Blagojevich Trial Testimony Contradicts Obama and Jarrett
Not badly enough, evidently. Jarrett withdrew from consideration on November 8. Intelligent speculation might conclude that a savvy insider like Jarrett saw the overtures by Blagojevich for what they were: clumsy and extraordinarily dangerous attempts to buy a Senate seat. Rather than get caught up in the middle of a potential criminal probe, Jarrett gave Blagojevich a wide berth.
However, this also contradicts the transition team statement that Jarrett was unaware of any potential trade-off. If she did speak to SEIU’s Blanoff, it stands to reason she was fully aware of the price Obama would have to pay to get her in the Senate. That she didn’t reject the idea out of hand is significant.
The Obama camp sent another intermediary to discuss the Senate seat with Blagojevich — John Wyma, the governor’s friend and fund-raiser. Unbeknown to Blago (but perhaps known by the Obama camp), Wyma was cooperating with the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald:
This is significant because it shows that Wyma, a Blagojevich friend and lobbyist, had contact with both the Obama camp and the then-governor at the same time he had been cooperating with federal officials.
Wyma passed along a message from Rahm Emanuel:
“Rahm asked him to deliver the message — the president-elect would be very pleased if you appointed Valerie and he would be, uh, thankful and appreciative” for a Valerie Jarrett appointment.
“They’re not willing to give me anything but appreciation — f— them,” Blagojevich said.
It is not surprising that the transition report would be so sterile while asserting that everything was on the up and up. And we’ll never know if the president ever seriously entertained Blago’s offer to seat Jarrett in exchange for a cabinet post. But it is very clear from the Harris testimony and a closer listen to the wiretapped recordings that there was an intense back and forth between Obama’s people and the Blagojevich team about the Senate seat, despite the impression to the contrary in the transition report. It can also be inferred that Obama’s Chicago street smarts served him well when he pulled back from Blago’s wheeling and dealing, sensing trouble in the wind and basically telling the governor to appoint whomever he wanted.
Perhaps the most pathetic offer made by Blagojevich was his proffer to swap the Senate seat for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones’ campaign war chest:
In one mid-November, 2008, Rod Blagojevich sent his top aide, John Harris, to approach then-Illinois Senate President Emil Jones with a deal:
Blagojevich would appoint Jones if he considered turning over his campaign war chest to the governor.
“I told Jones that Emil Jones was the governor’s favorite candidate next to himself,” Harris said he told Jones.
“I did discuss with Sen. Jones than no one other than Emil had been a friend of the governor,” Harris said.
But that’s where the talk stopped, Harris said. He never broached the topic of money with Jones, he said.
“I believe the impression I gave the governor was that I talked about Emil’s war chest and big bucket of campaign money,” in relation to the Senate seat, Harris said.
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked why Harris didn’t do as he was told.
“If the governor wanted to ask for the money, he would do himself,” Harris said he believed.
Not even a crook like Harris would debase himself and beg for money on behalf of his boss.
The corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich is hardly a morality tale. Wheeling and dealing in American politics both at the state and national level often walks the line between criminal and legal, horse trading and bribes. It has been that way since our founding and is not likely to change no matter who is in the majority or how many attempts are made at reform.
The tragedy of Blagojevich lies in his belief that he was doing nothing wrong — or, at least, that he was engaged in activity of which most politicians are guilty. And there is tragedy in the public’s cynical weariness in believing that Blagojevich is no different than other public servants in that they are all grasping, conniving, and greedy glad-handers who are only out for themselves and how much they can leech from the taxpayer during their term in office.
Most tragic of all is that this attitude on the part of the public allows for politicians like Blagojevich to be elected — and re-elected — because the majority of us turn away from engagement in the public life of our country, leaving the battlefield to shysters, hypocrites, and the mendacious hucksters who see politics as a golden path to riches and power, rather than service to the people.
I suspect that Obama’s ethics had very little to do with Jarret’s withdrawal as a candidate for Obama’s vacant Senate seat.
By November 2008, Obama and presumably Jarret had become aware that Blagojevich was under investigation and would probably be indicted, which might explain why she removed her name from consideration and Obama was unwilling to offer anything other than appreciation.
I agree that they probably were tipped off about the investigation. they are as dirty as blago.
Yawn.
It seems that The President and his Chief of Staff should be called to testify under oath to get to the bottom of this. The American people deserve this clarification.
what’s to stop him from committing perjury?
And because of his exemplary record, we know he’ll tell the truth, right????? He’ll lie through his teeth just like he’s been doing for the past year and a half!!!!!!! That is, if he even shows up!!!!!!!
And we all know how much “Under oath” means to him………
Humorous cartoon showing the true relationship between Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Rob at http://drawfortruth.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/three-men/
So which of the liars do we believe?
We are to believe all of the liars are as they are…liars.
Blago, reportedly, was sick of the governor’s gig and wanted some high flying appointment, HHS where Sebelius ended up was on his radar. Also, he wasn’t interested in some stinkin’ $190,000/year job that was in the offing.
“real money” was his goal.
Sleaze seems to be the order of the day in Chicago politics, likely politics in general, but endemic in Chicago.
The idjits that were, reportedly, on Rahm Emanuel’s short list of Senate replacements for Barack Obama, after sycophant Valerie Jarrett’s name was removed, remind one of why the writers of our Constitution designated that US Senators were to be appointed by state legislatures, not sleazeballs like Rod Blagojevich.
Pssstt…you want more sleaze ?
Saga of the crazed sex poodle
Blago’s statement contradicts everyone elses? There’s a surprise. Next we’ll hear that water is really wet.
testimony that obummer knew about the quid pro quo’s going on. DUH!
So it shows Blagojevich is a whore and all he was doing was negotiating the price with the Obama johns.
Its amazing how little coverage as a news event this trial has earned . One would suppose that due to the names and stature and proximity to the stinking pile of corruption ; that this event would generate floor to ceiling and wall to wall TV and national press immersion. Nah! Its just not the same when the central suspects are all Democrats. The press sees this as a yawner of no particular interest with no sexual angle and not a Republican in sight to drag through the muck. So be it .
But how about the nifty editing job from Patrick Fitzgerald and his team to nip and tuck and snip and trim the witnesses ,testimony and evidence to keep Obama and his henchmen free and clear of their neck deep involvement in this swamp of evil.
Nice job Patrick . Should be some big reward down the line.
“…Payoffs to judges for lenient sentences or even acquittals, kickbacks to aldermen, illegal campaign contributions, cash in shoeboxes, “pay to play” payoffs, contracts to cronies…”
Comes to bribery, cash is king. Even Nixon needed bagmen to spread the green around. Whence the source of all this fungible folding stuff?
Here in New York, a popular real estate developer with an ego bigger than Blago’s is nearing completion of of the biggest construction project the city has seen since Zeckendorf turned New York’s stockyard and slaughterhouse district into the fashionable Upper East Side. Fully half a mile of Hudson riverfront property, long fallow, is now wall to wall hi-rises one uglier than the next, each emblazoned on its facade with the endlessly crass developer’s name in enormous gold type.
A cooperative venture between city and the private developer, the new project pushes out the Western limits of the city with taxpayer-funded new infrastructure. Underground electrical, water, sewage and half a mile of new streets—four brand-new lanes for cars, new sidewalks, traffic lights, signage and the steel girders and understructure required to support raised portions of it all.
The chumminess between the city and the private developer is evident even in the maintenance of completed sections of the project. Landscaping for large planters on the river side of the building is shared by the Parks Department and private landscapers. Fire hydrants are strategically placed to ensure that the entrances to the new hi-rises with their three and four million dollar apartments are free of parked cars so cabs and limousines can make easy pick-ups and drop-offs. Small city-built cul de sacs, parking prohibited, provide easy access to private underground garages and loading bays for trucks servicing planned restaurants and catering facilities.
The city and state officials involved in such a project run into the hundreds and each and every one expects a share of the baksheesh. Inspectors–scaffolding, crane, electrical, plumbing, etc.–are merely bottom feeders. (Recall that extensive FBI sting operations could not find a single inspector of any kind in New York City who would refuse a bribe.) Nearer the top of the elected and appointed food chain, kickbacks run five and six figures. Completing a real estate project of such magnitude requires fungible green by the truckload.
What real estate developer can come up with so much cash without arousing the IRS? One who owns a casino. Only casino skim could can provide under-the-table cash on such a scale. And winnings at the gaming tables make ideal cover for payoffs. (Recall the former New York senator who regularly played poker with lobbyists and won all the big hands.)
But all this must be mere cynical conjecture, Why haven’t New York journalists tumbled to such blatant and obvious corruption? What accounts for enthusiastic support for the project in multiple news articles and on the editorial pages of the New York Times for years as the City Council debated the project?
West-Siders recall that for many years the undeveloped stretch of the West Side now supporting the new luxury hi-rises served as the parking lot for the huge fleet of New York Times delivery trucks. Cynical conjecture has it that the NYT either owned or held a large portion of the property under long term lease and profited handsomely when the lone politician holding up construction suddenly and unaccountably changed her vote, abruptly resigned and departed on an extended vacation with her significant other somewhere far from the howls of her betrayed and outraged constituents. To barely a mention and no hint of surprise or suspicion in the pages of the NYT. The Grey Lady on the take? Say it aint so, Joe.
The difference between political corruption in Chicago and political corruption in New York, Democrat Party strongholds both, is purely a matter of style. Chicago politics are notoriously rough and tumble. Rude and crude. New York is a more sophisticated town.
At one point early in the construction of the new luxury housing along the river, New Yorkers were entertained by a mini-scandal in the press. A concrete inspector had halted construction because the mix was substandard. Every New Yorker worthy of the name recognized immediately that the kerfuffle had nothing to do with concrete. One or another city official—certainly on a higher level than mere inspector—was unhappy with his share of the payola. The headlines about substandard building material were merely the screws being put to the developer or one of his contractors. Payoff negotiations were being carried on via the NYT.
“Follow the cash” was the advice of Deep Throat to Woodward and Bernstein whose Watergate success bloated journalism schools around the country with armies of talentless halfwits, hungry for bylines. Message not received.
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