Illinois Governor Indicted Trying To Sell Obama Job

December 9. 2008

The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, has been indicted and arrested on criminal corruption charges in trying to sell the vacant senate seat of president-elect Barack Obama.

He has known Obama for years on the Chicago political circuit and sought to exploit that via engaging in talks with one of the president-elect’s advisors, assumed to be chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, regarding what he could gain in the way of financial compensation for appointing Barack’s friend, Valerie Jarrett.

Little did Rod Blagojevich know the FBI had been wiretapping his phone lines and bugging his office for 3 years. The surveillance of Blagojevich produced a massive amount of incriminating telephone calls that were intercepted and recorded by the FBI.

They now appear in a 76-page indictment and it is explosive.

During different calls he is heard calling Obama a “mother******” and stated “f*** him.” Hmm, he must have heard Britney’s new song.

Barack bummed

One line that made me giggle is when he referred to the potential financial windfall and prominence he expected to gain from his unlawful conduct as a means to “parachute me there.” Really, somebody ought to put that little gem on a t-shirt (LOL).

He referred to selling the Senate seat as thought it were his personal property. He stated on November 5, 2008, “I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it.”

He further stated if Obama would not financially compensate him or get his wife appointed to a cushy six-figure board, he would appoint himself. As the saying goes, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

Blagojevich bummed and busted

I can’t help but wonder about the timing of his arrest. On Monday Blagojevich was on CNN vowing to suspend city business with Bank of America until a line of credit was restored and workers paid at a factory.

While I don’t blame the workers, as everyone should be paid for their labor and Bank of America has now complied, maybe Blagojevich’s innocent act on TV got under the FBI’s skin and caused them to move in on him and his assistant.

The FBI has been arrest happy this month. That’s not a bad thing, as headquarters can be extremely negligent and it has hurt the nation, but I have to wonder, is someone looking for a raise or promotion.

It’s like Robert Mueller has PMS this month and is arresting everybody. 15 Chicago cops were arrested on corruption charges, 8 mobsters in New York were busted and several politicians around the nation were on the receiving end of indictments.

Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship

December 09, 2008 3:37 PM - "Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney's office today," said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption. "But as this is a ongoing investigation involving the governor I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time."

Asked what contact he'd had with the governor's office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."

But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.

While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a "kingmaker," Axelrod said, "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

http://blogs.abcnews.com 

Obama's FBI briefing cancelled

From this morning's pool report:

President-elect Obama was scheduled to travel this morning to the Chicago FBI briefing before his mid-day meeting with former Vice President Al Gore. But it has been announced that he will instead be going straight to his transition office. No word on whether the change of plans has anything to do with the Illinois governor's problems with the feds.

http://www.politico.com