The Illinois legislature has decided to let Blago use his Golden Thing.
When you’re done reading the Blagojevich complaint, with its attendant insights into Illinois politics, spare a thought for New York  where Caroline Kennedy wants a sit-down with Governor David Paterson, with the aim of claiming Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.
Is there anything wrong with that picture?
Well, let’s imagine for a moment that it’s not New York State we’re talking about, but some province – call it the State of Banana  in some nameless republic rife with dynastic politics.
(h/t Insty; Breitbart Geek Goddess Liz Stephens went off about this yesterday, and she’s cute when she’s angry–around minute 40 of the BCast B-Side, I would guess)
Obama clears himself and staff in Blagojevich case. Obama also gives himself clean bill of health after self-examination.
Comment by Darleen on 12/16 @ 9:24 am #
And All That Jazz.
Comment by MarkD on 12/16 @ 9:25 am #
Biden also said he was clean. That settles it then. Move along.
Comment by alppuccino on 12/16 @ 9:27 am #
Has Sweaty Rahm been seen?
Comment by gabriel on 12/16 @ 9:28 am #
Would they have accepted “Bush clears Rove in Plame outing”?
Comment by Mossberg500 on 12/16 @ 9:30 am #
He turned his head and coughed. Now for the prostate exam! Where’s that finger cot.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 12/16 @ 9:32 am #
I guess if the ONE says it is so it must be. All clear guys.
Comment by DarthRove on 12/16 @ 9:46 am #
So are we clear now on which statement is operative, and which statements are inoperative?
Comment by thor on 12/16 @ 10:21 am #
Obama’s poll numbers are higher than Bush’s!
Comment by DarthRove on 12/16 @ 10:25 am #
Obama’s numbers are higher than your shoe size and IQ.
In that order.
Comment by J."Trashman" Peden on 12/16 @ 10:58 am #
Obama’s poll numbers are higher than Bush’s!
= Since Obama can’t do it himself just yet, Bush needs to pardon Obama before O!’s poll numbers fall?
Comment by dre on 12/16 @ 10:58 am #
Is Obamarat still reading “My Pet Goat”?
Comment by Ella on 12/16 @ 11:13 am #
Are Blago’s phones still being tapped? Because it would be interesting, at this point, to see who he appoints and what, ahem, considerations Blago receives in return.
Valerie Jarrett was O!’s first choice. Anyone else know who was on the list O! gave Rahm Emmanual to give Blago?
Comment by Obstreperous Infidel on 12/16 @ 11:22 am #
Obama’s poll numbers? For what? He hasn’t done anything yet. Another sign of Thor slipping into alphie territory.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 12/16 @ 12:34 pm #
The problem is that there is nothing they can do to stop Gov. Blagojevich from exercising the powers of his office. He has not yet been convicted, he hasn’t been impeached, and none of those powers have been removed by legislation. So he gets to appoint and he gets the joy of watching everyone who had turned on him squirm.
Comment by mojo on 12/16 @ 3:10 pm #
Lotta good that satisfaction will do him in the joint. The boys at Joliet don’t much care for Roddy.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 12/16 @ 4:19 pm #
#15 mojo:
I don’t know much about Gov. Blagojevich, but what I have heard/read is that he would enjoy taking others with him to the Gray Rock Hilton. “See how they run, see how they run…”
Comment by B Moe on 12/16 @ 6:53 pm #
Has Sweaty Rahm been seen?
I think he is with Schumer and Rangel down at Charlie’s villa in the Caribbean.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/16 @ 7:41 pm #
“The president-elect says an internal review shows there were no inappropriate conversations with the Illinois governor about who would fill the vacant Senate seat.”
So now his position has evolved from no contacts, to no inappropriate contacts…
Next it will be; But Rahm didn’t offer him that much money…
Comment by Rich in NH on 12/16 @ 9:48 pm #
Can you believe Jackson JR? I guess you can tell when someone really has been involved in misdeeds, when all these stories begin to surface of how they have been fighting the good fight against what they are accused of doing? What a pile! And how is it that this makes its way so easily into a CNN new piece? Wheere is the independent press? Is there no shame in politics anymore - certainly honor has taken a hiatus.
Comment by KLAPTON on 12/16 @ 9:59 pm #
It is absolutely improbable that Obama was not informed, during the daily briefings he is reported to be receiving even now from various federal intelligence agencies including the FBI, about the court-authorized wire-tapping of Blago’s telephone conversations. It would, therefore, be equally improbable if he had not been advised well in advance to keep a safe distance from the Illinois governor and keep his own nose clean in this regard (but let some of his lackeys do the dirty work) so that he can claim with a straight face that he had no contact whatsoever with Blago in regard to the latter’s plan to auction the US senate seat vacated by him to the highest bidder when the scandal would eventually and inevitably break out, as it has done now. I am ,however, surprised that it has not occurred to some enterprising reporter to ask Obama at his press conference whether he had been tipped off in this matter by the FBI officially or by someone in the FBI (who is eager to curry favor with the new boss) unofficially. To what extent Obama would have entangled himself in this murky business, given his past track record and penchant for associating himself with characters with dubious antecedents, had he not been fore-warned, as I suspect, that Patrick Fitzgerald had been stalking the unsuspecting Blango, is anybody’s guess. Nonetheless, the body language of Barack Obama when he announced from a podium that he had never had any contact whatsoever with the Ill. Governor, Blago was very similar to that of his mentor and role-model, Bill Clinton when he declared vehemently under oath and wagging his index finger at his audience: “ I did not have sex with that woman!â€Â. Bribery, like prostitution, is a game which always requires two players – one on each side of the court. And, a telephone conversation needs at least two participants – one at each end of the line unless it is made out that the Blago bloke was only talking to himself detailing his own intentions or negotiating with a ghost over the telephone, neither of which is actionable under the law. It is, therefore, blatantly unfair and inequitable that only the intending bribe-taker is being charged and prosecuted while no potential bribe-giver is even being targeted. What is happening in this instance is very much akin to the hooker being always hooked by the vice squad but her ‘john’ being invariably let off the hook, as it has happened in the case of another infamous governor, Eliot Spitzer of New York!