Hopefully Obama is different

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For those who haven't been following the story it appears that the Governor of Illinois has been arrested. It looks really bad as the feds have him on tape trying to sell Obama's vacated seat in the Senate to the highest bidder.

It never ceases to amaze me the nerve some politicians have. How did he think he could do such a thing without getting caught?

Obama has stated that he knew nothing about it. Although it is possible some of his transition team may have known as the governor was trying to get a cabinet post in exchange for the selection.

 

I doubt Obama knew about it -- I would, in fact, bet up to $100 on it.

HOWEVER, notice the bet limit. I would also not be surprised if it turned out he DID know about it -- because all humans have flaws, and politicians most of all. But I'd need to see some proof before I hopped onto a "Obama Basher" train.

 

I'm sure some of them did know. But part of the reason this blew up like it did is because they told Blogo, in essence, "piss off." They refused to "pay to play," I believe it's called. To me this would indicate that your hope is not misplaced.

 

I does not appear that way, atm. Nevertheless, they are all politicians, so you never know. But Obama is pretty smart, and he just had to survive the national election. There was enough stuff made-up about him during the election, without him having to add anything to the flames.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28155450/page/2/

 

This should put some of Obama's doubters at ease.

Via Ny Times.

 

For some reason, I don't think that is what they are looking for....

 

Chandos, i really don't think that any reasonable person thought obama had anything to do with it.
Heehee, especially after reading that one transcript where he calls obama a MF.

 

Agreed. But Blagojevich is a scumbag. I mean even from Chicago where dirty politics has a long history, this is astounding. How big is Blagojevich's erm... ego ... anyway to think that he wouldn't be caught? Here's an interesting fact - if convicted Blagojevich would become the 4th governor of Illinois to serve jail time in the last 40 years. Four governors going to jail in the state's history would be astounding, but 4 in 40 years is truly a dubious acheivement.

Oh, did anyone happen to see who the lead prosecutor is on this case? It's Patrick Fitzgerald - yes, that Patrick Fitzgerald. I guess he goes after Democrats too.

 

Patrick Fitzgerald is so good at what he does precisely because he follows the facts, not any party line or agenda. As they all should.

I too am shocked by just how...well, incredibly dumb Blago is. I mean, wow.

 

Well, I'm not in the least surprised to see this coming out of Chicago. The city has a reputation for dirty politics for a reason. What actually surprises me is that Obama, a consumate graduate from those same Chicago politics, rose above it. Well done, Mr. Obama.

 

I admit doing a double take when I saw the headline on Yahoo, but I'm satisfied that Obama was not involved.

But when 4 of the last 8 Illinois Governors have been busted for corruption, something really ain't right...

 

It's something in the water!
Seriously, what is it with illinois(thanks T2) politicians(both dems & reps)?

I think it just goes to show how much power is availible to a senator when one of the candidates was offering $1 million dollars for a job that only has a guaranteed 2 years at $169,300/year. Thats a net loss of over $650K.
Just another reason that i feel we need to institute term limits.
We have 21 senators with at least 12 years in(of those 13 have more than 23 years, 8 have more than 30 years & 4 of them have been there more than 40 YEARS!)
One of them (ted stevens from alaska) has gotten kicked loose but the other 3 (R Byrd-W.Va., T. Kennedy-Ma & D Inouye-Hi are still there)
We have 62 Representatives that have been in office since at least 1990(thats at least 9 terms & some have been in office since the '70's!!)
**It's no longer a job, but a living for these guys, & it was never intended for that.**

**-I realised after i posted that i had this line wrong(never post before going to bed)
It should read :
It's no longer a Service(& a burden), but a living for these guys, & it was never intended for that.

 

I think very few people here in Illinois (note the spelling -- by the way the 's' is silent) believe Obama was involved here. There are some on the far right that hope he was involved, but I find those people laughable.

Blago is an idiot -- this has been a long time coming. I was amazed at the absolutely ineffectual race the republicans ran against him last election -- Judy Barr-Topinka didn't seem to want the position and was running as a stand-in until Blago self-destructed. She didn't even mention how he uses state funds to travel to and from work every day -- aboard a state owned plane from Chicago to Springfield because he doesn't want to live in the capitol.

A few of my favorite things thus far:

He knew he was being investigated by the FBI for corruption and just did this anyway -- really shows how s-m-r-t he is (to quote Quayle in BG1). Of course he's stating he is innocent and is asking for the people of Illinois to support their governor -- what a moron.

Jesse Jackson Jr has been identified as "Candidate Number 5" who offered campaign money for the appointment -- he is, of course, vigorously denying he ever offered money. I hope he goes down too.

Dick Durbin (and other democrats) are calling for a special election to fill Obama's vacant position. This is not because they are afraid Blago will fill the position (anyone he appoints will be banned by the US Senate), but because the Lt Governor will take over and appoint someone. Pat Quinn is a bit independent -- to much so for the democratic party (Pat's a democrat) -- and is likely to appoint someone who is not 'annointed' by the party leadership. Heaven forbid, the new governor actually appoint someone competent to the post instead of a lacky for the Illinois democratic party.

Edit: After I wrote this the Illinois democratic party (and Durbin) announced they would allow Quinn to choose a senator -- citing the cost and time of a special election (they are probably realizing there is a chance a republican would win because of the scandal as well). Wow, common sense in Illinois politics -- the world is coming to an end.​

 

Martaug, on many levels I agree with you, but on many levels there are advantages to letting the same person stay there for a long period of time. In theory, at least, this should give them an increadible understanding of the situation, it's history, and what's been tried before. They don't have to go through old records from 20+ years ago to see what led them to the situation today, because they were there. They should learn from their own history. Unfortunately, most seem to be more interested in getting re-elected than in doing a good job.

 

This is especially true for members of the House of Representatives. They are elected to only 2 year terms, so they run during every federal election cycle. They are in (almost) constant campaign mode.

 

The latest I heard is Jesse Jackson Jr. was in the bidding for the seat.

 

Jackson offered $500,000 with a Jackson supporter upping the ante by another $1,000,000.

Once again, I hope he goes down, too.

 

Must...resist....urge...