IL governor Blagojevich in federal custody

[K Frame]

Heard on the news a bit ago that some Illinois Democrats are saying that if Blagojevich doesn't step down fast, they're going to begin impeachment proceedings.

[makattak]

Heard on the news a bit ago that some Illinois Democrats are saying that if Blagojevich doesn't step down fast, they're going to begin impeachment proceedings.

Ah yes, the rest of the criminals in Illinois are in serious CYA mode.

I just love my birth state.

[K Frame]

Obama just called for Blagwhatever to step down, as well.

According to the Tribune, the Gov. is also accused of trying to extort the firings of Tribune editorial board who were critical of him.

The carrot there was the threat that if the Tribune didn't do it, the state would make it VERY difficult for the Tribune to get rid of Wrigley Field.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121001677.html?hpid=topnews

Jesse Jackson Jr. May Be Tied to Blagojevich Probe, Attorney Says
State Lawmakers Scramble to Take Control of Filling Vacant Senate Seat
Video
Jackson Jr. on Blagojevich Corruption Scandal
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. denies any wrongdoing in connection with the Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich charges in a press conference.
» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER
   
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By Peter Slevin and Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 10, 2008; 5:59 PM

CHICAGO, Dec. 10 -- "Senate Candidate 5," an aspirant to President-elect  Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat mentioned in FBI tapes of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, appears to be  Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., his attorney said at a press conference here this afternoon, but he said Jackson "has made no illicit approach to the governor."

Although Blagojevich (D) was captured on the tapes saying that an emissary from Candidate 5 had offered to raise $500,000 for Blagojevich's campaign treasury, lawyer James Montgomery said Jackson knew nothing about that.

"Politicians and fundraisers do some funny things from time to time," said Montgomery, who told reporters that Jackson does not know the unidentified emissary. "I wouldn't put it past someone to claim they were representing congressman Jackson."

Jackson (D-Ill.) has made no secret of wanting to fill the seat Obama resigned Nov. 16 after being elected president. He met with Blagojevich on Monday, the day before the governor was charged with two federal counts of felony influence peddling.

In a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington late Wednesday afternoon, Jackson said, "I reject and denounce pay-to-play politics and have no involvement whatsoever in any wrongdoing.

"I did not initiate or authorize anyone at any time to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf," Jackson said. "I never sent a message or an emissary."

Jackson, recently elected to his eighth term, said his 90 minute meeting with Blagojevich Monday was the first time he had met with the governor in four years.

"I spoke with the U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday," Jackson said. "They shared with me that I am not a target of this investigation." He said he would cooperate "fully and completely" with federal investigators.
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Blagojevich headed to work as usual Wednesday morning, even as a spokesman for President-elect Barack Obama said Blagojevich's arrest on corruption charges Tuesday means he can no longer govern effectively and should step down.

The youthful-looking governor, whose 52nd birthday is Wednesday, waved to reporters and said nothing as he left his North Side home and ducked into a dark SUV. His seeming nonchalance gave no hint of the uncertainty that defines Illinois state government now that its chief executive has been caught on audiotape trying to shake down business leaders and hawk Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Politicians in both parties are calling on Blagojevich to resign or face impeachment charges. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (D), a populist who is long estranged from Blagojevich, has told colleagues he is ready to step in, and a spokesman for Obama said it was time for Blagojevich to go.

"The President-elect agrees with lieutenant Governor Quinn and many others that, under the current circumstances, it is difficult for the Governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois," said Robert Gibbs, the incoming White House press secretary, said.

CONTINUED     1    2    3    Next >

[Unisaw]

There is something deliciously ironic about the concept of Je$$ie Jack$on (even if it is Jr.) getting shaken down. 

[stevelyn]

Jesse Jackson Jr. May Be Tied to Blagojevich Probe

Heh heh..........A shakedown artist trying to shakedown THE shakedown artist. Don't think for a second that Jesse Sr. didn't leave fingerprints on this either.

[Ben]

Here is a nice photo for the morning...


Blagojevich  Larry                          Obama  Moe                    Daley Curly

[Bogie]

Are there any images out there of him doing a perp walk? I just checked TSG, etc., and no mug shot... I want that for wallpaper!

[Standing Wolf]

Jackson said, "I reject and denounce pay-to-play politics and have no involvement whatsoever in any wrongdoing.

Yeah, and I'm going to check under my pillow bright and early in the morning to see what the tooth færie left me, too.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

coming from the spawn of the reverend pay to play thats ironic

[Gewehr98]

I wonder if Gov. Doyle is having his staff check the office for bugs right about now?

[Harold Tuttle]

Michelle Obama is the "Specifically Named Individual" on page 64 of the Criminal Complaint against Governor Rod Blagojevich.


From the indictment:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to “suck it up” for two years and do nothing and give this “motherf***er [the President-elect] his senator. F**k him. For nothing? F**k him.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will put “[Senate Candidate 4]” in the Senate “before I just give f**king [Senate Candidate 1] a f**king Senate seat and I don’t get anything.” (Senate Candidate 4 is a Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois).

>ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that he needs to find a way to take the “financial stress” off of his family and that his wife is as qualified or more qualified than another specifically named individual to sit on corporate boards.

>>The “specifically named individual” is Michelle Obama, who was appointed to the Board of TreeHouse Foods, a WAL-MART vendor, on June 25, 2005, even though she did not have experience in the private sector previous to the appointment. Here are the benefits the Obama family received as a result of Michelle Obama’s stint with the WAL-MART vendor:

According to the couple’s tax returns, Mrs Obama earned $51,200 (£25,700) for her work as a non-executive director on Treehouse’s board last year, on top of the $271,618 salary she was paid as a vice-president of the University of Chicago Hospitals.

She also received 7,500 Treehouse stock options, worth a further $72,375, as she did the previous year, when she banked a $45,000 salary from the company.

[Fly320s]

Oooh, it's getting juicier. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Lemme guess, the media is still going to tell us that Obama has nothing to do with this sort of Chicago-style politics. 

[K Frame]

Funny...

But CHANGE seems to have about the same odor as entrenched bureaucracy...

[Scout26]

It's now being reported that Rahm Emanual (D-Clinton/Daley/Obama) is heard on the Blago tapes on  SIX separate calls.  The ChosenHopeChangeOne is in full damage control mode, as they try to figure out what was said and how to spin it to the masses......   

Congrats BHO, a scandal even before you take office... I'm sure that's a record.......


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-12-dec12,0,723256.column

John Kass
December 12, 2008

When it comes to being the guy behind the guy, there is no one more conspicuous than Rahm Emanuel.

As chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, he's usually at Obama's news conferences, standing off to the side, glowering like some fiercely loyal mini-me.

But Emanuel wasn't there Thursday when Obama faced reporters to answer questions about federal charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Dead Meat), accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

"I have never spoken to the governor on this subject," Obama said. "I am confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat."

Wow. No staffers tried to make a deal for his Senate seat?

"I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about this vacant seat, so that we can share them with you over the next few days," Obama said.

He could have just asked Emanuel, but he wasn't there, and reporters kept wondering, "Where's Rahm? Where's Rahm?" What they should have been asking is, "Where's Jimmy?"

As in state Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin?)

DeLeo is an extremely powerful politician. You know this because he's hardly ever quoted in newspaper stories.

Emanuel and DeLeo have a relationship. Emanuel is the congressman from the 5th Congressional District, where DeLeo is the Democratic state central committeeman. What hasn't been reported on much is that Emanuel has not yet resigned from the House. And if you want to play politics in Jimmy's sandbox, you need his OK.

DeLeo is also considered by some to be the real governor of Illinois. Blagojevich is the nutty guy who makes the speeches and gets the federal slap. They're so close that if Jimmy suddenly stopped walking, Rod would chip his teeth on the back of Jimmy's head.

It's reasonable to assume that if there's one fellow Rod would talk to about the Senate seat, it's Jimmy. And given their relationship, Jimmy could talk to Rahm. I'm not suggesting money was offered. There is nothing illegal about politicians horse-trading to fill seats. Only when such deals are monetized—as the governor is alleged to have done—is it illegal.

I'm just talking about putting political pieces on the board the Chicago Way. A vacant Senate seat and a soon-to-be vacant House seat in Illinois would be a package deal. Consider this mathematical equation: Jimmy/Rod + Jimmy/Rahm = Happy Rod, Jimmy and Rahm. Get it?

Before he became so powerful, Jimmy was a lowly traffic court bailiff making a measly $20,000 a year. Yet he was able to own shiny new Cadillacs, Jaguars and Mercedes, astounding federal agents, who in 1989 charged him with taking bribes to fix tickets in the Operation Greylord probe of judicial corruption.

Later, his former roommate told a federal grand jury that there was $35,000 in cash in their freezer, carefully wrapped in butcher paper so the bills wouldn't get freezer burn. But the roommate came to Jimmy's defense, saying the money was his, not Jimmy's, and that it came from the roommate's stolen-car business.

At Jimmy's trial, Outfit gambling boss Ken "Tokyo Joe" Eto emerged from the witness protection program to testify that he passed cash to Jimmy via handshakes. Eto had been hiding since Outfit hit men tried to kill him. They used cheap bullets, and three slugs failed to fully penetrate Eto's diamond-hard cranium.

The jury didn't believe the feds. They believed Jimmy and acquitted him, so he rose to political prominence, and now Obama's chief of staff is the congressman in the district Jimmy controls.

Jimmy didn't return my call to his office, so we checked other joints. "DeLeo?" said Glenn, the manager at Carmine's. "I've never heard of the name. Who?"

At Tavern on Rush, a hostess said, "I haven't seen him today." A woman at Cafe Bionda simply said, "No, he's not here."

So I phoned the Excelsior Casino in Aruba, where Jimmy takes politicians to gamble, including Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. I figured Jimmy might be there.

"Who's calling please?" asked a secretary in the office of Michael Posner, the casino boss who has Chicago connections.

Tell him John from Chicago is calling, I said. Posner picked up and was quite chirpy, for about three seconds, until he realized I was a newspaper guy.

"If you want to find him, call him yourself," Posner said. Click.

Later, Jimmy's attorney phoned, upset that I'd called all over looking for him. She told me that Jimmy had nothing to do with any deal for Rahm's seat or Obama's seat.

"The answer is no," said Jimmy's attorney. "No."

OK, but I'm still waiting to hear from Jimmy, so I can ask him about Rod and Rahm. I won't hold my breath.

You never hear from the real guy behind the guy.

That's how they remain the guy behind the guy.

[El Tejon]

Congrats BHO, a scandal even before you take office... I'm sure that's a record

You mean you hope for a record?  Is that not change, good sir?  Scout, I put it to you that you hate America.

Reichsfurher von Emanual knew?  That means Obama knew!

If Obama knew and did not drop a dime=several federal felonies!

Will Obama be impeached before he will be sworn in?



 

[Scout26]

Will Obama be impeached before he will be sworn in?
 

Hope springs eternal !!!     

[Regolith]

Hope springs eternal !!!     

Which means we'd be either looking at having Biden or (if Biden's indicted alongside BO) Nancy Pilosi as president.

I'm not sure which is worse...

[roo_ster]

Some folks are enjoying this mess more than others, it seems.



http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MGQ5YjEwNjJkZDQ5MDRkZDVlNDI0ZTg0MjJiNDk0NDk=

A Little Blago for Everyone
A cornucopia of corrupt crapulence.

By Jonah Goldberg

There are so many things to love about the Rod Blagojevich scandal it’s hard to know where to begin.

Wait. That’s not right. There are so many bleeping things to love about this bleeping-bleep Blagojevich scandal it’s hard to know where to begin.

For starters, the folks at the Chicago Tribune are Christmas Pony Happy because Blago tried to strong-arm the Trib’s owners to fire members of the editorial board. Instead, Trib editors will get to have a big tailgate party outside Blago’s cell window.

Newspaper people love that sort of thing.

For the more historically minded, it’s a time for nostalgia. The past comes alive as Chicago’s grand tradition of corruption is sustained for another generation. As the Chicago Tribune once wrote, “corruption has been as much a part of the landscape as corn, soybeans and skyscrapers.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, as of 2006 — when Blago’s predecessor, George Ryan, was sent to prison for racketeering — 79 elected officials had been convicted of corruption in the past 30 years. Among the perps: 27 aldermen, 19 judges, 15 state legislators, three governors, two congressmen, one mayor, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a stolen pear tree. Especially in this holiday season, it’s so very important to keep traditions alive for the kids. In a sense, Blago did it for the children.

For partisans, there’s the schadenfreude that comes with watching the Democrats — self-proclaimed anti-corruption zealots in recent years — explain why Blagojevich shouldn’t be lumped in with Congressmen Charlie Rangel (cut himself sweetheart deals), William Jefferson ($90,000 in his freezer) and Tim Mahoney (tried to bribe an aide he was sleeping with not to sue him — and you thought romance was dead) as part of a new Democratic “culture of corruption” storyline.

There’s the enormous I-should-have-had-a-V8! moment as the mainstream press collectively thwacks itself in the forehead, realizing it blew it again. The New York Times — which, according to Wall Street analysts, is weeks from holding editorial-board meetings in a refrigerator box — created the journalistic equivalent of CSI-Wasilla to study every follicle and fiber in Sarah Palin’s background, all the while treating Obama’s Chicago like one of those fairy-tale lands depicted in posters that adorn little girls’ bedroom walls. See there, Suzie? That’s a Pegasus. That’s a pink unicorn. And that’s a beautiful sunflower giving birth to a fully grown Barack Obama, the greatest president ever and the only man in history to be able to pick up manure from the clean end.

Obviously the list doesn’t end there. Blago’s hair not only appears bulletproof but seems to confirm reports that he is the human model for Playmobil action figures.

And you can’t leave out the supporting cast. Mrs. Blago curses like the inmate working the cafeteria at a women’s prison who replies with an f-bomb to anyone objecting to a leaden ladle-thwack of unidentifiable green mush on their lunch tray.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. — himself the son of a shakedown artist — is alleged to have offered (through a minion) a half-million bucks for Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Jackson replaced former Rep. Mel Reynolds, who went to jail for getting jiggy with a 16-year-old campaign staffer and stayed in jail because of various fraud convictions. Reynolds, in turn, was the “reformer” who had replaced Rep. Gus Savage, the thug-congressman who groped a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire while on a “fact-finding” trip. Savage held off Reynolds’ attempts to replace him for several years by claiming Reynolds was financed by “racist Jews.”

Man, what isn’t there to love about Chicago politics?

It would be premature, not to mention un-festive, to discard any of these delicious immoral morsels from this cornucopia of corrupt crapulence. Fortunately, there’s no need to single out just one fragrance from this miasma of malfeasance or one dish from this smorgasbord of smut.

But, there is a nice moral to the story here. For the last several years, we’ve heard a lot about “new politics.” We are going to start fresh and put aside the old politics and the old ways. So far, it looks like Obama did nothing wrong, and I hope that remains the case. But it’s worth remembering that there really isn’t any such thing as a “new politics.” Politics is eternal because human nature is unchanging. Even Barack Obama, hero-saint light-worker Jedi Knight Messiah that he is, came from a political culture that would not be unrecognizable to Caligula.

Hopefully, Obama will take away from this the humility that comes with realizing we are all — even The One — built from the crooked timber of humanity. Hence the genius of the Founders who built a government that took our imperfection into account. As James Madison said, If men were bleeping angels ...

[Monkeyleg]

GW98, I think Doyle learned enough in his 12 years as AG to know where the thin ice is. US attorney Biskupic did a lot of research on him, but never got close enough.

There was one out-and-out case of pay for play that never went anywhere. A former state representative--Larry Balow-- from the Eau Claire area had voted for our CCW bill many times. A civic group in the area wanted to restore the Altoona Roundhouse, one of those buildings railroads use to turn locomotives around, but they didn't have the money.

Doyle told Balow he'd get the money for the roundhouse if Balow would flip on CCW. We know that goes on all the time, but Balow was running around the capital bragging about it. Dave Zien heard about it, and went on the radio saying that Doyle and Balow had committed a crime. Balow threatened to sue Zien. Zien's attorney said he'd win, but the legal fees would run about $20K. Zien couldn't afford it, so he had to back down.

I would love to see Doyle and Blagojevich sharing a cell.

[MicroBalrog]

Even Barack Obama, hero-saint light-worker Jedi Knight Messiah that he is, came from a political culture that would not be unrecognizable to Caligula.

I'm sorry, but that is a pile.

We are in a post-July 4th culture.

We are not in a culture of absolute power. Nor are 21st-century Americans anywhere near the same as Romans.

[Ron]

I'm sorry, but that is a pile.

We are in a post-July 4th culture.

We are not in a culture of absolute power. Nor are 21st-century Americans anywhere near the same as Romans.

I suspect the culture he is speaking of is the Illinois political cultural that is dominated by Chicago machine politics.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I'm sorry, but that is a pile.

We are in a post-July 4th culture.

We are not in a culture of absolute power. Nor are 21st-century Americans anywhere near the same as Romans.

its exaggeration for effect. thought you'd recognize it

[MicroBalrog]

its exaggeration for effect. thought you'd recognize it

You know, I take it back. Three cops could have probably lifted that guy out of the car.

Also, Jonah is quite explicit about stating human nature is immutable. That is in itself nonsense.