Posted on 12/11/2008 7:08:34 AM PST by JRochelle
Barack Obama has flatly said that he has “not discussed the Senate seat with [Rod Blagojevich] at any time.” If that is true — and Obama will undoubtedly be asked the broader question of whether he communicated in any way with Blagojevich on the subject — then the big story in the Blagojevich scandal is the role of intermediaries. Throughout the criminal complaint filed against Blagojevich, there are references to unnamed individuals who play important roles in the scandal — and who know a lot about what went on and who was involved. None of those intermediaries is more intriguing than the person referred to as “Advisor B.”
We first learn about Advisor B in the complaint’s description of a November 7 three-way telephone call between Blagojevich, his chief of staff John Harris, and “Advisor B, a Washington D.C.-based consultant.” It was during this call that the participants talked about a “three-way deal for the open Senate seat,” involving the Service Employees International Union and its affiliated group “Change to Win.” The idea was that Blagojevich would appoint Obama favorite Valerie Jarrett to the seat, and in return, SEIU would make Blagojevich head of “Change to Win,” and then Obama would perform some unspecified act to help “Change to Win.” Harris said such a deal would give Obama a “buffer so there is no obvious quid pro quo for [Senate Candidate One],” according to the complaint. (“Senate Candidate One,” we now know, refers to Jarrett.) “Advisor B said that he liked the idea of the three-way deal,” the complaint says. “Advisor B said they should leverage the president-elect’s desire to have [Jarrett] appointed to the Senate seat in order to get a head position with Change to Win and a salary.”
The next time we meet Advisor B is on November 10, during a two-hour conference call involving Blagojevich, Blagojevich’s wife, Harris, Blagojevich’s general counsel, “and various Washington-D.C. based advisors, including Advisor B,” according to the complaint. Prosecutors have not said how many “various” advisors there were on the call — some apparently came and went during the two-hour session. On the call, Blagojevich conceded that it was unlikely that Obama would appoint him secretary of Health and Human Services or make him an ambassador. Given that, Blagojevich, according to the complaint, “asked what he can get from the president-elect for the Senate seat.” The group discussed a number of options — remember, this call went on for a very long time. It was a laundry list of corrupt possibilities, and, apparently, several people, including some Washington-based politicos, were in on it.
Advisor B pops up again on November 12, in another conversation with Blagojevich. The two discussed forming a non-profit organization to be headed by Blagojevich and funded by some rich Obama supporter. According to the complaint, “Advisor B stated that he likes the idea, but liked the Change to Win option better because, according to Advisor B, from the president-elect’s perspective, there would be fewer ‘fingerprints’ on the president-elect’s involvement with Change to Win, because Change to Win already has an existing stream of revenue and, therefore, ‘you won’t have stories in four years that they bought you off.’”
As I wrote yesterday, the complaint contains a three-week gap — a period in which prosecutors don’t discuss any conversations among the participants. Of that period, the complaint says, “Throughout the past month, ROD BLAGOJEVICH has continued to engage in numerous conversations relating to filling the open Senate seat,” but gives no details. The details do not resume until December 4, the last big day in the Senate-seat plot. On that day, according to the complaint, Blagojevich “spoke to Advisor B and informed Advisor B that he was giving Senate Candidate Five [now known to be Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.] greater consideration for the Senate seat because, among other reasons, if ROD BLAGOJEVICH ran for re-election, Senate Candidate Five would ‘raise money’ for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, although ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he might ‘get some (money) up front, maybe,’ from Senate Candidate Five to insure Senate Candidate Five kept his promise about raising money for ROD BLAGOJEVICH.” The complaint goes on to say that in a phone call recorded on October 31, Blagojevich said he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate Five — that is, Jackson — for “pay to play” in which Jackson would raise $500,000 for Blagojevich and an emissary would raise $1 million for Blagojevich, if Blagojevich made Jackson a senator. Jackson has strongly denied all of the allegations.
The next day, December 5, the Chicago Tribune published an article reporting that Blagojevich was under surveillance. Blagojevich immediately stopped his efforts to sell the Senate seat and began to work on his legal defense. But from the actions described in the criminal complaint, there are some key players who remain unknown and, so far, uncharged. Anyone who wants to understand the Blagojevich scandal will have to learn more about Advisor B.
You bring to mind one particularly resilient bride from Chicago, a New York Senator soon to be Sec. of State.
Was it that BHO wasn't "playing ball" or that he stopped taking Blago's calls on the matter? BHO initially wanted Valery Jarrett for the seat, but she didn't want it & eventually took a job as a whitehouse advisor. It could be that BHO had no preferred candidate after that, or he was maintaining "radio silence" while he weighed some other candidates.
Personally, I think the Secret Service got wind of the wire taps & warned the President-elect to sever communications.
That’s news to me! Got link?........
How many events were held in Illinois? What role did Blago play?
I heard that also. I just asked the same question before I read your question.
It seems that they are all fast friends!
LOL...I was drinking coffee when I read that. You're bad!
There you go. That is the road certain map.
I heard that yesterday on one of the news shows....either FOX or CNN. If it is true I wonder why no one made a big deal out of it when the Rezko/Obama vacant lot deal was briefly exposed during the campaign. I wonder why Hillary didn't make something out of it when she called Obama out about Rezko during the debates. I definitely heard someone say it but I can't believe all of the conservative press missed that connection when the "bone-headed mistake" was being covered.
Ya got me. It’s been theorized that Fitzpatrick is deep-down a Clintonite & that explains his (mis)handling of the Plame-affair as well as Rezko. I don’t know of much that supports that theory, however.
3 weeks of “missing” tape?? This sounds soooo familiar..
Jarrett wanted the seat until someone told her, "You don't want the seat. There is a sting going down and we need to be a million miles away from Chicago. I will give you another plum appointment and we can go back for the Senate seat when the heat dies down."
“A” is for Axelrod, “B” is for Bubba....
Daschle’s wife is a DC based consultant. That is who I thought of first.
This makes the 18 minutes on the Watergate tapes seem pretty skimpy.
Maybe they thought it was an unrelated Blogojevich... I mean that is such a common name.
"C" is for Clinton. "D" is for Daschle. "E" is for Everyone in the DNC... Don't get me started. I love playing silly word games.
“C” is for Carver the gargoyle
You have a point there...that is as reasonable an explanation as I have ever heard from anyone re; Chicago corruption.
Yesterday my son and I were talking about all the different Chicago scandals, including the 1968 riots and trial of the Chicago Seven. Chicago is such a historically colorful town.
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