Sorry I haven’t been around much the past few days. When one works for a small non-profit, one doesn’t just write the year-end fundraising letter; one also copies it, folds it, stuffs it into envelopes, slaps labels on the envelopes, runs them through the postage machine, and hauls them to the post office. Even with tremendous help from co-workers, it takes a lot longer than one might think. Or ever imagined.
I would have missed the Blagojevich arrest if not for a lunch meeting out of the office today.
The FBI said in court papers that the governor was overheard on wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell the Senate seat for campaign cash or plum jobs for himself or his wife, Patti, a real estate agent. He spoke of landing a job with a nonprofit foundation or a union-affiliated group, and even held out the possibility of a Cabinet appointment or ambassadorship for himself.
“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,” he said of his authority to appoint Obama’s replacement, “and I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I’m not gonna do it.”
Blagojevich faces two counts: Conspiracy to commit fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and solicitation to commit bribery, which is punishable by up 10 years. He was released on his own recognizance.
This after daring “anybody” to wiretap him. Brilliant. What is with public officials these days? Is there some kind of epidemic of Randy “Duke” Cunningham Disease running rampant?
BTW, I found the structure of the AP story a bit bothersome. Here’s the second paragraph:
Prosecutors did not accuse Obama himself of any wrongdoing. Obama said he had no contact with the governor or his office on the matter.
Yeah, wink wink, and it takes them all the way to paragraphs 22 and 23 to get to this:
Nothing in the court papers suggested Obama had any part in the discussions or knew of them — something Fitzgerald repeatedly made clear at Tuesday’s news conference.
In fact, Blagojevich was overheard complaining at one point that Obama’s people are “not going to give me anything except appreciation.” He added: “(Expletive) them.”
Nice of the reporter to finally get around to pointing this out.
I was practically dancing around the kitchen reading about this yesterday. It’s so hilarious—F this, F that, and then the scary scary toupee picture (surely that has got to be a rug, right?) Like a potboiler novel.
I agree that some news stories are clouding the Obama involvement issue. The headline at Taegan Goddard’s site was “What Did Obama Know?” and that’s a left-leaning site. On the other hand, I think it’s a bit naive to claim that all the F-thems make Obama look like Mr. Smith headed for Washington. Everybody with any sense surely knew that at least there was a good possibility Blagojevich’s phones were tapped, and even Obama’s detractors can’t say he’s not a smart guy. The bizarre thing is that Mr. Blagojevich himself felt free to carry on with his free-flowing incriminating conversation.
I don’t mean to say that I think Obama was involved or anything close to it. And thank God the evidence seems to be unequivocal that he was not.
I heard Bay Buchanan (and isn’t that first name appropriate) going on yesterday about how the Blagojevich arrest just highlights all the Democratic corruption and pretty much word for word asking, “What did Obama know, and when did he know it?” As if Blagojevich, Jefferson, and Langford somehow equal the culture of corruption that was the Bush administration and its lackeys in Congress. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
From what I’m hearing, there was no love lost between Blagojevich and Obama well before this episode. Given Blagojevich’s apparent proclivities, I figure the Obama people wanted to stay as far from him as possible.
BTW, speaking of Langford, I see some parallels in personality type and storyline between him and Blagojevich, although I don’t know that the latter (if I have to type Blagojevich one more time, I may scream) went around claiming to be a good Christian while he was asking for bribes.