This is taken from Katie Allison Granju’s blog at the Knoxville, TN “Knox News” website (http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/granju/2008/12/more-evidence-that-obama-and-b.html). I may post a separate thread because the Obama-Blago visit has been censored on her original link to KHQA TV 7 serving Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. However, other news outlets independently reported the meeting between BO and Blago. Here is her blog.
CHICAGO, ILL. — Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled.
That’s one of Obama’s first priorities today.
He’s meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich this afternoon in Chicago to discuss it.
Illinois law states that the governor chooses that replacement.
There’s already been speculation about his selection...from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. of Chicago’s south side who co-chaired Obama’s presidential campaign, to recently-retired state senate president Emil Jones, to the governor himself.
It’s likely the governor will make his decision quickly so the new senator will get some seniority before newly-elected senators take office in January...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 4:04 p.m.
KHQA TV wishes to offer clarification regarding a story that appeared last month on our website ConnectTristates.com. The story, which discussed the appointment of a replacement for President Elect Obama’in the U.S. Senate, became the subject of much discussion on talk radio and on blog sites Wednesday.
The story housed in our website archive was on the morning of November 5, 2008. It suggested that a meeting was scheduled later that day between President Elect Obama and Illinois Governor Blagojevich. KHQA has no knowledge that any meeting ever took place. Governor Blagojevich did appear at a news conference in Chicago on that date.
(source http://www.connecttristates.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=233822)
By Alexis Hunt
Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 9:48 p.m.
QUINCY, IL — Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled.
Obama met with Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this week to discuss it. Illinois law states that the governor chooses that replacement. There’s already been speculation about his selection…from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Junior to Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth.
Duckworth made an appearance in Saturday’s Veterans’ parade in Quincy. We asked her about the possibility of filling Obama’s seat.
“The Governor’s office confirmed yesterday that he is considering me and I am deeply honored jus to be considered. I hope whoever is selected is someone who is willing to travel around the state and gets to know this wonderful state. I’m just honored to be considered,” Duckworth said.
The governor expects to make his decision before Christmas. Part of the timing depends on when Obama officially vacates his senate seat.
3) http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/gov-mum-on-who-may-succeed-obama.html
Blagojevich mum on possible successors to Obama
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Friday, October 31, 2008
Author: Rick Pearson and Monique Garcia, TRIBUNE REPORTERS
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday cited the potential for bad “karma” and avoided discussing potential Senate successors to Barack Obama should the Democratic nominee win the White House, but acknowledged he has a process in mind for making the most important appointment of his career.
“I just don’t want to jinx him and I don’t like the karma of me thinking that far ahead,” Blagojevich said of Obama ‘s prospects in Tuesday’s election. The governor added, “We have had some discussions about a process which we’ll share ... if all goes well.”
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=233822
Everyone, must read this article at WSJ.com (linked below). It appears that the Obama team knew by Monday Nov. 10 that Blago was trying to auction off the US Senate seat, and on that same day they let it be known that Valerie Jarrett had withdrawn from consideration and was going to be a senior advisor on the WH staff. I think they could tell where this was going b/c Blago was so reckless in openly talking about it — whether or not it was an Obamanator who dropped the dime on Blago, the Obama team knew by Nov. 10 at the latest that Blago was running an auction for the Senate seat:
Blagojevich’s Big Conference Call and Valerie Jarrett’s Clean Break
Cam Simpson reports on Rod Blagojevich.
Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 22, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos, journalists and others in Washington. It was a marathon conference call on Monday, Nov. 10.
The call lasted about two hours. On the phone were Mr. Blagojevich, his wife, his general counsel, an unnamed adviser, and John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff and his co-defendant in this week’s case.
But what’s drawing the most interest is who was on the line from Washington, and the sequence of political events that followed that same night and in the ensuing days regarding Barack Obama’s close friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett.....
.......At a bare minimum, the timing of Team Obama’s decision to remove Ms. Jarrett’s name from contention, or at least to remove her name from the public speculation about the post, seems extraordinarily lucky. It came on the very same day the FBI secretly recorded Mr. Blagojevich telling a huge conference call loaded with politicos, in Illinois and Washington, that he wasn’t about to give the Senate spot away for nothing.
It’s also the same recorded conversation in which Mr. Blagojevich uses an obscenity to refer to Mr. Obama, before the governor makes clear he won’t give the president-elect the seat for free. “F— him. For nothing? F— him.”
Look for everyone to continue focusing on this call, and who from Washington was on the line.