“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Illinois has voted for change,†[Blagojevich] told a crowd at his victory party on election night in 2002.
On the Chicago TV show “Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz” on June 27, 2002, state Sen. Obama said, “Right now, my main focus is to make sure that we elect Rod Blagojevich as Governor, we…”
“You working hard for Rod?” interrupted Berkowitz.
“You betcha,” said Obama.
“Hot Rod?” asked the host.
“That’s exactly right,” Obama said.
In 2004, then-Gov. Blagojevich enthusiastically endorsed Obama for the Senate seat after he won the nomination, and Obama endorsed Blagojevich for his 2006 re-election race in early 2005.
In the Summer of 2006, then-U.S. Sen. Obama backed Blagojevich even though there were serious questions at the time about Blago’s hiring practices.
Obama’s intervention in state politics, regarding an ethics bill stalled in the Illinois Senate, may have forced Blago’s hand. He contacted Emil Jones and told him to get it pushed through, which caused Blago to grab for all he could get before the end of the year:
But like those previous cases, this latest one features political characters who figure in various stages of Mr. Obama’s climb from little-known state senator to presidential candidate, and who have since become politically radioactive because of corruption scandals. Some of those relationships posed a threat to Mr. Obama during the presidential campaign, forcing him to return tens of thousands of dollars in tainted campaign contributions and providing fodder for attack ads by rival candidates.
Though extreme examples, they were emblematic of the path cut by Mr. Obama through Chicago politics, where he became known for making alliances of convenience with personalities that seemed antithetical to his self-image as a progressive reformer. His political roots were in the left-leaning neighborhood of Hyde Park, but at key moments in his career he did not hesitate to form relationships with politicians who were fixtures of the Democratic machine.
When he ran for the United States Senate in 2004, he aggressively courted Mr. Jones, a sewer inspector turned legislator who had clawed his way up through ward politics and was viewed as something of a kingmaker in the Illinois Democratic Party. He also formed a good working relationship with Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, a symbol of establishment politics with whom Mr. Obama had never been close.
Later in the same article:
When the Illinois Senate passed the measure by 55 to 0 on Sept. 22, with Mr. Jones reversing his position, Mr. Obama praised the move as one creating “a tougher ethics law that will reduce the influence of money over our state’s political process.†Mr. Obama’s intervention deepened a rift between him and Mr. Blagojevich that had been growing for some time.
Matt Cooper recommends Blago cut a deal with Fitzy.
Inartful comments. Will the splatter maculate the O?
His chief political adviser, David Axelrod, Tuesday corrected his own suggestion last month that Obama and Blagojevich had spoken about filling Obama’s vacant seat. Spokespeople did not respond to a question of when Obama and Blagojevich last spoke, and about what.
And there is the question of Fitzgerald’s future . Presidents can appoint their own U.S. Attorneys, but Republicans aim to all but dare Obama to remove the crusading Fitzgerald before he’s done cleaning out corruption in Chicago and Springfield.
“What he should do tomorrow is say, ‘Patrick Fitzgerald has a job and can have for as long as he wants,'” McKenna told Politico. “Some have wondered if Barack Obama would keep Fitzgerald [as U.S. Attorney]. It would be great if he confirms that he plans to.”
Meanwhile, the case is likely to turn reporters into students of Illinois political history, just as the Clinton presidency produced a generation of reporters and opposition researchers obsessed with turning over the rocks of Arkansas politics.
In 2002, when Blagojevich left the U.S. House (opening up a seat for Emanuel), Obama joined other black Chicago Democrats – including his one-time rival Bobby Rush and state Senate mentor Emil Jones –in supporting Roland Burris, an African-American former Illinois Comptroller and state Attorney General.
In a further effort to put distance between Obama and the governor, Obama allies are preemptively noting that incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s claim this summer in a New Yorker article that he and Obama were “the top strategists of Blagojevich’s victory†in 2002 was inaccurate.
In a subsequent article in the Springfield political publication Capitol Fax this summer, now being circulated by Obama allies, Emanuel walked back his assertion.
“David [Wilhelm] and I have worked together on campaigns for decades,†Emanuel said, referring to the Democratic operative who was a top adviser to Blagojevich in 2002 and strongly denied that Obama had been involved in that race. “Like always, he’s right and I’m wrong.”
Further, the allies note that Blagojevich did not support Obama in 2004 in what was initially thought to be a hotly contested primary.
Still, as Obama emerged from the sheltered, reformist enclave of Hyde Park in the 1990s, he made valuable friends among the bosses of its political machine – Mayor Richard Daley, Emil Jones and many others. He bragged at times that Illinois had made him tough. He also campaigned on an ethics bill he helped pass in the Illinois State Senate.
And he seemed still to be in that Chicago straddle when asked about Blagojevich’s arrest yesterday, mustering only word that he was “saddened†and “sobered†at a time when even other Illinois Democrats were demanding Blagojevich resign.
Byron York <strike>questions</strike> considers the timing.
Now that right there is some crazy hilarious.
Don’t forget that less than two weeks ago, Axelrod was talking about how Obama’s working with Blagojevich to find his replacement.
Now, of course, the pravda is that Axelrod “misspoke”.
Uh…uh….WINGNUT!!!!
Brief interview with Barry. Try Simon’s suggestion of just listening to the sound and paying attention to Teh Lightworker’s voice.
He’s shitting his pants.
Spin, spin, spin.
Spin, spin, spin.
Can we officially say the press has gone beyond “lapdog”?
“‘You working hard for Rod?’ interrupted Berkowitz.
‘You betcha,’ said Obama.”
You Betcha…YOU EFFIN’ BETCHA..? WTF! Isn’t this the same turn of the phrase that Palin was mocked for throughout the general..? Maybe the urbane, sophisticated, glib, witty, brilliant, Ivy league lightworker has more Trailer Trash!, Hick!, Rube!, State College [shudder] in him than he cares to let on…
I’d have added White trash but, well, you know…
One doesn’t want to be Racist…
‘Hot Rod?’ asked the host.
‘That’s exactly right,’ Obama said.”
Hmmmmmm…Maybe there was something to Larry Sinclair’s allegations after all…
Best Wishes
At this point I’m starting to think a sharp focus on Valerie Jarrett, what does she do, what does she think, what are her aims, could be more useful to understanding the Chicago crowd going to Washington with PeBHO than this Blagojevich putz. It’s almost as though Blago has already become a sideshow drawing attention (unduly) away from the main event, which is quietly but far more impactfully beavering along in the background. Along with Jarrett others, of course, of whom I for one am somewhat ignorant since I haven’t followed Chicago politics my whole life long.
I just read an AP story on Yahoo how this “might” harm O!. It was full of O!’s denials, no mention of Axlerods statements earlier, and how Republicans are “trying” to tie it to him. Right after the evil Republicans in the article are cited as trying to tie it to O!, they throw in the line about this guy calling O! a mother f@cker. Very nice snow job.
I’m pretty sure that “motherfucker” counts as a term of endearment in Chicagoland.
How long can we have a free nation with a press this dedicated to lying for power?
Axlerod is about as close to O! as you can get so how can they get away with saying he “mispoke”? Wouldn’t that be like Karl Rove saying something and then Bush saying he “mispoke”? I do not get this double standard thing I think I need to study harder or something. Or just run full speed headfirst into a wall.
If you want to read the article Rob here you go.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/illinois_governor_analysis
Yesterday, NPR interviewed someone with the Sun-Times who was emphasizing that Obama had nothing to do with this, and that may be true. But neither the interviewer nor interviewee mentioned that the Sun-Times was used by Blago to try to send a message to Obama’s camp.
This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.
— Ron Ziegler, April 17, 1973
The president is aware of what is going on. That is not to say that there is anything going on.
— Ron Ziegler, 1972
It’s good to know that our unbiased media fully vetted Teh One© and his associates during the election. That way we can be sure that everything is totally above board and that Obama is free from corruption.
What?
From the Politico article “In scandal, risks for O…”
This amounts to an admission that they did not do their jobs during the campaign, a fact obvious to Obama’s political opponents but denied by his supporters (including the press) until now.
12 Comment by Mr. Pink on 12/10 @ 8:31 am
Yahoo! story links have a shelf-life of 10 minutes. Here’s the Newsbusters coverage of the original..
Well, no, that’s not the right link. This one is Newsbusters.
Yeah, but they know everything about Palin’s tanning bed and Joe Wurzelbach’s tax lien!
BTW, when O! says “You betcha,” it’s done with a wink and a nod. “I’m just plain folks,” he’s saying, while we are all supposed to be thinking that of course he isn’t just plain folks, he’s actually better than we are.
Jaysus. Axelrod misspoke, ain’t that right, Hot Rod?
@13 Dan says But neither the interviewer nor interviewee mentioned that the Sun-Times was used by Blago to try to send a message to Obama’s camp.
That would have required actually reading the indictment Dan… and why do that when the Party has established the narrative and talking points for you.
@20 “You betcha,â€Â
Not so fast there sparky. I think he slips, like calling the journalista “sweetie.” He is not all ivy league and uptown. About as real as Madonna’s British accent maybe…
I guess Axelrod didn’t get the
“The Eds-fay are aping-tay Lago-bay’s own-fay, so don’t say anything ucking-fay oopid-stay. Uthafucka-may.”
memo.
I wonder how different this coverage would be if O!’s last name was Bush……
@22 When he calls a woman “sweetie,” it’s a put-down. He is completely full of himself.
Cranky… that is what I was getting at. I can see how I screwed that up. I was trying to infer that his true “self” came out in those two examples, and we are sure there have been others. So his very true and real self is lurking…. and I denounce myself.
Gonna be some serious tap-dancing goin’ on. Get a good seat early.
Vetting, Democrat style. AKA the backscratch method.
Was that an ashtray next to Obama’s right hand in the interview? With a few butts in it?
RACIST!
From the Byron York piece;
To me it suggests that the conversations that took place in those 3 weeks are explosive, politically explosive.
Possibly. It could be both, of course — some O! staffer on the phone confirming the deal’s a go, but with no “new ground” as far as Blago’s “corrupt plans”.
Nice time-line at The Volokh Conspiracy.
You know, the Republican Party could have a field day with this.
If it was still alive, of course.
Lindgren:
By who? By Blagojevich. But we have not heard from Blagojevich on this question. I’ll wait to see what he has to say and not assume, one way or the other.
“And there is the question of Fitzgerald’s future . Presidents can appoint their own U.S. Attorneys, but Republicans aim to all but dare Obama to remove the crusading Fitzgerald before he’s done cleaning out corruption in Chicago and Springfield.”
Like I said yesterday, didn’t the Democrats try to criminalize that fact during the current administration?
I really don’t think much will come of this as relates to Obama. He ran in different circles of the Chicago swamp o’ dirty politics. There is plenty for him to be leery of, but Blago probably isn’t one of them. Perhaps some collateral damage to his aides, etc. Or more likely, a reinforcement of the general perception that Obama is a bit too coy about what he is/was aware of (or ignorant of) in his State. I mean, next someone will suggest that Mayor Daley has ethical problems…
Maj, can you expand on that?
RC – Blago’s rise was through the Dick Mell ward-boss types (his wife is Mell’s daughter). Believe it or not, he had Progg help to win his US House seat (the Abbey Group – now defunct) as it was Rostenkowski’s old seat and they wanted someone further Left and less Machine-y.
Obama ran with the Ayers/Hyde Park Proggs types, with a tactical positioning as TEH BLACKNESS with the good Rev Wright’s church. He was Southside, Blago was Northside, in Chicago-speak.
Some of the IL Dems that join Obama may have had enough ties to the State apparatus or Blago’s administration to cause a small amount of embarrassment (hard to be all change-y when you are towing along Chicagoland apparatchiks). Was Obama involved in some sort of corrupt dealing – I rather think not. This is where any hint of any associate having dealings with Blago will be buried, where they should simply be shrugged off and pointed out as inconsequential. But that does not fit with the strange inability of Obama or his followers to admit even the very slightest of error or problem (ie. the weird inability to simply say “the surge in Iraq worked, let us move to the next issue.”)
End result of all this – IL Dems continued to be revealed for the scum they are, IL Repubs will make no progress as they are caught somewhere between being very inept and utterly inept.
I think that it would take dismantling Da Mayor Daley’s empire o’ graft before we can really see major progress in IL.
Except ,Major, the thread that runs through this whole thing is Rezko. He knew everybody and worked for everybody. He was a fixer. How insulated is Obama? Does this go to City Hall? I’m pretty sure there are people on the County(Cook) Board who are nervous. This is going to much more invasive than the Ryan scandal. I don’t think they’re- the dem machine in Illinois- are going to be able to screw the lid down on this one.
Oberweise should stick to making ice cream and find somebody with a personality to run for congress. Say. Major. You wouldn’t want to……………..nah. That’s just too crazy.
Can we officially say the press has gone beyond “lapdog�
Actually, officially I think they are now considered “blow dogs,” and not the kind that like sniffing cocaine.
What I wanna know is what did CNN, The NYT, MSNBC, CBS etc. know about these investigations and when did they know it? How much did they deliberately put off reporting until after the election?
If they right is going to go after anyone on this it should be the press. Obama won, and barring any direct, criminal involvement, a circumstantial case against the administration-elect will only make the right look like they are grasping at sour grapes. The press on the other hand is fair, deserving, game.
their………….doh!
Rusty – I have already been approached to run for an IL House seat. I ran screaming from the room.
I ran screaming from the room.
Aye, there’s the rub.
Not saying you’re obligated — you’ve given your country far more than your fair share of service already.
But we have not heard from Blagojevich on this question. I’ll wait to see what he has to say and not assume, one way or the other.
I expect Blago to demand concessions for every bit of evidence. He’s got this thing and it’s fucking golden, after all.