Posted on 12/16/2008 9:13:42 PM PST by malkee
Will the Blagojevich scandal damage the incoming Obama administration? Given Rod Blagojevich’s profane railings against Barack Obama, revealed on federal wiretaps, few observers believe — although none know for sure — that the Obama camp engaged in any pay-for-play dealings with the governor, and therefore few see any legal problems for Team Obama resulting from the criminal investigation.
But that’s not the only way the incoming administration might be caught up in the Blagojevich affair. The probe is being conducted, after all, by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who prosecuted one of the most intensely investigated and politically-charged perjury-and-false-statements cases in Washington history. In that case, the Plame affair, no one was charged with any underlying crime, yet several Bush administration officials went through repeated sessions before a grand jury, plus interviews with investigators, with their statements subjected to extraordinarily close scrutiny. You don’t think the Blagojevich matter could cause trouble for Obama? Then you haven’t looked closely enough at the Plame affair.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
so hope so.
One can only hope
I hope so..Those damn libs worked their asses off to get their beloved messiah into the White House, how fitting that some guy named Blagojevich would be the scandal that brings Obama down, Karma, ain’t it awesome
Already has.
Big time.
I took the liberty of adding the author to the title, I hope you don’t mind. York is a favorite here.
there’s a long-delay fuse on this.
And it leads to many sticks of dynamite.
This is an interesting take on Mister Fitzgerald. I would have thought him more likely a fifth-column abettor of Mister Obama; but hey, writer York is closer to the action that I.
.
As in Hill/Thomas, it’s the seriousness of the charge. This inauguration must be postponed now!
FIrst three posted used the word “HOPE”.....See BO has brought us hope already! ;~)
Betcha there are a few folks in his “power” on suicide watch. What Park is in Chicago?
**there’s a long-delay fuse on this.**
Unfortunately, if this had been a Republican, it already would have gone “BOOOOOOOM!”
rrrright. We’re still waiting for the API video
Norbit just flat out lied about the contact his staff had with Gov. Blowhard!
I still say, as in prior posts, that if Blago is to call Zer0 a Mo####r Fu####r, there has to be grist for that hate mill.
It must be that Blago hit up the Zer0 taam, including Rhambo, to decide who the new Senator would be, and how much RAT cash would be paid for that appointment!
So Zer0 now needs time to “motivate” Blago, into a “friendly position.”
Now maybe we’ll find out about these “innocent staff inquiries” are all about on Christmas day!
(Whilst you’re hugging your family!)
Bullshit!
Hey Rahm! You bus is here!
JJJ’s spokperson said today he had been working iwth the Fed since this summer when Blank-O asked him for 25,000 to appoint his wife to a board.....JJJ did the right thing he reported it immediately.
OTOH Rahm-E had 21 conversations with Blank-O where pay for play games were mentioned and he denies he’s done anything wrong.
RIGHT?
I understand insiders believe Obama to be evil.
Ok I’ll give you that, but has anyone here used the word “CHANGE” well, besides me LOL
Everyone needs to follow JJ. Jr. The rumor has it that this goes deeper into the family finances, and could damage the REV. Jessie Jackson himself.
I do hope it does, because the people need to know, the people who might have been swayed to vote for McCain, need to realize that they have elected a politician who was nurtured in a corrupt political enviroment. The euphoria of his election should go away. It is dangerous to expect too much from any politician.
All the Jackson’s are going down, Rev. Jackson, The Jackson 5, Arnold and Willis Jackson, let all their corrupted asses go down
21 call from Rahm just about the senator to be picked . That should be some fun chats to listen to.
Oh, and a former undercover LEO said Gov Blank-O was a bookie for the mob (athletic bets) on the Northside before he went into poliltics...
That should tie Blank=O into Giannoulias family, Broadway Bank where Obamba keeps his campaign funds, and who son Alex B-O and Blank-O helped get elected State Treasurer.
Even though Jesse (Robinson) Jackson may be related to Michelle Robinson Obama (both from the Friendfield Plantation area in SC) JJ and JJJ have been pretty pissed off because the substandard real estate schemes Rezko and company left their constituent in pathetic housing while they made lots of money.
Not Bo Jackson. Bo knows. ;-)
*snip*
Could the Blagojevich case lead to something like that happening to people close to Obama? Even though it might seem hard to find two more dissimilar cases, the answer is yes.
We don’t know the extent of the investigation into Blagojevich’s allegedly corrupt dealings.
Have witnesses been brought before a grand jury?
We don’t know.
If so, who are they? We don’t know.
What witnesses have been interviewed by FBI agents working for Fitzgerald? We don’t know.
Do Fitzgerald and his investigators have any doubts about the truthfulness of those who have talked? We don’t know.
But we do know that something big is going on. “There is a lot of investigation that still needs to be done,” Rob Grant, who is the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Chicago, told reporters at the news conference announcing the Blagojevich charges last week.
“There are critical interviews that we have to do and cooperation we need to get from different people.”
At the same press conference, Fitzgerald himself added, “We have a tremendous amount of information gained from the wiretap and bugs that occurred over the last month and a half or so….
One of the things we want to do with this investigation is to track out the different schemes and conspiracies to find out which ones were carried out or not and who might be involved in that or not.
And that’s something we haven’t done yet. Now that we’ve gone overt, we’ll be interviewing people and figuring that out.”
One of the things Fitzgerald and his fellow prosecutors and FBI agents will be doing is trying to determine who is telling the whole truth and who is not.
“There’s always a danger that people will make a mistake, get it wrong. There’s human frailty. They may also lie,” says Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who was a vocal critic of Fitzgerald’s handling of the Plame affair.
“Fitzgerald will try to do perjury traps, because that is what he does.”
Fitzgerald and his team have a lot of wiretap material. That has likely given them a lot of information to ask witnesses about.
Some of those witnesses may be members of the Obama transition team. For example, the Chicago Tribune recently reported that “communications between [incoming White House chief of staff Rahm] Emanuel and the Blagojevich administration were captured on court-approved wiretaps.”
Emanuel might be asked many questions, under penalty of perjury or false-statement charges. Prosecutors will compare his answers to what they have on tape.
Perhaps they’ll invite him in for another session of questioning. Then they’ll compare his answers in the second session to his answers in the first.
Perhaps they’ll repeat that a few times. As anyone in the Bush administration could advise Emanuel, it doesn’t matter if he did anything wrong or not. He just better have his answers in order.
There’s no way to say now what will happen. In the meantime, Barack Obama is saying nothing.
The president-elect says his transition team has completed its internal investigation into Blagojevich contacts and has found that “there was nothing that my office did that was in any way inappropriate or related to the charges that have been brought.”
But Obama says Fitzgerald has asked him to postpone releasing the investigation’s results until December 22. Fitzgerald’s office later issued a one-sentence statement confirming the request, so that it can “conduct certain interviews.”
Until then, don’t ask Obama anything even related to the matter. “Let me just cut you off, because I don’t want you to waste your question,” Obama told Tribune reporter John McCormick Tuesday, after McCormick attempted to ask whether Emanuel’s reportedly extensive communications with the Blagojevich administration on the Senate-seat question contradicted Obama’s earlier claims to be taking a hands-off approach to the issue.
“I don’t want to get into the details at this point,” Obama answered.
McCormick got the message. As Obama, standing by education-secretary-designate and basketball buddy Arne Duncan, continued to avoid answering the question, McCormick moved on to a more acceptable topic. “Do you or Duncan have a better jump shot?” he asked.
Obama smiled. At least for now. But he knows, or should know, that Fitzgerald and his prosecutors won’t be nearly as accommodating as the press.
I really like Savage. Missed this last week.
Obama will survive this scandal but I sure hope it means he starts his Presidency as damaged goods.
He knows that anything he says in public that contradicts what he said on tape is big trouble.
It already has. The MSM and the RATS are in full CYA mode, but anybody who can read can see for themselves Obama is already soiled, and he isn’t even in office yet. An honest prosecutor could fill a federal prison with the RATS involved in this one. Too bad we don’t have one.
Oh, me too. I don't hold out much hope for this, at all.
I agree, he did the right thing. My opinion of Jesse Jr. just went up a notch. He's obviously not a chip off the old block!
From the affidavit, page 75, we see this:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Fundraiser A to tell Individual D that ROD BLAGOJEVICH had a problem with Senate Candidate 5 just promising to help ROD BLAGOJEVICH because ROD BLAGOJEVICH had a prior bad experience with Senate Candidate 5 not keeping his word.
Don’t be too sure.
it already has..the right question is if Obama and his cronies can lie their way out of it
Everyone needs to follow JJ. Jr. The rumor has it that this goes deeper into the family finances, and could damage the REV. Jessie Jackson himself.
If that happens, then the Reverend Jessie Jackson will play the race card and wait for everyone to apologize to him.
That, in my view, is unlikely. I am more concerned about the safety of everyone involved.
Jesse Jackson denies being an official part of the Barack Obama campaign, and the campaign’s headquarters supports his denial; but no one denies that Obama and Jackson have been close over the years. The way Jackson puts it,Obama is “a neighbor or, better still, a member of the family.” New York Post reporter Amir Taheri points out that “Jackson’s son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson’s daughter went to school with Obama’s wife Michelle.” “We helped him start his career,” Taheri quotes Jackson as having told him. “And then we were always there to help him move ahead. He is the continuation of our struggle for justice not only for the black people but also for all those who have been wronged.” Jesse Jackson’s son, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who represents the Illinois’ 2nd congressional district, serves as a national co-chairman of the Barack Obama Presidential campaign.———— “Barack Obama’s Anti-Israel Alliances,” by Rachel Neuwirth, Family Security Matters, October 24, 2008, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1566/pub_detail.asp
VIA http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5917
hey..people ended up dead under Clinton..and I’m sure teh mob in Arkansas is kids play compared to the Chicago mafiosos
I've also made posts in the past that I think Blago might suddenly expire.
I sincerely hope that you are correct, and I am wrong.
If Fitz is still looking into anything on O, he will be fired.
If anything damaging should ever happen to be leaked, the dems will stonewall.
The pubbies are powerless to get anything done or to enforce anything.
The dems hold all the power, and all the cards.
And the SC, doesn't have the power or authority to push it. And even if they did, they don't have the cajones.
I agree that Obama would fire Fitzgerald in a New York minute. And Fitzgerald knows it.That’s —part of — the reason he moved when he did. I have faith. Things are moving along at a rapid pace—JJJ developments tonight. We’ll see what Fitzpatrick and our trusty reawakening friends in the MSM uncover before Jan. 20.
We have something better, an effective prosecutor who is also an egomaniac. This is going to be good.
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