Obama's problem with Blagojevich scandal

As everyone knows by now, the democrats were caught selling Obama's Congressional seat in exchange for a cash cow and Board of Director appointments to bring the Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich and his wife a nice steady flow of the extortion booty.

Unfortunately, that was not the worst news of the day for the Demorats.

Earlier in the day, Obama tried to distance himself by saying he had no contact with Blagojevich:

The president-elect was blunt and brief in addressing the case on Tuesday: "I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening" concerning any possible dealing about Blagojevich's appointment of a successor.

But, there is evidence to the contrary.

The first indication that Obama and his staff knew of the appointment for cash flow scheme and didn't want to get their hands dirty, are taped statements of Blagojevich indicating he had asked the Obama camp for cash but the Obama camp was unwilling to give him anything:

And Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn't be helpful to him. Even if the governor was to appoint a candidate favored by the Obama team, Blagojevich said, "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation."

Subsequently, Blagojevich was inspired to refer to Obama in the context of vulgarity.

More bad news came when more digging came up with a statement from Obama's top advisor David Axelrod telling reporters that Obama had indeed been involved in the discussions:

His statement that he didn't have contact with Blagojevich about the Senate seat seems to conflict with that of top adviser David Axelrod, who told Fox News Chicago on Nov. 23: "I know he's talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

While the Obama cronies were responding that Axelrod "misspoke", Obama friend Valarie Jarrett, an incoming senior advisor had been named by Obama as "Candidate 1".

It also appears that Obama friend Valerie Jarrett, an incoming senior White House adviser, is the person referred to repeatedly in court documents as "Candidate 1." That individual is described as a female who is "an adviser to the president-elect" and as the person Obama wanted appointed to the Senate seat. Court papers say that "Candidate 1" eventually removed "herself" from consideration for the Senate seat.

In a Nov. 11 phone conversation with an aide, Blagojevich talked at length about "Candidate 1" and said he knew that Obama wanted her for the open seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. (Expletive) them."

Therefore, confirmation that Obama did not know Blagojevich was asking for money and favors is moot. When the Obama Administration gets a phone call asking for bribes in exchange for favors, they don't call the FBI. They give the extortionist all the room he needs to find another victim. This is change in Washington we can believe in.

And, that is the best case scenario.

The worst case scenario is, they were suggesting the appointments but the money was being shuffled through a third-party source

Further, while allegations of misconduct piled up against Blagojevich's administration, Obama complimented Blagojevich for running a "sound administration" with "the right priorities".

Both Obama and Blagojevich were being funded by Tony Rezko who is now under a federal indictment for, you guessed it, extortion, money laundering and fraud.

Rezko assisted Blagojevich in setting up the state's first Democratic administration in twenty years. Rezko was able to have business associates appointed onto several state boards.

Blogojevich also tried to shake down the Chicago Tribune.

Intercepted calls allegedly show that Blagojevich directed Harris to inform the Tribune and an associate, identified as Tribune Financial Advisor, that state financial assistance would be withheld unless members of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board were fired, primarily because Blagojevich viewed them as driving discussion of his possible impeachment.

In a Nov. 4 phone call, Blagojevich allegedly told Harris that he should say to Tribune Financial Advisor, the Cubs chairman and the Tribune owner, "our recommendation is fire all those [expletive] people, get 'em the [expletive] out of there and get us some editorial support."

Meanwhile some joker listed Obama's seat on ebay.

In his ad, he describes the seat in Blagojevich¹s own words, according to the federal complaint released Tuesday: "It's a (expletive) valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."