Time To Just Let It Go

I have been saying for sometime that the uproar over Roland Burris' appointment by newly impeached and all around scumbag Illinois Govener Rod Blagojevich was much ado about nothing. Besides the fact that I believe that he has a pretty strong legal argument that his appointment was legal and fair, I also felt like the politics of the situation would play a major role. Not the race baiting crap from Bobby Rush but the simple fact that the longer Harry Reid and the Senate Dems fight to keep Burris out of the Senate, the longer the story will be in the headlines. A story that focuses on a Democratic Govener and his scandal plagued tenure. Now after meeting with Reid and Dick Durbin Burris has gone back to Illinois and testified at Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial and said on the record that he didn't engage in any quid pro quo. He also had the Supreme Court rule that he didn't need the signature from Secretary of State Jesse White to be certified as a Senator. Not only that after the ruling Sec. White has decided to sign another sheet of paper attesting that Burris' appointment letter is "true and accurate". So now Burris will head back to Washington with momentum on his side and demand to be seated again. Well a couple of new reasons just popped into my head of why the Senate Dems are going to simply let this go.

What happens if they successfully block Burris from being seated? They still haven't signed off on a special election. So that seems to mean that they would rather wait until Blagojevich is impeached and Lt. Govener Pat Quinn is signed in and let him make the appointment. There are a few problems with that though. Here is the thing, will Quinn risk the very poor political optics of choosing a white person to fill the seat after all of this hullabaloo about not seating Burris? Mind you let there be no doubt that Bobby Rush was totally full of shit with his race baiting. But still it has opened a can of worms. And if not and he plans to appoint a black person, which one of them would be willing to accept and be seen as having taken the same seat that another black person, Burris, was denied? To me this is the biggest catch 22 of the whole situation. Even if Blagojevich is impeached and Burris is denied the seat unless the state congress of Illiniois votes to have a special election Quinn is going to have a hard time making a selection that won't piss a lot of people off.

I think Burris is seated by Monday evening. And in all reality its probably the right move even if it took a little while coming.

Bring On The Crazy!

I saw this shit live on Tee Vee and it was FUCKING AWESOME. I mean this dude is like a ringmaster in a 3 ring circus. He is enjoying this shit! Man, honestly I hope this dude never goes away. He makes Sarah Palin look self aware. Not only does he TOTALLY skip over talking about pay to play, this dude threw the Illinois State House of Representatives so far under the bus they are probably halfway to California. Not only that, he had human props witnesses to prove all of the "good things" he has done as Governer. Hell to hear him tell it, he saved some fine young black fellow's life. Damn those dastardly state representatives who wanted to condemn that brother to die. Damn them to hell I tell ya! Man talking about this press conference just won't do it any justice. Please pop some popcorn and join me in watching this unscripted comedy play out all over again.

Game Over

I haven't posted about the Blago-BRush-Burris fiasco because in the end after much wrangling I figured Burris would get seated. I kinda started to almost cheer for Harry Reid to stand up to them and show some nuts for once after they pulled the race card out but then I saw K-Teezie's story about Reid threatening to use armed police officers to physically bar Burris from taking the Senate floor and immediately I knew that he had made a huge error. That visual would just be much to much like the George Wallace scene from the 60s when he was standing in the doorway of the University of Alabama trying to keep the black students from integrating. The race card would actually be validated and many older black folks would not appreciate that at all. But still I kinda thought that surely they could work out something behind the scenes to get Burris to stay home. Well that shit is completely out of the window now.

You see it turns out that the Chicago Sun Times is now reporting that Harry Reid had called Blagojevich before he had been arrested and the story of him trying to sell the Senate seat broke to request that he not appoint three people in particular to the seat.

Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn’t want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.

Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate president who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero confirmed that Reid (D-Nev.) and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) — the new chief of the Senate Democratic political operation — each called Blagojevich’s campaign office separately Dec. 3. Sources believe that at least portions of the phone conversations are on tape.

So we have:

Jesse Jackson Jr.

Danny Davis

Emil Jones

What do all of them have in common? You guessed it folks, they are all black men. Yep three black men were labeled "unelectable" by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid not even a month after the President Elect Barack Obama won the Presidency. LOL I would LOVE to see Harry Reid try to explain this away and continue to block Burris being seated without coming off looking like a Grand Wizard.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Its all over folks, the race card has won again. I am not happy about it but as I have said on other blogs I can't knock Blago's hustle. This move was FUCKING BRILLIANT! Hell I just remembered while I was typing this post up that a few days ago the story broke that Blago first offered the seat to Danny Davis but he said no. Man, now if he had said yes Harry Reid REALLY would have been fucked.

Sigh, if only Blago could use his skills for good.

So as for Harry Reid, you can stick a fork in him, he has folded his tent, gameover, insert your favorite euphemism but its going to end with Burris being seated and Reid bowing down.

Some things never change.

Keep It Moving, Nothing To See Here

The Blagojevich report from President Elect Barack Obama has finally been released. Nothing juicy has been extracted so far from the talking heads and it seems that true to Obama's word nothing improper was documented. Rahm Emanuel did talk to Governer Blagojevich once or twice but there was never any quid pro quo. One thing I did find interesting was that President Elect Obama did actually float Jesse Jackson Jr's name as one of four people who would make a good appointment to his vacated Senate seat. This was interesting because right after the Blagojevich scandal broke many people were trying to posit that Obama didn't want Triple J to get the Senate seat and had some how snubbed him.

From Karen Tumulty of TIME's Swampland Blogs post on the report.

Between the time that Mr. Emanuel decided to accept the position of Chief of Staff in the White House and December 8, 2008, Mr. Emanuel had about four telephone conversations with John Harris, Chief of Staff to the Governor, on the subject of the Senate seat. In these conversations, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Harris discussed the merits of potential candidates and the strategic benefit that each candidate would bring to the Senate seat. After Ms. Jarrett removed herself from consideration, Mr. Emanuel – with the authorization of the President-Elect – gave Mr. Harris the names of four individuals whom the President-Elect considered to be highly qualified: Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Schakowsky and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

There was one caveat that Obama and some of his staff including Emanuel and Valarie Jarrett were interviewed last week by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald but it appears that there it was just an informal deal.

I am sure that there will be some "clouds" that are formulated by the FoxNews folk and Joe Scarborough over the report but it appears that after having had the report vetted by U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald it truly appears that this is much adieu about nothing.

My Prediction For Morning Joe

Today on with This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Mr Stephanopolous reveals that he has been briefed on the report detailing the communications between President Elect Obama's staff and disgraced Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich's office. According to Stephanopoulos:

Sources tell me that the Obama team's review of contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will show that Rahm Emanuel had only one phone conversation with Blagojevich.

The contact, described as a "pro-forma" courtesy call, came as Emanuel was named Chief of Staff for Obama. Most of the discussion concerned Emanuel's Congressional seat (which had previously been held by Blagojevich), with only a "passing reference" to the Senate vacancy, according to these sources. No deal for the Senate vacancy was discussed

snip

Sources also confirm that Emanuel made the case for picking Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett during at least one of the conversations. In the course of that conversation, Harris asked if in return for picking Jarrett, "all we get is appreciation, right?" "Right," Emanuel responded.

Now I am sure that the case could be made that perhaps Obama's staff cooked the books on the list of contacts. Short of having access to the actual wiretaps that is a plausible point. But my bet is Joe Scarborough and his cohorts on Morning Joe won't even look for a plausible course of thought. No my bet is instead of this information exhonerating Rahm Emanuel, they will paint this as actually being an indictment of Rahm Emanuel. And then a guest, perhaps Pat Buchanan will say what a cloud this puts of Obama's incoming administration and how Rahm needs to come out and explain why he didn't do anything wrong.

When it happens tomorrow remember you heard it here first folks.

(h/t Coates and huffpo)

The Questions That Have To Be Answered!

I think its time to look at the anatomy of the "scandal" that President Elect Barack Obama is currently embroiled in (according to talking heads on cable news) involving disgraced Governer of Illinois Rod Blagojevich.

Lets take it from the top.

First we have Mark Halperin coming out and chastising the media (of which he is a part of) for being in the tank for Barack Obama during the Presidential campaign. I believe the word he used was "disgusted".

Then on December 10th Governer of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal authorities on corruption charges.

Then on the same day the seventy eight page indictment is released to the public.

Also on the same day United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald the prosecutor of Scooter Libby in his perjury trial, holds a press conference anouncing details of the investigation. At this time he drops the bomb shell that Gov. Blagojevich was caught on wire taps trying to sell Barack Obama's open Senate seat.

Fitzgerald then goes to great pains to warn the press not to associate President Elect Barack Obama with the Blagojevich scandal because his investigation has found no wrong doing on Obama's part.

The press proceeds to associate President Elect Barack Obama with the Blagojevich scandal.

Obama who has been in meetings all that morning with former Vice President Al Gore trying to come up with ways to help solve our global warming problems as well as seeking counsel on green energy initiatives comes out to do a press conference. When asked directly about the arrest of Rod Blagojevich Obama responds that he has had no contact with Rod Blagojevich and that he is saddened to hear of the arrest.

The press interpret this as Barack Obama being sympathetic to Rod Blagojevich.

The press then scurry off to scour the internet where they find a clip of Obama advisor David Axlerod from a couple of weeks earlier saying he knew Barack Obama had met with Rod Blagojevich. The clip is then used to show that "obviously" Barack Obama had lied about meeting with Rod Blagojevich about paying him so that Blagojevich would install Valarie Jarrett into the Senate seat.

The next day Joe Scarborough on his MSNBC show "Morning Joe" leads the charge alledging that Obama must have done something wrong. He starts flogging an article from 2002 written by Chris Cilliza in which Scarborough says Rahm Emanuel claimed he and Obama ran Blagojevich's gubenatorial campaign. No one notices that Obama was a State Senator at the time not a campaign manager. Nor do they notice that Obama endorsed Blagojevich's opposition in the primary that year. Then he and Pat Buchannan spend the rest of the three hours of the show assailing Obama for not coming out harder against Blagojevich.

Rick Sanchez uses his time on CNN to try to get his moniker for the scandal, "Blago gate", to catch on.

The day after that President Elect Barack Obama comes out and slams Blagojevich and says he thinks its best if he steps down at a press conference announcing Tom Daschle to lead HHS in his administration . In response to a question Obama asserts that his office was initiating an internal investigation to document each and every contact his office has had with Blagojevich and or his office that he will provide to the press at its conclusion. He further reasserts that he had not had any contact with Blagojevich and that he firmly believed that no one in his office engaged in pay to play with him pointing out the racy language Blagojevich used to signify that fact in the wire tapped conversations.

The press takes the news of an internal investigation the fruits of which having been pledged to be presented for public consumption as further proof of Obama's complicity and his willingness to hide it.

Going into and during the weekend different talking heads and print media journalists forecast clouds to hang over Obama's head until the content of the internal investigation is presented. They also baselessly speculated that Rahm Emanuel was the person who had contact with Blagojevich over pay to play regarding the Senate Seat.

On Monday morning December 15th Scarborough is back at it flogging the "Obama is hiding something" meme. But curiously another conversation emerges between Scarborough and Buchannan about whether or not what Blagojevich did was even illegal. Scarborough asserts that from his experience many politicians including himself say stuff out of frustration which may be just blowing off steam. After going back and forth about how Blagojevich might not have "really" done anything wrong Scarborough and his cohorts go back to hitting Barack Obama for not releasing the information found in an investigation that had not yet been completed.

On the same day Obama's transition team releases a statement asserting that they were done with the investigation and had sent it to Fitzgerald to be vetted at which time he asked that they not release the investigation for another week. Because they wanted to respect the investigation Obama's team decided to honor the request. The press release also asserted that the results of the investigation confirmed Obama's assertion that no one on his team had engaged in any innappropriate contact with Blagojevich or his office.

Rick Sanchez read the press release on his show and focused on the word inappropriate and decided that it was a problematic. This besides the fact that the opposite of innapropriate is appropriate. I am still trying to figure out how Obama's team having appropriate contact would be a problem but I digress.

Many other media members pick up on Sanchez's vibe and start railing against Obama not revealing what appropriate contacts his team had with Blago and or his office.

President Elect Obama holds a press conference to announce the selections of Steven Chu as his pick to head the Department of Energy, Lisa Jackson as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Carol Browner as assistant to the president for energy and climate change and tapped Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. After the introductions are done Obama takes a question about the Blagojevich scandal and he refers to the press release and the request by Fitzgerald to not release the contents of the investigation until next week.

The press is undeterred.

A day later the press is back at it outraged that Obama had the nerve to actually honor the request of a U.S. Attorney to hold back on releasing the results of his internal investigation. This despite the fact that many of those same media members were saying just a few days prior that the only valid reason Obama could have for not talking about the case would be if Fitzgerald had asked him not to. Never once does any talking head or print journalist ever say what the problem would be with Obama's transition team having contact with Blagojevich. Its enough for them that the contacts were not released that they need not worry about silly issues like that.

The next day Obama holds another press conference to announce his pick for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. Again he is asked about Blagojevich. Before the journalist can get out his question however Obama stops him and repeats what he has already said about not talking about the contexts until they are released in the next week because he wanted to honor Fitzgeralds request.

This time the press is outraged. "We gotta get tough with him" says one. "There are questions he has to answer" says another. "The honeymoon is over" declares one more.

So to recap, Blagojevich is caught on tape calling Obama a mother bleeper for not being willing to pay for someone to go to the Senate, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald comes out and says Obama wasn't involved, Obama says he wasn't involved, Obama announces he will make public an internal investigation into the contacts his team has had with Blagojevich instead of just making a blanket statement that nobody had done anything wrong and putting the onus on the press to try to dig up the information, Obama agrees to hold off a week in releasing the list of contacts at Fitzgeralds request, and Obama refuses to answer questions about the list at press conference because he wants to respect Fitzgeralds request.

And for this our free press wants us to be outraged?

Well here are my questions that needsto be answered. Why in the hell does it matter? What does it matter if he hands the press the contacts today or next week? Does anyone think he is never coming back from vacation? Does anyone believe that he is going to be able to avoid the press for the next four years? Does anyone TRULY believe that he engaged in pay to play with Blagojevich?

The media in the last week has gone from woefully inept and spineless during the Bush administration to hyperactive with Obama and his incoming administration. It seems that they are going out of their way to give this none story legs just to prove to the Halperins and Sean Hannitys of the world that they don't have a liberal bias and that they aren't in the tank for Obama. The truth is all they are doing is lowering their only low bar and proving themselves to be even more inept and spineless. The stories generated by this scandal that try to tie Blagojevich to Obama do nothing but prove that the media will waste no opportunity to pander to the right wing of this country. Of course many of these same members of the press are working for corportions that are now undergoing financial problems. There was a time when I had empathy for them, but not any more. The press in this country have been failing us for the last 8 years and from the looks of them they will be failing us for the next. Coming out trying to invent a scandal about the incoming President does NOT show that you are getting tougher or that you are not in the tank. All it really shows is that the journalists that engage in that behavior are more interested looking tough than looking competent.

And to think there was a time in this country when most of the journalists were both.

Yes He Is, Wait No He Isn't

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has a column today entitled "Obama's Pressers: No Comment -- and NoDoz" about President Elect Barack Obama's refusal to answer any questions yesterday about the Rod Blagojevich scandal after his press conference. From reading the article one can only conclude that Milbank is a recent graduate of the Politico School of Journalism. I just have to wonder if ANYBODY actually reads their own articles nowadays before they are presented for publishing. You have to work really really hard to do the kind of 180 degree turn Milbank did in his article about whether or not Obama is treating the media like President Bush has, without getting a bad case of whiplash. Check the contradiction.

First he gives us this gem of a paragraph implying that Barack Obama is a Bush clone when it comes to the media. (And don't forget the sexist and thoroughly innapropriate skirt comment)

There's no denying Obama's team has an impressive starting five: Duncan (6-foot-5), incoming national security adviser James Jones and body man Reggie Love (both 6-foot-4) all played college basketball, while Attorney General-designate Eric Holder and U.N. Ambassador-designate Susan Rice played high school ball. But Obama's response to Blagojevich questions has been decidedly junior varsity. Begging off because of an ongoing investigation? Hiding behind Patrick Fitzgerald's skirt? Warning a reporter not to "waste" a question and asking for an alternative question? All four techniques were popularized by Bush.

But then a mere eight sentences later we get this insight implying that Obama is NOTHING like Bush when it comes to the media.

The charge may be premature. Obama has proved himself to be far more willing to take questions than Bush, and if he makes good on his promise to release the full account of his aides' Blagojevich ties -- even on Christmas Eve -- it will be a major improvement in transparency over the current administration.

So which is it Mr. Milbank? Is Barack Obama a Bush clone or is he the anti-Bush? People have debated for the last few weeks why the Big 3 auto makers are in financial distress but writing like Milbank's in this article illustrates to me EXACTLY why many of the major newspaper companies find themselves in a similar situation. And at this point because of that poor level of journalism I have little to no empathy for hacks like him.

Liar Liar Scarborough's Pants En Fuego

You gotta love how Joe Scarboroughtries to sell himself, much like Bill O, as a paragon of media integrity. For the past two weeks Joe on his MSNBC show "Morning Joe" has helped to lead the charge in the baseless smearing of President Elect Barack Obama with some manufactured ties to disgraced Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich. Interestingly enough Scarborogh has also been pointing to his bonafides as having held the Bush administration to account for the Valarie Plame scandal as proof of his "fair and balanced" approach (Seriously, FoxNews was MADE for this guy). But you know, as a somewhat frequent watcher of Morning Joe (its like a train wreck, I just can't turn away) I could never remember such a time when he was trying to shine a light on the cover up of the Valarie Plame scandal. So of course I used "the google" and whaddyaknow, the guy is, once again, lying through his frikkin teeth. Thank you God for giving us MediaMatters so slimeballs like Joe Scarborough can't get away with this kind of blatant revisionist history. This is from February of this year:

Summary: In again refusing to acknowledge that former White House senior political adviser Karl Rove was involved in leaking the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame to conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough falsely suggested that Rove was not a source for Novak.

snip

During an interview with Novak on the July 18, 2007, edition of Morning Joe, Scarborough suggested that Rove had played no role in the leaking of Plame's identity, saying that the press "followed [the CIA leak investigation] like a pack of dogs talking about was it Rove, is it [Vice President Dick] Cheney, is it [President] Bush, who was it, who was it, and when they found out it was [then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage, everybody kind of yawned and went on."

The next day, after Media Matters for America pointed out that Scarborough had falsely suggested that Rove was not involved, Scarborough claimed that Media Matters was "very upset because of my interview yesterday with Bob Novak, talking about the narrative that the left wing had for a very long time that this whole Valerie Plame leak was a diabolical plot hatched by Karl Rove." Scarborough later introduced Novak -- appearing for the second straight day on the show -- and said he was "[h]ere to clear that up and talk about his book, Prince of Darkness [Crown Forum, July 2007]." In response to questioning from Scarborough, Novak explained that Rove was his confirming source.

snip

SCARBOROUGH: All right, so here we have John McCain proving once again that he's a liberal, and I'll tell you why. Because liberals have spent the past 30 years calling Bob Novak a liar. And every time liberals call Bob Novak a liar, they're the ones who end up with egg on their face. I remember during the Valerie Plame episode. Remember, Bob Novak told us from the beginning, "This wasn't an ideologue that gave me the name. This wasn't Karl -- this wasn't a Bush operation." And liberals, "Oh, he's lying, da da da da da." And then remember earlier this year, Bob Novak -- and, of course, Novak was right. The liberals were wrong. And then earlier this year, you had Bob Novak talking about how the Clintons were shopping dirt on Obama.

President Elect Obama's Transition Team Releases Statement on Blagojevich Contacts, Pundits Salivate

Word has just come down that President Elect Barack Obama's transition team has released a statement regarding the their report on any contacts between their office and disgraced Illinois Rod Blagojevich's office. It seems that the report is ready to go but after a revue US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked them to hold off on releasing report until next week so as to not impede his investigation. Now let me quote from a portion of the press release.

"At the direction of the President-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed and is ready for release. That review affirmed the public statements of the President-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the President-elect's staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as US Senator.

Now Karen Tumulty at TIME'S Swampland blogs characterized the report like so.

(I'm told it turned out to be "pretty milquetoast stuff.")

So now the report is ready, it has been reviewed by USA Fitzgerald, and supposedly its "milque toast stuff". Do you think any of that will stop the talking heads from continuing to frame this story as harmful to President Elect Obama? Of course not.

There is a reason why I highlighted the quote from the press release. No sooner than I had read the post on Swampland, I hear Rick Sanchez on CNN parsing the word "inappropriate" in the statement to frame it as mysterious. Mind you on most days I enjoy Sanchez, especially when he was in rare form during the election season. But the media are in straight group think mode right now and Blago Gate and its supposed negative effects on PEOTUS Obama is the ruling meme of the day. I can only imagine how that statement, that to any reasonable person reads as a confirmation of the absence any wrong doing, will be twisted by this time tomorrow into being an indictment on Obama and his whole transition team.

Clinton Rules are in full effect baby. But somehow I believe that Obama is strong enough to weather the storm.

Speaking of MSNBC

I forgot to acknowledge the nice little smackdown Tamron Hall laid down on Republican hack Doug Heye last week. I had always heard you don't try to mess with a Chi Town girl!

Wall Street Journal Is Now Wing Nut Central

I just so happened to catch this story over at the Wall Street Journal about how supposedly the Chicago Tribune caused the premature arrest of Rod Blagojevich. As the story goes some ever present "unnamed sources" claim that the Tribune had been asked to put a hold on a story that ran December 5th detailing how Blago's phones were being tapped by the Feds. The story is chocked full of all manner of assumptions and aspersions against the Times and it ends thusly.

Had it not been for the Tribune’s Dec. 5 story, the meeting Blagojevich’s brother was arranging might have proceeded. Mr. Blagojevich is quoted as citing the story, in the affidavit, then calling off the meeting. At a minimum, the FBI’s recorders would have been rolling when he reported back. The feds also probably would have tried to bug the session live, or at least to tail the participants and secretly film or photograph them. That’s what feds do. Jurors love video.

Now there was a time not long ago that paragraphs such as the one quoted would have been seen as below the standards of the WSJ. But that day is no more. Ever since Rupert Murdock bought them out, they have moved considerably towards their seeming goal to become the far right mouth piece of print media. Its sad really because once a publication loses the respect of the average reader its rare that they ever get it back. But I am a firm believer that you can tell a lot about the quality and direction of a publication by the stuff you find in the comments section. So let me provide a few excerpts for your voyeuristic pleasure.

Why waste time writing about this. Obama can do whatever he wants. Please, write more stories about his puppies and how he likes to play basketball. Obama is Untouchable. He can buy houses with other peoples money and say it was a “bone headed” thing to do and ‘journalists’ could care less.

Please, this is all just another ‘distraction’. We don’t have to know these details. Can’t you just have Obama be Obama? If this kind of stuff is so important now, why didn’t the MSM look into Mr. Obama’s upbringing in the cauldron of Chicago machine politics, and how a nobody like him rose to State senator, US senator, and President-elect in just a few years with no tangible achievements, and assumed to be pure as the driven snow?

Someone at the Tribune must have tipped off the targets of this investigation (inside the BHO campaign), then , getting their orders to spill the beans, they released the story to force Fitz’s hand and/or warn Blago

This is an intro to a presidential term of Chicago “Daley” mafia politics run by an “untouchable” expert, B.H. Obama, that will infect every corner of USA. Get ready folks!

At least Bush wasn’t a crook.

Why didn’t our messiah, Obama, bring “change” to Ilinois and Chicago before trying to bring it to the USA and the world?

The Chicago Tribune and especially it’s editor are treasonous. They are protecting the empty suit conman, Obama. Barry is an unqualified, ineligible liar, and I doubt he’ll even make it to president, as the American people are about to demand that he show his birth certificate, which he has hired three law firms to avoid.

Not exactly the kind of readership most would normally associate with the WSJ, no?

The irony, of course, is that Sam Zell has been a major financial donor to Republican causes. But hey why let the facts get in the way of wingnut outrage right?

So great job Rupert,you are right on track in your quest to turn the Wall Street Journal into the FoxNews of print media. How about buying PBS next and giving Andy Martin his own show?

Eugene Robinson, This Is The NEW Playbook!

Eugene Robinson is just the latest journalist to reveal their hacktackular side yesterday in his column entitled "A Playbook to Change". Now being as how Mr. Robinson is a frequent guest on "Morning Joe" everyone should have known the guy would be pliable when it comes to journalistic standards. But this particular article is just a joke in every sense of the word. Some how Robinson is equating PEOTUS Barack Obama's being thoughtful and actually wanting to investigate his own staff before making a blanket statement absolving them to using the "old" playbook. Really? So when was the last time that George Bush DIDN'T come out and lie immediately and make blanket statements when a scandal came out? When was the last time George Bush said he would release the fruits of an internal investigation into whether anybody on his staff engaged in questionable activities? No Mr. Robinson you see, this is the NEW playbook where it actually matters to the guy at the top that he gets it right the first time. It actually matters to him that his team is open and honest. It actually matters enough to PEOTUS Obama that he isn't willing to use the "old" playbook and promise things that might not be true just in the interest of politics and playing the media game.

There is a line being pushed by many of the drudge obsessed journos in the MSM that shows up in Eugene Robinson's article about President Elect Obama not being forthright enough. So lets examine it for a minute.

But the longer he leaves obvious questions unanswered, the longer the president-elect will have to talk about the seamier side of Illinois politics rather than initiatives such as saving the U.S. auto industry or revamping health care.

Ok so lets see the "obvious questions" that are included in Eugene Robinson's column that are so pressing for our President Elect that he hasn't answered. Here is the first one I found.

The normal thing would be for Obama's staff to talk to Blagojevich's staff -- and, unless prosecutors have asked him not to, I don't understand why Obama hasn't stated this simple fact.

But lets see what President Elect Obama
actually said on this matter.

What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that I might -- may have -- that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office. And we'll have those in the next few days, and we'll present them.

So Obama not only acknowledges that there might have been contacts between his office and the Governor's office and pledges to present the facts of any of those contacts. Isn't that what we have been missing for the last 8 years? Aren't we supposed to like the fact that our President is willing to investigate his own staff and then turn around and present the evidence publicly? Isn't the old playbook that you just deny deny deny and then refuse to comment? Ok so maybe Eugene Robinson just missed that part of the press conference. Lets look for the other "obvious questions" in his article that have gone unanswered. Here is the next one.

That raises the question of what the Obama team knew about the investigation and when.

Now here is what's funny, supposedly all of the Chicago newspapers and most off the Illinois politicians were following the investigation into Rod Blagojevich but they ALL claimed to be shocked about the new revelations about him trying to sell the Senate seat. I wonder if Eugene Robinson put in a call to Dick Durban to ask him if he knew anything about the investigation. I mean whomever that is named to that seat would be a fellow Illinois Senator. Following Eugene Robinson's logic we should all be suspicious of Dick Durbin too, no?But setting that aside for a minute, lets see what Obama had to say about this matter.

MR. OBAMA: I have not been contacted by any federal officials. And we have not been interviewed by them. As is reflected in the U.S. attorney's report, we were not, I think, perceived by the governor's office as amenable to any deal-making. And, you know, I won't quote back some of the things that were said about me. So -- this is a family program, I know.

So, you know -- so, beyond that, I'm not really certain where the investigation is going forward. I'll leave Mr. Fitzgerald to address those issues. OK, Mike Flannery, CBS.

Now the funny thing is the person with ALL of the answers about the case is Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald so why aren't any pundits calling on him to answer questions? Notice how Eugene Robinson says in the earlier quote

unless prosecutors have asked him not to

So uhmmm why not just ASK the prosecutors if he asked PEOTUS Obama not to comment on the matter. Ill tell you why, because if the prosecutor says that he did in fact ask Obama not to comment about the investigation then it takes away another talking point. And we all know how those MSM folks LOVE their talking points. Especially when they get their mug on TV in the mornings. I could point out that the Chicago Tribune printed a letter to the readers that explained how the prosecutors had asked them several times not to publish stories that would hurt the case against Blagojevich but then I might be destroying Mr. Robinson's "the prosecution doesn't mind everybody talking" meme wouldn't I?

Ok so what other "obvious questions" are just burning in Mr. Robinson's brain? Wait, what do you mean that's it? Are you trying to tell me this guy wrote a whole article about "obvious questions" that PEOTUS Obama hasn't answered and he came up with all of 2 questions? And are you trying to say to me that at least 1 of those 2 questions had already been answered? Wow. But wait wasn't the whole point of his column that Obama was way too involved with Blagojevich not to be more open and forthcoming about it? And doesn't Eugene do a great job of joining them at the hip? Uhmm not exactly.

For most politicians, that would be good enough. For Obama, who inspired the nation with a promise of "change we can believe in," it's not.

The scandal involves Obama in only the most tangential way, as far as anyone knows, and actually seems to cast him in a favorable light.

He delivers an expletive-laden tirade against Obama, according to the court papers, because he believes Obama wants him to give the job to a specific candidate "for nothing." This actually makes the president-elect and his team look good

None of this is likely to hurt Obama in any material way or even dim the glow of his victory and upcoming inauguration.

So Eugene Robinson wrote a column about a subject that "isn't likely to hurt Obama" about a scandal that only involves Obama in a "tangential way" where the substance of the scandal actually "makes the president-elect look good" which should be the end of the story but because Obama "promised "change we can believe in" its not". Thanks so much for your contribution to American journalism Mr. Robinson. I am sure that you are oh so proud.

Here is a final "obvious question" to YOU Mr. Robinson that has gone unanswered, If President Elect Barack Obama were to have listed all of the contacts his office had with Rod Blagojevich's office yesterday and then a week from now he discovered that there had been more contacts, would you cut him a break and conclude he just had made an honest mistake, or would you rake him over the coals for lying to the American people after promising Change We Can Believe In? I'll leave the answer to your conscious, if you have one that is.


While you are at it maybe you can explain to me what is so important about whether Obama or people on his team met with Blagojevich and what they knew about the investigation when all the facts point to Blago having the distinct impression that they were not willing to pay to play. But then again that's a question that only a REAL journalist would ask themselves before they wrote articles like yours.

"Blago-Gate Nonsense" or "Where Are the Pool Reports"?

I have been watching Morning Joe and have been posting on Swampland at TIME this morning and I just want to know, where are the pool reports. You see the WingNut tools of destruction (the RNC, FoxNews, Matt Drudge, Jake Tapper,
Michael Scherer, and Joe Scarborough) are hell bent on making David Axlerod's missstatement about PEOTUS Barack Obama meeting with Governer Rod Blagojevich a major news story and perhaps even a scandal. But excuse me, isn't there a pool reporter going everywhere with Barack Obama these days?

And hasn't that pool reporter generated such riveting news that we now know when and where and how long our President elects gets his pilates on? Or via the jerk Ben Smith, how many times our President elected has declined to attend church since election day? So its simple folks, if the media really want to prove Obama is lying, just produce the pool report where he met with Blago. If not I think we should ALL be handing them a big cup of STFU!


There is one thing that is going unspoken here. Whether this will be or won't be an issue for Barack Obama going forward will lie directly with the press. Either they can choose to cover this non issue relentlessly or they can actually focus on stuff that matters. And thats the point. Jake Tapper/Drudge are trying like hell to make it seem like Obama was lying yesterday when he said he didn't meet with Blagovich because of something David Axlerod said on FoxNews some weeks ago. But if you go to the tape Axlerod himself said he hadn't talked to PEOTUS Obama about the Senate seat and didn't know who he preferred right before he made the comment that Obama had met with Blagojevich. If you want to see the full exchange that Tapper nor Drudge nor FoxNews themselves will show here it is.
.
Axlerod on Fox
.
Mind you EVERYTHING released Tuesday in reference to the case against Blago shows that he was PISSED that Obama wouldn't pony up. So imagine this for a moment, lets say a GOOD journalist reads the indictment, sees that Blago calls Obama a mutherphucker for not being willing to give him anything but appreciation in exchange for naming Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat. Subsequently Valerie Jarrett removes her name from consideration and joins Obama's staff in the White House. A reasonable person would take that to mean that Obama said if there was going to be some kind of pay to play scheme he wasn't going to be involved and he would bring her to Washington with him. So lets go REAL worst case scenario. We find out Obama met with Blago, Obama said he wasn't playing ball, to prove it Obama gives Jarrett a job himself. So where would the "he did or he didn't" meet with Blago register on the richter scale in that scenario to the average person? Hell most of them would think he was a HERO for saying no and not playing ball. But instead the triumverate of Drudge Tapper Scherer and I am POSITIVE soon to be Jonathan Martin from Politico, have decided that Axlerod talking on FoxNews is whats MOST important about this story so I guess it is huh?

Now here is the relevant factor when judging if this was good journalism or not, there is a frikkin pool reporter with Obama around the clock these days, thus Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin of Politico fame's running post about Obama not attending church since the election. So how hard do you think it would have been for Tapper to go back and look to see the pool reports? But now because of Drudge to Tapper to of course Scherer this looks like somebody is lying or trying to hide something. Hell Mikey Scherer could have looked up those pool reports too, but he didn't. I mean shit do you think he wanted to kill his own story gifted to him by Tapper? Of course not.

Lets, for a moment, take as truth that Obama met with Blago. Here is what the imperical evidence would show in my opinion.

1. Obama meets with Blago to recommend Valerie Jarrett

2. Blago says he wants Obama to pay to play

3. Obama says thanks but no thanks.

4. Blago starts making threats about naming other people if Obama doesn't pony up

5. Obama says phuck you to Blago and names Valarie Jarrett to his White House Staff.

I mean its Blago's own words that tell us that Obama's people weren't playing ball.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that he is "struggling" financially and does "not want to be Governor for the next two years." ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him."

And we do know that he was referring to Valerie Jarrett. And we do know that she took her name out of consideration and joined Obama's WhiteHouse team. I am really anxious to see how Sean Hannity can twist those simple facts into a negative light. Its almost impossible. But of course he probably won't touch it because, well, they are FACTS. He and every other two bit talking head will just focus on the bogus "Obama's lying" meme without taking the next step of trying to explain WHY he might lie about talking to a guy when its pretty easy to find out whether he did or didn't and when he obviously refused to bow to Blago's demands.


On the other hand nobody in the media thought the outing of Valerie Plame, pretty much an act off treason if not cowardice, by Dick Cheney and Karl Rove was too much of a big deal. Nor did they think it a big deal that after Scooter Libby was thrown under the bus and was rightly tried and convicted that he never served a day in prison because George Bush decided to commute his sentence. Now people are STILL pissed about Bill Clinton pardoning Marc Rich because he was selling oil to Iran. But NOBODY is pissed that Bush and his cronies outed a woman who was tasked with helping keeping America safe. So you see the press has the power to decide what is relevant and what isn't and if the last few weeks is any indication all of a sudden the press are going to try to find their inner Sherlock Holmes now. Just like with Whitewater and Gennifer Flowersin the last Democratic presidency.


Now of course Jake Tapper, Joe Scarborough et all are now also trying to make an issue out off Obama campaigning for Blagojevich in 2006. Funny but I don't remember any of them waving their finger at the Republicans who made Tom Delay their leader, or a those Senators who gave, convicted of 7 felonies, Ted "Hulk" Stevens. Of course they also didn't point out that Blago never did any campaign appearance for Obama, nor did he have a speech at the Democratic National Convention, or was he at Grant Park for the celebration after Barack Obama won. And finally of course they didn't point out that John McCain used Blagojevich in an attack ad and so EVERYBODY already knew the guy was under investigation.




Of course not, that would TOTALLY kill their whole guilty by assocication meme!

What I want to know is when any of those bastards will write a story about the many lies of George Bush. But I'm not holding my breath.