Posted on 12/13/2008 12:46:55 PM PST by malkee
President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, spoke several times with Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois about possible candidates for Mr. Obama’s Senate seat, aides close to the presidential transition team said Saturday.
Mr. Emanuel has not been accused of wrongdoing by federal prosecutors. A Democratic transition aide said that the two men had discussed a wide range of people who might fill Mr. Obama’s seat, but that Mr. Emanuel had not engaged in any deal-making with Mr. Blagojevich, who was charged last week by federal prosecutors with conspiring to turn a profit from the appointment.
The conversations between Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Blagojevich, first reported by The Chicago Tribune, were captured on wiretaps, according to another official close to the transition.
Mr. Obama has said he has never spoken with the governor about the seat. But Mr. Obama’s aides have declined for five days to publicly answer questions about what discussions they had about the seat and what contacts intermediaries may have had with Mr. Blagojevich’s advisers.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said when the charges against Mr. Blagojevich were announced that Mr. Obama was not implicated in the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I smell an obstruction of justice charge coming to the Zero.
You should interpret it that Emmanuel is not implicated in the scandal unless more information becomes available implicating him. So far, according to all the reports, he’s done nothing except discuss potential names with Blogo.
Hopefully he IS involved in the Rezko case.
Don’t hold your breath...Fitzy is PROTECTING Obama.
'As the World Turns.' The plot thickens. Where will it end? No one knows, yet.
As bullshit lies. Old trick....when you are going to lie big, put a little bit of truth in it..e.g., 'Rahm spoke with Blago about it but no payola was mentioned'. The 'no payola' part being the lie.
The way Fitz said it in the news conference, it was certainly not a definitive or dismissive statement, almost like he was saying...'not implicated yet'. He said something to the effect...'and that's all I'll say on that topic' or words to that effect. It certainly left me with the impression that Barry is not entirely out of the woods. Barry also quickly canceled a meeting with the FBI right after the news conference - leading me to believe his folks were getting queasy. Is Barry buying cartons of cigarettes?
The NY Times protect-a-rat service on full display.
I think I like this one better...
sorry... got to shrink them yet...
:)
"Sure, we talked. I just wanted to ensure that he picked someone who would faithfully represent the people of Illinois. I didn't suspect he intened to sell the seat."
This would have gone away right there.
However, there are tapes and conflicting denials and liars have trouble keeping up with their lies. In this case, it sure looks like someone turned on the kitchen light and the roaches are running.
“I smell an obstruction of justice charge coming to the Zero.”
I would get that sense of smell checked if I were you. This is the “One” you are talking about. He is coated with teflon from head to toe. Obama’s theme song is “You Can’t Touch This”. (cue M.C. Hammer).
it is just the MSM doing the usual OBAMA DID NOTHING crap.
Of course he wasn't engaged in any deal-making, as he had already informed Blago of 0bama's lack-of-cooperation, hence Blago's outrage at the "m-f" and the admission that he was only going to get "appreciation".
It still is not a blanket cover, especially not against the future conversations I believe are going to be occurring in the Oval Office, especially when we finally hear what Rezko has been giving. Watergate did not stop at the break-in, the arrest of the plumbers.
Rahm Emanuel cutting a deal?
Heh..Heh..Heh..
And now the Lefties are trying to say that Blagojevich is insane. Just like they used to do to their enemies in the Soviet Union.
Solzhenitsyn wrote the book on these tactics in “The Gulag Archipelago”.
Who remembers?
IMHO,Fitzgerald cut the investigation off to prevent O’Bama et al from implicating themselves.
I’ll bet O’Bama is up to his neck in this but evidence was ,alas, a day or two away.
I read there are 300 hours of recordings.
I don’t know if this is a lot, a little, or what.
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