Posted on 12/12/2008 6:11:34 PM PST by randita
Obama's Senate seat never part of plan for Jarrett
AXELROD COMMENTS | Says Obama always wanted her in White House
December 12, 2008 BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In what I can only describe as a political fantasy, Gov. Blagojevich somehow thought he could extract a Cabinet post from President-elect Barack Obama if he appointed Valerie Jarrett to replace Obama in the Senate.
But the reality is Obama always wanted Jarrett, a confidante who is friends with the president-elect and his wife, Michelle, to work with him in the White House, David Axelrod said Thursday night. » Click to enlarge image Lynn Sweet
For the first time, Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign strategist who will be a top Obama White House adviser, commented about the scandal.
Axelrod and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, along with John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and pollster Bill McInturff, appeared at a forum sponsored by Harvard's Institute of Politics.
Blagojevich's conversations, caught on tape by federal agents and incorporated in a criminal complaint chock full of a variety of alleged Blagojevich schemes, raised the question of what communications, if any, took place between members of the Obama team and Blagojevich.
Obama on Thursday, during a press conference in Chicago, said, "I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about this vacancy so that we can share them with you over the next few days."
At Harvard, forum moderator Gwen Ifill asked Axelrod about the last time he had a chat with the governor.
''It's a painful thing for me coming from Illinois. It's a really appalling story, and there's not a whole lot to clean up. What's been said speaks to it," Axelrod said.
"There's a vacancy the governor apparently -- if you believe the complaint from the government -- had some ideas about what to do with it. We were not involved in that discussion or any discussion of that nature."
During the forum, Axelrod said Obama always wanted Jarrett to work for him in the White House. Afterward, I asked Axelrod how interested Jarrett might have been in the position. Jarrett issued a statement saying she did not want to be a senator as some chatter was heating up. "There were people, not the governor," Axelrod told me, "but there were people who called her and encouraged her to think about it, and I think she thought about it, but ultimately Obama was very clear that he wanted her to be in the White House, there was never any doubt about that."
Axelrod, years ago, was Blagojevich's media consultant when he ran for the House. His son, Michael, was an unpaid intern in Blagojevich's House office.
This whole "episode is disturbing and sad," said Axelrod, adding, "by the way -- he treated my son very well."
Incredible, could the Obama team possibly be handling this any worse than they already are?
All they had to do was be up front about it and it would have been no sweat. But they insist on treating this as a mini-Watergate—initially reflexively making preposterous claims against all evidence that they had never had anything at all to do with Blago—and drawing this out tortuously, to the dismay of their allies and amusement of their opponents. The fact that Obama & his crew refuse to ever admit to mistakes and ham-handedly try to smack down anyone who asks uncomfortable questions virtually guarantees there will be no honeymoon for this bridegroom.
I don’t believe that for one second.
LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE. Crooks, all of them
Sweet would don knee pads for Obama. She is a part of his corp of groupies. Read anything she writes as pablum directly from Axelrod and crew.
My goodness. This guy is a worse knee-jerk liar than bill clinton. Who’d have thought that ANYONE could lie more than clinton, and often for no obvious reason, but just because he’s a natural-born liar?
Axelrod has ZERO credibility now. What point is there in this rambling bit of empty blather? Who could possibly care how the hairdo treated the Marxist’s son? Talk about a lame attempt to change the subject...
All they had to do was be up front about it and it would have been no sweat. But they insist on treating this as a mini-Watergate—initially reflexively making preposterous claims against all evidence that they had never had anything at all to do with Blago—and drawing this out tortuously, to the dismay of their allies and amusement of their opponents. The fact that Obama & his crew refuse to ever admit to mistakes and ham-handedly try to smack down anyone who asks uncomfortable questions virtually guarantees there will be no honeymoon for this bridegroom.
If he had any honor he would have walked and told the media, "I told the truth and they can't handle it, but I'm not lying for anybody." That's what an honorable person would do.
Axelrod says it was a painful thing, and I guess it was given the fact that Axelrod was Blago’s CAMPAIGN MANAGER!
Axelrod has been sent to bed without supper and called a liar in public by his boss. And he repeated the lie even though it made him look foolish.
If he had any honor he would have walked and told the media, “I told the truth and they can’t handle it, but I’m not lying for anybody.” That’s what an honorable person would do.
LOL! Then it’s okay for his boss to humiliate him. Didn’t these commies get the memo about 19 years ago.
“Axelrod has ZERO credibility now.”
Ain’t that the truth? Axelrod says:
“There’s a vacancy the governor apparently — if you believe the complaint from the government — had some ideas about what to do with it. We were not involved in that discussion or any discussion of that nature.”
So either Obama’s Chief of Staff is not part of the “we” Axelrod is describing or we’re to believe that Emanuel had 6 conversations with Blago and this topic never came up! These people have been marinated in corruption so long that they think they can say anything and we’ll all foolishly believe it.
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Sorry about that.
This would make sense on a variety of levels, with the timeline of this debacle.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465891,00.html But it raises the question about whether somebody from the Obama team might have been on that, because as soon as the conference call ended, it was a two-hour conference call, and in that conference call, Blagojevich basically said — OK, well, if, you know, Valerie Jarrett, if, you know, I'm going to appoint Obama's favorite person, Valerie Jarrett, to that Senate seat and Obama's not going to pay me off for it, the heck with her, I'm not going to do it. Of course, he used a little saltier language. But as soon as that conference call ended, within a matter of hours, Obama aides were leaking to reporters that Valerie Jarrett had taken herself out of the running for that seat.
So, why didn't Obama admit that he was actively lobbying Blago to appoint Valerie Jarrett? Why did she abruptly take herself out of the running of this U.S. Senator job?
Obama has painted himself in a corner with all of the lies.
I think this Patrick Fitzgerald is up to no good as well, and hopefully there are honorable people in the FBI who will tell the American People the whole truth in this affair. Including how Fitzgerald is on the take from Obama (allegedly IMO).
These people have been marinated in corruption so long that they think they can say anything and we’ll all foolishly believe it.
Is there a story to this last line about treating his son very well?
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