (Emanuel) - or to claim deep ties.

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I do think this is a pointless distraction though. Here we have a country on the verge of an economic meltdown - and THIS pointless gossip is considered news ?

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Friday, December 12, 2008 10:49 AM

RIVERLOVE

I did say possible, but there is no debate as to whether they've all worked togther in the past. Obama campaigned and supported Rod, Emmanuel ran his campaign, then later got his Congressional seat. Rod's wife made big money selling real estate with Emmanuel and Rezko. I'm not saying anyone is guilty of anything until it's proven, but there certainly are enough past involvements to suggest that something could be "possible." Besides, The Gov will sing like a canary to save his neck, and he could say anything.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 11:05 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Rezko was a developer, and Patricia Blagojevich had a real estate company. I could find no indication that either Emanuel or Obama were involved with Patricia Blagojevich in any way. I got from the internet that it's a claim O'Reilly made, that the real estate agent for Obama really was Mrs. Blagojevich (no matter what the records say).

This comes across just like the birth certificate non-issue.

It was her, or him, but if not, it was them, or maybe him through him, or her through him to him, or maybe ...

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Friday, December 12, 2008 11:19 AM

RIVERLOVE

The real estate deals with her may have only been with Rezko & her husband, but her husband used to be Barrack and Rahm's good political buddy for years. That's a big potential gorilla hanging out there. LIke I said before, it could go anywhere, be a big thing, or go away soon.

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