Friday News: Blago, Rezko Rear Their Ugly Heads

Obama and Blagojevich in happier times

Good Morning, Conflucians!!

Ooops! Someone goofed when redacting all information about President Obama from a motion filed in the Rod Blagojevich trial, and the judge had to call an emergency meeting. Meanwhile the unredacted material leaked out.

Former governor Rod Blagojevich’s defense team asked Thursday to issue a trial subpoena to the President of the United States of America.

The motion, intended to be heavily redacted, was improperly edited — the full document was easily viewable if the text is copied and pasted to another document (an error first revealed on Capitol Fax).

It seems that:

Obama may have lied about conversations with convicted fraudster Tony Rezko.
Obama may have overtly recommended Valerie Jarret for his Senate seat.
A supporter of President Obama may have offered quid pro quo on a Jarrett senate appointment
Obama maintained a list of good Senate candidates
Rahm Emanuel allegedly floated Cheryl Jackson’s name for the Senate seat
Obama had a secret phone call with Blagojevich

Read the details at the Ward Room, linked above. Here is the original motion requesting that Obama be subpoenaed.

The judge held an emergency hearing to discuss this terrible mistake.

The Rezko-Obama land deal has arisen again. As you can see, this information was being discussed in Chicago way back in 2006, but somehow it never really became an issue in the 2008 primaries or general election campaign, thanks to the bought-off corporate media.

Mediaite breaks down the material in the Blagojevich motion, and provides helpful commentary.

Jeralyn posted about the story at Talk Left, and she’s been busy censoring comments to make sure no one says there is anything questionable about Obama’s association with Tony Rezko and the land deal that allowed Obama to buy a very nice house that was way beyond his means at the time. From the comments:

Because (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by squeaky on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 05:51:03 PM EST

The horse has been beaten to death, Rezko turned government witness and Obama has come out of this clean. A boneheaded mistake is miles away from insinuating criminal behavior.
Fanning the flames with innuendo of a criminal behavior is a cheap shot.

[ Parent ]

Actually, accusations (5.00 / 5) (#26)
by Inspector Gadget on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 06:09:20 PM EST

were laid to rest pretty fast in the mainstream, and no one really got answers to anything. It’s probably why you are so sensitive to topics that continue to come up. When you can’t answer the question, frustration rises.
If it was beaten to death, and you know exactly what took place, perhaps you would share the information so we can all be as comfortable as you are about Rezko.

[ Parent ]

not so (5.00 / 1) (#30)
by Jeralyn on Thu Apr 22, 2010 at 06:30:33 PM EST

accusations were put to rest by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzerald. Obama did nothing illegal with Rezko. It’s Blagojevich that Rezko is cooperating against, not Obama.
Please stay on topic which is: Blago/Obama and Blago/Rezko. The only relevance between Obama/Rezko is Blago’s assertion that Obama may be able to impugn Rezko’s. He’s not claiming Rezko would besmirch Obama. His motion says:

President Obama’s relationship with Tony Rezko is relevant and necessary Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) and 406 evidence.
I wonder, did he mean 404(b) or 405(b)?

I’ve deleted sniping comments without substance. If commenters want to attack each other, please share your email addresses with each other and do it privately.

{hysterical laughter}

These stories are highlighted at Memeorandum, but Jerelyn is the only access blogger who has posted about them. I’m sure this will be heavily covered at the Cheeto once they get the word. Or not.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

The former governor’s trial is set to start June 3, a year and a half after he was ousted from office amid prosecutors’ allegations that he had plotted to sell the

U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Mr. Obama when he was elected president [….]

At a news conference this week, he called U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a coward. Mr. Fitzgerald brought the corruption charges against Mr. Blagojevich and has challenged the former governor’s effort to make public all 500 hours of secretly recorded tapes at the heart of the case.

In an 11-page motion filed Thursday, Mr. Blagojevich’s attorneys argued that only Mr. Obama could resolve what they called contradictions between his public statements and the prosecutors’ case.

And in other news…..

Sorry, in my mind, there is no other news. Post your links freely in the comments and have a fabulous Friday!

Lock The Doors! Scary Black Man A-Comin’!

Big ol’ scary Roland Burris says he’s the Senator from Illinois so make way.  The Obamacrats say the idea of Burris sullying the sanctity of the Senate is so terrifying,  they’ll do whatever they have to do to keep him out and keep the country safe.  “Hide the women and children, go to the root cellar, get under the desks, run for your lives, for God’s sake, hide!”

Oh please.  For the Democrats in the Senate to say they’ll block the doors to prevent Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s appointed replacement for Barack Obama (the not scary black guy)’s Senate seat, Burris (the scary black guy) from taking office, just because they’re miffed, is just plain silly and pretty durned funny.  So, too, is Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush (a formerly scary black guy)’s insistence on being…well, Bobby Rush, and warning people against “lynching and hanging”  just because they want to bar entrance to the hallowed halls of the Senate by the scary black guy just like George Wallace wanted to keep scary black kids out of school.  But, never you mind, the fun doesn’t stop there, no sireee, Bobbo!  Being scary on command can be a hoot.  I mean, like The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out, quoting KristenMcQueary, it’s not like Bobby Rush never endorsed a white person over a black one:

He went so far as to compare Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who in 1963 stood in the doorway of a University of Alabama school building to block two black students from entering. Reid and Senate Democrats pledged to refuse any appointee sent by Blagojevich, even Burris, who would be the chamber’s only black member.

Rush’s lecture, however, seems quite two-faced considering he chaired Blair Hull’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign.

Hull is white.

If sending a black senator to Washington is so important now, why didn’t Rush support a black candidate four years ago? Not only was Obama on the Democratic ballot, but Joyce Washington, a black woman and health care executive, was as well.

Never mind that Rush endorsed Obama for president over his good white friends, the Clintons, or that Rush crushed Obama when Obie made an ill-advised bid for Bobby’s Congressional seat, or that Obama’s hit man David Axelrod took Hull down hard on his way to the Senate, it’s a black thing, only summa y’all unnerstan’.  But, hey, let the good times roll on.

And, lest you think Senate Majority Leader Reid doesn’t like black people, not just because of the Wallace-esque door-blocking thing, but also because he tried to block Blagojevich from appointing any other black men, too, pish tosh, put those thoughts aside.  I’m sure he knows there haven’t been a whole lot of black people in the Senate; as Earl Ofari Hutchinson reminds us, it’s always been a “good old boy’s club” and, by golly, everybody just likes it that way!  Nothing personal, move along.  And those black folks agitating on Roland Burris’ behalf?  Misguided malcontents, the whole lot of ’em.  So what if there are no black Senators, y’all got a black president, how dare you play the race card?

Oh, the delicious irony.  Now it can be revealed just how racially manipulative the Obamacrats have been.  Just because Barack Obama received overwhelming support from black voters, easily deceived sycophants and other fools could be convinced that all black people love and support him alike.  Ha, ha.  What those sycophantic fools choose to ignore is that the illusion of monolithic support is easy to attain if you keep the relevant questions narrow.  In other words, if you ask 1,000 black people how they feel about, oh, health care, you’d probably get answers as varied as if you asked a similar number of white, Asian, short, or stupid people the same thing.  But if you ask them if they’d rather have a black Democratic president or a white Republican one on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, you’d probably be horrified if anybody picked the white guy.

Duh.

Oh, but now, the vilified, but shrewd Blagojevich has flipped the script.  By appointing Burris, and deliberately, in his familiar, yet inimitable “in your face” style, calling bullshit, Blago has forced the Obamacrats to paint themselves into a corner of hell in much the same way they manipulated him into the role of the face of Illinois corruption, hoping to deflect attention from their own systemic culplability.  And, since there’s no easy way out for either side, the yuckfest continues.

The Senate Democrats have no leg to stand on, and will have to abandon their saber rattling bluff.  Blagojevich is most likely guilty as hell, but, under our legal system that doesn’t count, especially since he hasn’t even been indicted for anything, merely arrested pending formal charges.  While that may be enough for the Illinois branch of the Obamacrats to achieve the desired results in their now accelerated, year long, Blagoenemy Madigan Clan led impeachment attempt, it’s hard to see how that would invalidate the Burris appointment.  Would a conviction subsequent to the appointment legally nullify it?

Add the Al Franken coup attempt to the drama and you’ve got Oscar worthy high camp comedy.  Shouting “we won!” while trying to squeak Franken through the Burris-blocked Senate doors could prove to be a tad embarrassing.   I mean, how can you certify Franken, when he hasn’t even really won, and not certify the legally appointed Burris, without looking like a bunch of modern day racist bigots using token black people, like the president-elect and Illinois Secretary of State, to do your quota-maintaining bidding?

Ya can’t.

Advantage Blago/Burris/Rush.

And, once we get the answers to the “why did U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald step in and arrest Blagojevich to prevent a ‘crime-spree,’ when he could have caught at least two high-profile, guilty as hell people redhanded,” and “who are all these new ‘multiple witnesses‘ and what are they and the people on the ‘thousands of intercepted converations‘ saying that’s intersting enough to make Fitzy file a motion seeking an extension,” it might be game, set, match.

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