Dec 09 2008
Was Blag Blackmailing Obama? Update: A Rahm Emmanuel Connection?
Major Update: Some news local reporters are getting hints the President-Elect Obama’s Chief of Staff -Rep  Rahm Emmanuel – may have tipped off authorities on Blag’s efforts to extort the President-Elect (as I posited in this post originally:
Here is a transcript of the key part from Think Progress:Â
CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.
The only problem with this is the timing of the wire taps – which began before Obama was elected. If one looks at the government charges the background on the investigating clearly indicates the first clues of a problem came in early October 2008 – before Obama was elected and before Emmanuel was named Chief of Staff. According to Paragraph 14 of the charges the first wires were authorized on Oct 21st, which means the evidence was gathered even early.
How could Emmanuel have tipped off authorities before the election? With the polls showing a strong possibility that Obama would win, was there some preemptive garbage being cleaned out of some closets? How is it a tip from Emmanuel would trigger a wire that collected damning comments the day after the election? Seems to me that this reporting would indicate Obama was being pressured before the election, not just afterwards.
– end update
This is interesting. Seems Blag was blackmailing Obama to put his wife on some high paid corporate boards, or else he would go with Jesse Jackson Jr as the new senator from Illinois since Jackson was willing to come through with the job and salary:
Among other things, ROD BLAGOJEVICH raised the issue of
whether the President-elect could help get ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife on “paid corporate
boards right now.” Advisor A responded that he “think[s] they could” and that a “President elect
. . . can do almost anything he sets his mind to.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he
will appoint “[Senate Candidate 1] . . . but if they feel like they can do this and not fucking
give me anything . . . then I’ll fucking go [Senate Candidate 5].”…
“Later on December 4, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke to Fundraiser A. ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated he was “elevating” Senate Candidate 5 on the list of candidates for the open Senate seat.Â
…
The only candidate with whom Blagojevich met within that period was Jesse Jackson, Jr.
…
Blagojevich said that he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided
Blagojevich with something “tangible up front.”
Sounds like blackmail to me.
What you wanna bet that Patrick Fitzgerald is no longer the leftoids favorite prosecutor?
Merry Fitzmas to all, and to all a Good Night!!!
Merry Fitzmas …
I bet Obama is in the middle of this up to the tips of his ears. It’s the Chicago way.
And lets not forget the other one, Rezko, this is going to start the ship a rocking.
In the complaint there are multiple references to the SEIU and Change to Win.
That almost has to put it right in the lap of Anna Burger who is the public face of the SEIU and also head of Change to Win.
She is also a Obama transition team advisor.
It almost has to be her or somebody very close to her.
Didn’t the Governor also blackmail Bank of America? The state would withdraw all accounts if they didn’t pay the workers at the “window factory”.
Fact: obama was close friends with rezko and blag. Mark Levin has been discussing this on his show. VERY interesting.
I just always wonder who is doing what to whom. This is a nasty group and rezko has been singing….Is Katrina hitting Chicago this Christmas?
🙂
It is too bad that the media was so in love with Obama that they could not do a better job of checking into some of this earlier.
Obama hasn’t even been sworn in yet and the wheels are coming off the bus. He has Clinton’s cabinet and advisors, and like his predecessor, he is already surrounded by scandal, only this time, the parts of Web Hubbell and Jim McDougal are being played by Rezko and Blago.
The only question that remains is will these guys take one for the team or will they spill the beans on Chicago corruption, possibly implicating Obama, to save their hydes.
Rezko was dishing from his prison cell to Fitzgerald in October – but mostly about Gov Rod. Trying to sell the Senate seat is the latest in a long string of corruption investigations – and if Rahm did anything, it would be to get this out before Blago appointed someone. Because a Blago-appointed U.S. Senator WOULD be a scandal that would taint the Chicago guys about to take overthe White House. Doing this now meas Blago can take the cell between former GOP Gov. Ryan and Rezko. I am sure there will be a fourth for bridge.
I am just happy that Illinois is still so blatantly corrupt. In New York, they have mostly figured out how to hide the money so the scandals are about totally unrepresentative government by appointment. The Fed’s big mafia bust in The Bronx did not get any coverage because of all the nonsense over the State Senate, finding a Latina replacement for Hillary from north of White Plains, and the prospect of Adolfo “bend over for the Manhattan developers” as the next HUD secretary…
Between the Democratic shenanigans in New York and Illinois, one wonders why the GOP cannot take advantage.
Any list of corrupt politicians must include our big city mayors; Campbell (Atlanta), Berry (D.C), Langford (Birmingham), and Obama’s friend, Kwame Kilpatrick (Detroit).
If there is a shining light, we are finally rid of William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, Tim Mahoney (FL) and Ted Stevens, the Republican in this mix. Maybe voters of all persuasions will vote these dirty politicians out before the credibility of our system erodes any further.
Since AJ posted this Rahm has come out denying any push on the issue.
FireDogLake has a post up making a good case that from the time line of the wire taps mentioned in the complaint that it pretty much cuts Rahm out as a likely source.
[…] As I noted early, it would seem Blag (say it like Vlad, since both represent blood suckers anyway) was probably pressuring Obama to give up something for his preferred pick (or some list of ‘don’t pick’). I can see team Obama turning in Blagojevich for these brazen acts. But apparently that was not the case – or else Obama would be announcing how he stopped corruption from every hill top in the land. […]
A member of the Jesse Jackson family involved in blackmail! Now isn’t that just shocking as hell!
[…] AJ Strata has a theory – The One (elect) was being blackmailed. […]