TW: Man, we were rocking (the Obama thing etc.) but the last couple of days have been tough. Yesterday, Chicago Tribune- owner of our paper, our primary baseball team (sorry Nardo), our TV station and a key architectural landmark- goes bankrupt and Ron Santo for the umpteenth time gets shafted by the Hall of Fame voters in favor of yet another so so New York Yankee.
Then today Blagojevich just takes the cake. We are used to benevolent dictatorship, e.g. Daley mayoralties, and a fair amount of corruption (see George Ryan, Dan Rostenkowski and a hundred others). But Blago has some real cojones, it is no surprise I suppose merely further affirmation of how messed things are.
From the prosecutor statement via TPM:
"Regarding the Senate seat, the charges allege that Blagojevich, Harris and others have engaged and are engaging in efforts to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, to benefit Blagojevich and his family through corruptly using Blagojevich's sole authority to appoint a successor to the unexpired term of the President-elect's former Senate seat, which he resigned effective November 16. The affidavit details numerous conversations about the Senate seat between November 3 and December 5. In these conversations, Blagojevich repeatedly discussed the attributes of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois, and the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive if he appointed various of the possible candidates.
Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being "stuck" as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife's employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.
In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: "if . . . they're not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it." Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain." He added later that the seat "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."
3 comments:
Some of Blago's wiretaps were absolutely classic!
"Fundraiser A" to tell "Individual D" that if Senate Candidate 5 were going to be chosen, “some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now... right now... and we gotta see it.”
“You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening. You hear me?”
We can hear ya now, Guv.
PS Mr. Treymo--the primary baseball team for the weak minded in Chicago.
re the Sox...was just making sure u were paying attention!!!
I mean u do have the POTUS elect on your side now...
Of course I'm reading. I just can't keep up with all that you find fit to print!!
The POTUS has already said the southside is his Kennebunkport so maybe you need to switch sides this time!
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