Posted on 12/13/2008 4:18:57 AM PST by Kaslin
I have not seen it recorded whether John F. Kennedy, after he was elected president in 1960, held conversations with Massachusetts Gov. Foster Furcolo as to who would be appointed to fill his seat in the Senate. History does record that Furcolo, just nine days before turning the governorship over to the Republican elected to succeed him, appointed one Benjamin A. Smith II, a college roommate of Kennedy's and former mayor of Gloucester, who chose not to seek the seat in the next election in 1962, which happened to be the year in which Edward Kennedy turned 30 and was therefore old enough to run for it.
Memory tells me that there was little fuss made of this at the time. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy obviously wanted someone appointed to keep the seat warm for Teddy, and so it was done. And Edward Kennedy has turned out to be an able and accomplished senator.
That was a different tableau from the one we have seen unfold in Chicago this past week. Furcolo was an intelligent man, disappointed to have failed to win the state's other Senate seat and destined not to win elective office again. But he knew that it would not pay to buck the Kennedys.
Rod Blagojevich, the governor who under Illinois statute has the power to appoint a senator to fill out the remaining two years of Barack Obama's Senate term, is made of different stuff. He was arrested last Tuesday, and the U.S. attorney filed a criminal complaint and made public tapes of Blagojevich seeking personal favors in return for the Senate seat.
Obama denied having conversations with Blagojevich about his choice, though his political strategist David Axelrod said last month that Obama had. Obama declined further comment when asked whether his staff members had discussed the matter with the governor, but he then promised to reveal the details later.
In the ordinary course of things, there would be nothing wrong with such conversations (did Foster Furcolo decide on Benjamin A. Smith II without prompting?). And the construction of the evidence most negative to Obama one can currently make is that someone in Team Obama suggested nominating Obama insider Valerie Jarrett, Blagojevich simply refused or asked for something improper in return and Team Obama promptly broke off communications. Any impropriety in this version was on Blagojevich's part, not on Obama's.
Still, these are not headlines the Obama transition team wants. So far, the president-elect has won wide approval for his performance since the election, with poll numbers significantly higher than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton got in their transition periods. His leading foreign, defense and economic appointments have won high praise from all sides, in some cases more from conservatives than liberals. And in a time of financial crisis and foreign threats, he has seemed to keep a clear head and a steady hand.
He has appeared to avoid all but small mistakes, and his theme of unifying the nation -- muted perhaps necessarily in the adversary environment of the campaign -- has come forth loud and clear.
From all this the Blagojevich scandal is an unwanted distraction. It is a reminder that, for all his inspirational talk of hope and change, Obama, like Blagojevich, are both products of Chicago Democratic politics, which is capable of producing leaders both sublime and sordid.
Obama has not always avoided the latter. For 20 years he attended the church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now thrown under the bus, and for more than a decade engaged in mutually beneficial exchanges political and financial with the political fixer Tony Rezko, now in federal custody.
Blagojevich, never a close political ally, has now been thrown under the bus, too, and seems likely to share Rezko's fate. Obama fans can point out, truthfully, that other revered presidents had seamy associates and made common cause on their way up with men who turned out to be scoundrels. Franklin Roosevelt happily did business with Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly, though warned that he was skimming off money from federal contracts. John Kennedy no more thought to deny a request from the Mayor Daley of his day than Obama has thought to buck the Mayor Daley of his.
But as Kennedy supposedly said of a redolent Massachusetts politician, "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much." The man in question was the Democratic nominee for governor and was not elected. Until Patrick Fitzgerald released his tapes, Barack Obama never said the same of Rod Blagojevich.
Obama has profited greatly from his careful climb through Chicago politics. But there is an old saying that in politics nothing is free -- there is just some question about when you pay the price. Obama is paying it now.
Come on!
You have got to be kidding me, Barone. Damn, put down that Kool-Aid
Obama paying a price ???
Where???
I haven't read, heard, listened to any media pundit ask about this in depth. Even when Axelrod did a two somersault back flip on Obama meeting with Blago, hardly a word was said.
That was as far as I read into the post, and I didn’t read any further.
What a Maroon!
“I guess he is saying that Obama was the only virgin in the Chicago whorehouse”
You misspelled “homo”....:)
[Go ahead! Zot me! I no longer care!].....;-D
In the calls recorded from Nov. 10-13, there are constant communications from Blago to D.C. Advisors (we don't know who those advisors were). From the first call to the last, the subject was pay to play. So, no, communications were not stopped promptly after the pay to play was proposed.
The issue of pay to play was still being actively pursued up until the last call on Nov. 13 referenced in the complaint. It had not been settled yet.
There are 3 more weeks of wiretapped conversations after Nov. 13, none of them are referenced in the current complaint, so no one knows what might be on them.
I am so SHOCKED! After all, the PEBO told us (forcefully and strongly, as Carl Cameron insisted on characterizing it) that there was no deal making by his team.
I guess that means that they failed to finalize a deal. He chooses his words so carefully, kind of like Bubba.
“Blagojevich simply refused or asked for something improper in return and Team Obama promptly broke off communications.”
I don’t have the transcript at hand, but Obama’s first TV press show, was that he had no... blah blah and he stopped short of saying “WHAT SO EVER”... contact (anyone else catch that?).
Now perhaps, it was just a simple use of common terminology, or did he catch himself?
I did think that he went into Ralph Cramden mode immediately afterwards though (or Kennedyish)... huminah, huminah, huminah...
Teddy the red nosed Senator
Not promoting anything or anyone... it’s Christmas and that’s on my play list. (has been for years)
I'm betting you think zero is as pure as the wind driven snow too
you lose
Congressman Billybob
Latest article, "Doncha Love Chicago Deep-Bleep Politics"
The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.
Do you think he's innocent of any Chicago style thug politics like his land deal with Rezco?
Whether you agree with his lefty politics or not, he has been very accomplished, that is a fact that cannot be denied.
He has shepherded major pieces of legislation through the Senate in his 46 years as Senator, and has been, by far, the most influential Kennedy in American history.
I don't see that Obama will pay any price. If my local paper is an example, there's no coverage that's making Obama look bad.
>> And Edward Kennedy has turned out to be an able and accomplished senator. <<
Certainly a true statement. Granted that you and I utterly despise Teddy and just about everything he has been “able” to “accomplish.” But that doesn’s mean Barone’s description is inaccurate.
I wasn’t talking about O.
My post was addressing someone else’s criticism of Barone re: Kennedy
And Chicago vote fraud along with the same thing in Texas gave JFK the presidency
Too bad Barone didn’t mention that
A “stain” as in the mark of the beast?
Yes, he is stained.
While Blago is twisting in the wind, don't take your eye off the ball in New York - Hillary's (rather wide) seat has a price, too. Clintons don't do 'nuthin for nuthin'.
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