The Obama staff undoubtedly leaked the call to the New York Times hoping that they would build a positive story around it. The surprise in the story is that it does not fail to recount Obama's cynicism and cozying up to the Chicago machine.
I don’t see what the connection is between whatever Obama did and what the FBI and federal prosecutors did. This was a state law, anyway.
Can anyone inform me, or has the NYT gone that delusional?
"The federal corruption investigation that eventually led to Mr. Rezko’s indictment, and Tuesday’s charges against Mr. Blagojevich, had already begun to taint the governor’s administration. And by 2006, Mr. Obama had eclipsed the governor as a plausible national candidate, dashing his presidential aspirations."
Taps from Rezko made the feds act, IMHO.
The Obama staff undoubtedly leaked the call to the New York Times hoping that they would build a positive story around it. The surprise in the story is that it does not fail to recount Obama's cynicism and cozying up to the Chicago machine.
This was anti-pay-to-play legislation that will go into effect in Illinois in January. It was about to put a halt to Blago's main source of income, as he mentions in the FBI transcript, so he was scrambling to bribe/buy as much as he could and get the money by the end of the year.
But the NY Times -- and the rest of the Obamedia -- is spinning this like a top to distort what actually happened with that legislation.
The Times of London reported back in March 2008 that Emil Jones, head of the Illinois Senate and the man who helped Obama become King of the Hill, had at that point spent a year blocking the legislation, and the Times predicted that Jones' well-known support of corruption would eventually hurt Obama's chances.
Six months later, Obama still refused to get involved -- claiming he had already helped pass a reform bill -- and the Illinois legislature was about to convene for the year, with the reform legislation still in limbo. (Blago tried to rewrite the bill in his favor, but that version was voted down, but it's a side issue, since the original bill continued to be blocked by Jones). See "Obama ducks call to push reform in Illinois," Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 12.
After it became a national campaign issue, Obama finally called Jones (and we can only imagine what deal the two made on this one), and Jones agreed to call the legislature back and vote on the bill, which passed, of course, because under the circumstances none of the state senators by that time wanted to be seen as corrupt (ha!). Blago called his pal Obama out on it, saying he caved to Republican pressure.
So now the spin is that both Obama and Jones "supported the legislation," which is only true if you're an Obama sycophant.