Posted on 12/12/2008 5:26:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The attempt by President-elect Barack Obama to distance himself from the scandal erupting in Illinois took a big hit last night with this exclusive report from Chicago’s Fox affiliate. Sources within the investigation say that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, spoke with Governor Rod Blagojevich on “multiple occasions” about the Senate succession that Blagojevich had wanted to sell to the highest bidder — and that Emanuel will likely be on the FBI wiretaps:
(VIDEO AT LINK)
On the surface, this makes sense. The notion that Obama and his team had nothing to say about the Senate appointment and had no contact whatsoever with Blagojevich was ridiculous. Emanuel, with his ties to Illinois politics and his status as Obama’s right-hand man, would make the most likely candidate to handle those negotiations.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Emanuel knew about Blagojevich’s efforts to extort payment for the selection, but it puts a damper on the idea that Emanuel tipped off the feds, too. It wouldn’t take “multiple” meetings for Emanuel to decide to squeal. If Emanuel continued meeting with Blagojevich, that indicates some kind of negotiating was happening, and that would strongly suggest that Emanuel was working on Blagojevich’s terms. It’s still possible that Emanuel was working with the feds, but why stay silent about it now? They’ve already arrested Blagojevich. Emanuel could now say, “I helped Patrick Fitzgerald when I saw something wrong and worked with them to get him to make explicit statements,” rather than spend this week ducking reporters. The “sources within the investigation” would hardly want to make a cooperating witness look bad, either. Emanuel has been acting like someone advised him to keep quiet to keep from making incriminating public statements, and this may be the reason why.
From the White House to the Wh0rehouse... again.
Bush will do something more stupid to make the ‘Rats look good.
I agree. The Obama crew is acting guilty too.
Well, if this one doesn’t stick I’m sure there will be plenty more *gates in the coming years. It should be interesting.
on the basics, it’s already bigger than Watergate: selling a Senate seat? Geez-Louise.
0bama could shoot a little old lady on the street and the
MSM and his other supporters would just say “Well, she had
to die sometime, anyway.”
Does anyone think Blago will roll over on anyone in order to avoid a long jail sentence? I don’t see him as a “good soldier”.
John Kass was on O’Reilly saying that a lot of dominos could fall if Blago talks.
It’s too bad that you can’t short sell approval ratings, because I’m thinking this is going to drop like the share price of General Motors.
“I did not have financial relations with that governor...”
Hopefully, SCOTUS is paying attention and will save us all by avoiding the need to worry about the swearing in.
Obama hasn’t been sworn in yet?
You coulda fooled me!
I hope the US Attorney has the nads to go where the investigation takes him.
But it sure does suggest that Rahman Noodle was in a ongoing negotiation with Blago over the Obama senate seat.
“I still think this’ll be bigger than Watergate by the time Barack Obama is sworn in, if it isn’t already!”
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I hope you are referring to the press coverage, because the actual crime underlying Watergate itself was penny ante.
This is great news, coming on the heels of Axelrod having to admit he was mistaken about what he said. The momentum is building.
Blajo is radioactive.
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