Obama Pressured Blago To Pick Who He Wanted For Seat

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Now this from Willie Brown may change quite a bit in the Blago story:

I wouldn’t bet on him stepping aside anytime soon. If anything, his hand is getting stronger by the day.

I can’t go into details, but my impression is that the whole mess started because the governor had been considering appointing a political rival, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to the Senate so she wouldn’t be able to run against him when he went up for re-election in 2010.

Apparently, Obama’s people weren’t happy about the idea of Madigan coming to Washington, and there were some pretty heated conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand will burn your ears off.

First we were told it was Blagojevich who was upset that Obama wasn’t giving any quid pro quo for the empty Senate seat. It was the corrupt Blago wanting something for the seat.

But now the situation may have changed. Did Blago want something for the seat because Obama was pressuring him to select someone he wanted?

AJ at The Strata-Sphere ties this together with the initial excuse out of the Obama camp:

Now the awkwardness of the Obama denials make sense.

This political problem arose in part because Obama was so eager to appear purer than any politician can actually be. In his initial statements, he sounded as if he was trying to say that he knew nothing at all about the selection of his successor. “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening,” he told the press, and refused to elaborate.

That remark clarified nothing; today it seems like obfuscation at best and prevarication at worst. Nobody is likely to believe that Emanuel spoke more than 20 times with Blagojevich or the governor’s aide John Harris without informing Obama about those conversations. To insist that he had “no contact” when his top aide was involved in so many contacts is precisely the kind of parsing that undermines confidence.

Emphasis mine. Well, it wouldn’t make sense if Team Obama was being pressured by a crooked governor to pay something for a candidate they preferred. But it does make sense if Team Obama is the one that was applying the pressure. If it is true that Team Obama was in contact with Team Blagojevich to pressure Blagojevich to dump his own preference and defer to Team Obama’s directives the whole thing turns around.

Obama was perfectly within his right to let Blagojevich know who he would like, or would not like, to succeed him but he would be way out of bounds if they pressured Blago to pick who he wanted which then forced Blago to push back.

Was the pressure illegal? No idea. But the fact that Obama and his team lied about their role in this affair is big. But expect the MSM to ignore it all.

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Is Fitzgerald screwing with Obama ?

The new “spin” is that Team Obama was trying to stop Blagojevich from appointing Lisa Madigan to the US Senate. Blagojevich wanted her out of town so she wouldn’t run against him in 2010. With Emanuel speaking more than 20 times with Blagojevich or the governor’s aide John Harris, Obama’s claim of “no contact” no looks pretty darn lame.

But meanwhile, Fitzgerald’s “spin” of the goings-ons seems to be designed to protect Obama, so is Fitzgerald padding his future ?

Maybe the real reason Fitzgerald moved to soon before the “sale” of the senate seat was not because the Tribune printed the story but because there was no sale and wouldn’t ever be a sale. I don’t trust Fitzgerald. His methods are suspect. With the Libby and Black cases in mind I have to wonder what his modis operandi is this time. I have heard that his real target is Daley. Maybe he preserved his job with his tactics in order to continue his investigation of Daley.

Fitzgerald’s team has scrambled to interview Jackson, as well as members of the Obama transition team who talked with Blagojevich about the appointment.

“members” ?? Not just Emanuel ??

I have heard that his real target is Daley. Maybe he preserved his job with his tactics in order to continue his investigation of Daley.
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Mayor Richard Daley is the big fish. P.F. got deep and was very close with the “Hired Truck Scandal”. But Daley’s patronage chief Robert Sorich chose to rot in jail rather than flip on Daley. All IL pols lead back to Daley. P.F. is hooking each one at a time waiting to see who will flip.