You’ve been following the Blagojevich story, I’m confident. Assclown governor of Illinois concludes that his responsibility to fill President-Elect Barack Obama’s now vacant Senate seat represents an opportunity for embiggening his own bank account.
The part I find heartening in this is rumour that as part of his scam Blagojevich tried to strongarm Obama. Seems one of the Obama insiders, one Valerie Jarrett was a hot prospect for the seat. Rumour also has it that Blagojevich might have floated a couple of names discordant with Obama’s preferences in an attempt to strongarm Obama into giving up the Benjamins to Blagojevich. I really, really, really hope this account is credible. Wanna know why? It suggests that Obama is fully capable of the The Chicago Way.
Sun Dappled Forest 
So you think the Obama camps thought the best way to not play ball was to bring in the feds? Wouldn’t surprise me, but its too good to be true…
Let me dream a little, wouldja? Geez.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it might be true, the question is, would they want that to be public knowledge? I think not and I think the feds would not want it to be public knowledge either. I suspect we will never know… well, at least not until 2038 when the tapes are released.
Dude, there’s truly “public” knowledge and then there’s “everyone who needs to know gets it”.
Everytime you get someone new that is nominally in charge, the entrenched powers are motivated to do a little pilot work to see if they can gain a lever. The new boss is motivated to slap those motherfuckers down. I’m hoping that’s what we just saw happen. Because I want Obama to succeed in his goals, not the entrenched powers’ goals..
DM,
I see it the same way—I think Obama’s folks decided to give this asshole one chance to be on the straight and narrow and then decided to show him who’s boss. As in, the Feds are.
And no one will know for sure anyway. A tip could be sent thru seven layers of cover that would be virtually impossible to trace. So the rumors just serve, as you say, to make sure “everyone who needs to know gets it”.
O-man’s folks surely must have known for a while what a turd this fucker was and would have prepared for such contingencies anyway. I mean, this guy, Gov of Obama’s state, was not even invited to the Dem Convention—-I think they knew what he was and knew they’d have to deal with this situation eventually.
So what do we know about JJackJr? Caught with pants down on this one? He was on the O-wagon pretty early, even smacked Dear Old Dad around a bit. So why didn’t Rahmbo tell him to sit tight and not talk to Blagojevich?
I don’t know much about JJackJr but had been impressed by the little I had heard and seen. I wonder if part of the problem was that he just didn’t know what was going on. I can only imagine that the transition team has more than enough going on to occupy their time and just imagined that he would steer clear. Either way, from all appearances JJackJr didn’t play ball since he’s not a target, at least not yet.
Blagojevich has been so successful at making himself and his office look ridiculous that about a million people are now able to remember and maybe even spell his crazy name — that’s sort of like an accomplishment, right?