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!

Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You

Today’s New York Times reports it, but we tried to tell the Cheeto gang back in January ’08.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.

You know those “entitlement” programs we’ve all been paying into since forever? The ones that keep old people and fatherless children from wandering the streets homeless and starving? The President-elect is planning to mess around with them.

Obacrats Can’t Be This Stupid

Whoever thought maneuvering Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich into a position that allowed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to officially criminalize machine politics-as-usual for political advantage has got to be the biggest neophyte yahoo rube to come down the pike since…Barack Obama.  Let’s review.  Barack Obama, the only African American in the Senate for two years, mysteriously generates enough money and clout to mount a successful run for the presidency out of a political environment so corrupt that “Lincoln would roll over in his grave,” how?  By being an all-around, all-American, above-board, swell, good guy, of course.  Sure.

Surrounded by his personal band of proselytizing disciples; Rahmbo the Emanuel, Valerie Magdalene, King David of the Astroturf, Antonin of Houses, and Jon, the Groper of Graven Images, to name a few, the Obamessiah scampered above the sewer waters of Illinois corruption as if they were a North Side private gymnasium treadmill.  As a fisher of men, He was often unfortunately touched, but not tainted by, the activities of the unworthy among those He assembled and attempted to make pure, as has been dutifully chronicled by the mainstream media Keepers of the Holy Book of the Obamessiah.  However, Barack remains the Reformer, bathed in the Light.

Clean, bright and articulate by resume, the recent machinations by the Combine Machine of the Obacrats are threatening to reveal enough cracks in the Obamirror of Righteousness to expose His Holy Stupid-as-a-Stumpness in a nationally broadcast Naivete Scene.  Did it never occur to the No Drama Obama crew that manipulating a fellow player not of their clique into a corner carried risks?

When one of their number, Antonin of Houses, stumbled and fell by the wayside, the Obasciples simply stepped gingerly, single-file around him, leaving him where he lay, disavowing him three times as they boarded the Obabus he rolled under when they continued confidently on their preordained journey to the Promised Land.  The Obamessiah did not lay hands upon him, nor did He absolve him of his sin; He simply denied knowledge of him as He brushed His Holy shoulders and allowed Himself to be driven on.  This was a Holy boo-boo.

For Antonin of Houses had special knowledge of Valerie Magdalene and the Obamessiah, and Antonin was pisseth.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century post-election ensconcement of the Obamessiah as President-In-Training Wheels.  Having written and disseminated his own Holy backstory to the Chroniclers, and having consumed their regurgitated praise to his overfill, the Obamesiah, drunk with his own Obamessiah-ness by proxy, allowed Himself to believe He, Jr. Father, Knew Best.  Thus began the chess match, whereby playing unopposed, the Obamessiah cleverly checkmated Himownself.

Seeing a way to eliminate his only real threat to absolute power in His own backyard, Barack of Hyde Park decided to continue to attempt to appear to levitate above the machinations of His betrayed Obasciple of the Houses,  and the locust-and-honey-eating way clearer, the crude Rod the Blagojevich, while shining His Holy Light upon their common evangelical activities, forgetting He too, was bathed in His Own Light.  Thus, He Screweth Himself.

Okay, enough of the Obamessiah allegory; it’s not only making me nauseous, I’m not nearly as good at it as John, South of Melrose over on Liberal Rapture or Gerald Baker; plus I need to be free to call bullshit without all this pseudo-Christian baggage.  So, let’s get back to brass tacks, shall we?

The fact remains that Obama screwed the pooch when he tried to play innocent while pointing the finger at Blagojevich.  Everybody in Illinois knew Blags was under investigation, he even hinted at the worst kept secret in politics the day before he was arrested.  Everybody also knew that even with Rezko’s making like a canary, Fitzgerald didn’t have enough to indict.  He still doesn’t.  But when the president-elect bats his exaggeratedly wide-open eyes and tilts his head in your direction when somebody else calls you a crook, people sit up and take notice.

Obama and company knew that if they dangled the vacant Senate seat plum just right while they dropped unsubtle hints that Fitzgerald was sure to pick up, the investigation against Blags was sure to intensify.  However, methinks they underestimated the existing intensity of the ongoing investigation.  Thinking that the tentacles would subsequently stretch out in all directions, they never considered that they already did, that it wasn’t just one Blagojevich phone that was tapped, and that more of their pre-cleanup involvement was already caught on tape.

Now, the smartest president in the room and his gang have been interviewed in a pay-to-play scam and have proclaimed their innocence, just like Blagojevich, just like Bill Richardson.  Though Blago has been arrested, before his alleged crime could criminally implicate anybody else, he hasn’t been indicted, he was released on a paltry bond, and he remains free to exercise his duties as governor.  And, now that he has done just that, the Obacrats, who for their own nefarious reasons, swept Obama to power, are desperate to get Blags to nullify himself, since they know they have no legal, or moral, authority to do so.  They also know now that Blagojevich knows it, too; by making the appointment, the Obacrats are not only rendered impotent, they’ve handcuffed  and prevented themselves from exercising any power they might once have wielded.  For, even if they impeach Blago, or he now resigns, there’s nothing that would make Roland Burris’ appointment to the Senate retroactively invalid.  From Politico:

The Democrats’ preferred solution to the Burris problem is for the Illinois Legislature to impeach Blagojevich, paving the way for Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn to take his place and appoint someone other than Burris to Obama’s vacant seat. But even that could create a legal headache, legal observers say, since the Burris appointment would still be pending.

“Even if Blagojevich is impeached, that doesn’t undo all the actions he has taken as governor,” said Andrew Raucci, a former chief justice for the Illinois Court of Claims and now a Chicago-based attorney.

Democrats say that if Burris hasn’t been seated by the time Quinn takes over, he could name someone else to the seat by rescinding Burris’ certification papers.

Burris was having none of it. At a news conference at Chicago’s Midway Airport, the former Illinois attorney general testily said to reporters, “Why don’t you all understand that what has been done here is legal? I am the junior senator from Illinois, and I wish my colleagues in the press would recognize that. All the drama — I guess it keeps you all in a job.”

And, to make bad matters worse, not only is Burris adamant that he is the junior senator from Illinois no matter what ticky-tack maneuvers the Obacrats try to pull, the potential criminalization of day to day political manipulation makes every satellite in the Oba-universe vulnerable.  Just ask Bill Richardson.

The best laid plans of mice and men, gang aft aglae.

Attack of the Killer Chihuahuas

Oh Lordy!  The rabid killer chihuahuas of Obamanation are in an ankle-biting frenzy over how many houses John McCain and his wife own.

They seem to think they have found “THE ISSUE” that will carry Teh Precious to victory.  Once again they prove their lack of political instinct.

First of all, they have completely forgotten the old saying “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”  Guys?  You really don’t want to discuss the candidates’ real estate holdings.

Why?  Two words: “Tony Rezko”

Secondly, negative attacks don’t work unless they resonate with the target audience.  The target audience will be one or more of these: your base, their base, and/or undecideds.  Your goal should be to motivate your base, depress their base, and/or persuade undecideds to vote for your candidate

If this attack gets your base fired up, y’all need to switch to decaf.  This issue is another “big nothing burger.”  The McCains are rich, so what?  The Obamas are millionaires too.  Not only that, but this is the United States of America, where being rich is the ambition of 99% of the population.

This attack isn’t going to depress and demoralize the GOP base, nor is it likely to persuade any undecided voters, especially since it opens the door to the issue of Uh-bama’s relationship with slumlord Tony Rezko.

Do you guys ever learn anything?  Has an attack on a candidate’s financial status ever worked?  You guys went into an ankle-biting fauxrage over Hillary and Bill’s tax returns showing they made beau coup simolians since he left office, and the blue-collar and rural voters of West Virginia were soooo impressed they gave Hillary a 41 point victory.  Without the money issue, she might have won by 60 or 70 points!

What’s that you say?  This issue is just like when Poppy Bush was amazed at a supermarket checkout scanner?  Well, yes it is, but not why you think.

The reason they are the same is because that story is an urban legend!  IOW – a big nothing burger.

 

(Cross-posted at Klownhaus)

Tuesday: Michelle calls us liars

From The Billings Gazette, we have the heartwarming story of Michelle Obama and her real feelings about bloggers:

“The way this campaign has been run is the way we need to be forever,” Obama said. “Don’t trust bloggers or someone else’s opinion, because people lie.”

Well, that’s certainly a frightening concept, that Obama might actually run the country in the same way he has run the campaign, with rampant misogyny, hooligans threatening the opposition, theft of votes, campaign PR guys just making $!#% up about RFK and attempts to quell dissent. Yeah, four years of that sounds just peachy.

Of course, bloggers need not apply for commentary on the Obama administration. It is a forgone conclusion that we lie. Gee, and all this time I have been trying so hard to keep things like Rezko, Ayers, Wright and Farrakhan off the front page of this blog. After all, I can’t prove there is any direct criminality between Tony Rezko and Barack Obama. They might just have been drinking buddies. And Ayers and his lovely wife have paid their debt to society. Or someone has paid the debt for them. And Wright is *retired* for Gawd’s sakes. Besides, we all know that Barry was in the bathroom taking a whizz when Wright was pontificating about our collective white guilt. As for Farrakhan, just because the Obama campaign has been busily crafting pre-damage control transcripts of an alleged panel discussion featuring Michelle and Farrakhan doesn’t mean it actually happened. Then again, if imaginary voters can count in Michigan, maybe imaginary videos really exist too.

Ohhhh, so is *that* what this is all about? Is Michelle trying to marinate the press to discount anything that appears in the blogs about the alleged videotape that we take great pains to not discuss because we haven’t seen it (because, for all we know, it’s as real as pixie dust)?

But Michelle, there are so many other things that are perfectly true about dear Barry. We don’t have to resort to rumors and innuendo. Like, we could probably trust our lying eyes last weekend when Barry was awarded 59 delegates he did not earn, 4 of which were the result of direct theft from another candidate. Hard to discount that since The Confluence had two eyewitnesses to the event. And while it is true that Barry didn’t force the RBC to give him the unearned delegates, he took them anyway. At no point in time have we heard him say, “No, no, I don’t need these unearned delegates to win. And please give these 4 delegates back to Hillary because to take them would be stealing and that would be WROOONNG!” I did not hear him say that. Did any of you PUMAs hear Barry decline the stolen delegates awarded to him by the corrupt and obviously partial RBC?

And while it is true that Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger have been “caught on tape” as MSNBC would say, it would be unkind to say that Barry agrees with anything they say. After all, that would be like guilt by association. We all noticed that Barry separated himself from Trinity UCC just a couple of days ago. It took him twenty years but who among us doesn’t understand procrastination?

It’s not like we have to lie when the truth is so much more entertaining and outrageous. And we promise not to bring up the Farrakhan thing until it actually surfaces or until Barry’s campaign produces an official transcript. After all, our credibility is at stake here.

PUMA POWER!