Posted on 07/09/2010 11:11:00 AM PDT by MissesBush
Since that February 2007 day when a young U.S. senator announced an inspiring presidential run, Barack Obama has been on the lam. He's been running from that Chicago machine that gave birth to his political career, but later became a liability to his reformist message. It's dogging him still.
Consider the trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, which is sucking in most of the president's Chicago intimates. The threat to the White House isn't that Mr. Obama will be accused of wrongdoing. The threat is that the trial offers evidence for a growing view that Mr. Obama isn't so much "new politics" as a typical Chicago pol.
We've already seen a hint of the threat. Among the many accusations against Mr. Blagojevich is that he sought to sell Mr. Obama's old Senate seat. Mr. Blagojevich appeared particularly interested in naming Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett in return for a cabinet post or a union job.
Rod Blagojevich, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin. When the scandal broke after the 2008 election, the incoming administration scrambled to distance itself from its old Chicago crew. Greg Craig, future White House counsel, was tasked with an internal investigation and dutifully reported that "The President-Elect had no contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich or members of his staff about the Senate seat." Moreover, the president-elect "did not actively seek" to put Mrs. Jarrett in that post. Nothing to see here, folks.
Nothing to see save top union official Tom Balanoff, who last week took the stand in Chicago. Mr. Balanoff testified under oath that the night prior to the election, he was called by Mr. Obama. "Tom, I want to talk to you with regard to the Senate seat," said the future president...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
We always knew it would...
It's subscriber material. Did this appear in today's? It's worth picking up for that.
Kim Strassel, I love you.
The Chicago machine/Sewer ???? Little Barry is the biggest floater in that cesspool.
Yes it’s in today’s edition. Sorry everyone, didn’t know it was subscriber material...
I wouldn't apologize. I wouldn't have seen it at all if you hadn't posted it. Now I have an excuse to buy it.
Enjoy! There are a number of other good op-ed pieces today including on even Senate Democrats opposing Obama’s oil drilling panel, Obama’s disasterous anti-business policies and the potential of Obama policies bringing on a 1937-like recession within a recession.
Google the title.
Google the title.
‘The threat to the White House isn’t that Mr. Obama will be accused of wrongdoing.’
Too late.
Obama — who crusaded against government-by-crony — was implicated in the proceedings last week when a top Chicago labor official testified that Obama tapped him to talk to Blagojevich about the Senate seat.
The article makes that point. Unfortunately it’s subscriber only so you weren’t able to see her going into detail on the labor official testifying about Obama using him as a go-between with Blago. Her only point in saying he won’t be accused of wrongdoing is that he won’t be accused of any criminality. But he will be tainted by the questionable ethics of it all.
It’s a race against the clock for you, Mr. President. Either you get sh*tcanned in 2012, or your entire administration goes down in flames by then.
thanks, good idea. However, I grabbed a sun-burned Friday edition off someone's stoop this morning and read it on the subway.
In the words of Jeff Beck's singer, he's going down, down, down, down, down.
Surely PIMCO pays for this exposure. Too bad they can't say something useful. But then again, they're PIMCO. /rant.
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