Thursday February 16, 2012

Illinois governor ignores Obama's call to resign

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  • 0

    timorborder

    This sounds like a case of "dog bites master."

  • 0

    adaydream

    Gov. Rod Blagojevich is a real dumbass. Barack is being kind to say just resign. < :-)

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    The governors of the US are really making quite the names for themselves these days.

  • 0

    Wolfpack

    I love it when one tainted politician comes down like a ton of bricks on another tainted politician. It's hillarious. If his transition is this exciting, just wait until he actually becomes president. I guess that's when the media will finally get around to vetting him.

  • 0

    USAFdude

    Wolfpack - Blagojevich is obviously a "tainted politician"; explain who you think the other is and support your claim.

  • 0

    VOR

    what a mess. both parties suck. corrupt politicians and fringe elements calling the shots on both the right and the left will lead to a third party of centrists once Americans get sick and tired of being taken for fools.

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    VOR: "corrupt politicians and fringe elements calling the shots on both the right and the left will lead to a third party of centrists once Americans get sick and tired of being taken for fools."

    I hope you're right... and the sooner the better.

  • 0

    TooFarGone

    The Chicago Machine is too crooked for Obama to remain immune from the taint. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is just the first.

    I laughed out loud when the link revealed some wag at NRO came up with the following, cause when I first saw it I thought for a sec it was the President-elect's actual reply:

    "Look, he's just a governor who lives in my neighborhood."

  • 0

    TooFarGone

    Chicago Trib has this:

    "[I]ntercepted phone conversations between ROD BLAGOJEVICH and others indicate that ROD BLAGOJEVICH is contemplating rescinding his commitment of state funds to benefit Children's Memorial Hospital because Hospital Executive 1 has not made a recent campaign contribution to ROD BLAGOJEVICH."

    Shaking down a children's hospital???

    Stay classy, Dems!

  • 0

    thepro

    What balls this guy has

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    I hope this governor steps down as he is a disgrace. He has no dignity left over, and what does he think he's going to achieve by ignoring all the calls to step down? He looks all the more an a$$ for refusing to give in and give up.

  • 0

    Badsey

    this DemoCom will stay in as long as he can -for maximum damage effect. Long live the DemoComs!

  • 0

    TooFarGone

    I can't believe the national lamestream media is so inept, so biased, that millions of us are now asking

    what did the President-elect know, and when did the media know he knew it?

  • 0

    Sarge

    This was a very stupid thing to do. Especially since the last governor of Illinios is in prison for exactly the same kind of thing. And not only that, think of it, you're in Chicago, you have Barack Obama's seat for sale, don't you go directly to Oprah? Who would pay more for Barack Obama's seat than her?

    • Jimmy Kimmel

  • 0

    goodDonkey

    Wolfpack erroneously said:

    I love it when one tainted politician comes down like a ton of bricks on another tainted politician.

    No taint on Obama. Dream on Repubs! Like I said before in the other thread, we all knew what a useless piece of crap Rod Blagojevich was a long time ago. Those conservatives who are making a fuss are just showing their ignorance. During the Rezko trial Blagojevich was implicated by a witness under oath who stood to lose his immunity if he lied. Sorry you guys can't keep up. Many Dems were late to ditch Blago until that point but after the Rezko trial Blago was finished. I don't care if people believe me or not but like I said I have been anti-Blago since he served in congress.

    I am certainly willing to state that in no way will Obama be implicated. Sarge tried to say he was stupid if he did not know "about his hometown politics[.]" Once again Sarge is confused with the knowledge of an event compared to an overall knowledge of a subject. Of course Obama knows all about Windy City politics. He has just been cautious enough to always remain above the fray. He had no knowledge of this scumbag's latest antics. Blago knew better. Blago would have been destroyed the second he revealed any such information to Obama.

    So like I have said in other instances, enjoy your fantasy now because it will not last. Obama is squeaky clean on this and the Democratic powerhouse will continue to roll right over anything that gets in the way come January. Filibuster is the only option left for the Repubs and that is the slim 3 or 4 seat margin needed for cloture.

  • 0

    Nippon5

    Illinois has long legacy of public corruption At least 79 elected officials have been convicted of wrongdoing since 1972

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28141995/

    Illinois has a tradition of people like this guy coming into political office.

    This guy was just too eager to do the wrong thing then the right thing to make his way through life. Like many people who let politics become the driving force in their thinking, he didnt see the wrong in his politicaly motivated ideas. Hope we dont get any more suprises from the infamous Chicago style politicians in office or coming into office.

    Obama should be the one picking the person for his seat, that way they get someone he would allow in his place.

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    Nippon5: "Obama should be the one picking the person for his seat, that way they get someone he would allow in his place."

    Very well said.

  • 0

    Nippon5

    Thank you Smith. I think the root to this problem is we have an outside person (who has their own objectives) making the decision.

    I'm not an Obama groupie, but I think he really is the best person to be making the decision of who should replace him.

    I hate to see how many times this kind of "auction" for power has happened and we didnt hear about it. Actually makes me shiver thinking about how many people are in office because of money and not the peoples true desire.(I know most are in becasue they have money, I just shiver a lot I guess)

  • 0

    SuperLib

    The shocking thing to me is that this guy made it so high up in the system without being exposed earlier. Either he was clean before he was governor or a lot of people missed a lot of cues about who this guy really was. Or they knew and didn't care. Or they profited. Any way you slice it, it's a depressing thought.

  • 0

    Triumvere

    Of course he won't resign. The man is delusional; he even thought he had a shot at the presidency in 2016.

    He will be impeached, and a special election called to fill the senate seat.

  • 0

    Badsey

    Obama: "We were just neighbors."

    -Where have I heard that before? Chicago is a small town it seems.

  • 0

    smithinjapan

    Nippon5: "I hate to see how many times this kind of "auction" for power has happened and we didnt hear about it. Actually makes me shiver thinking about how many people are in office because of money and not the peoples true desire."

    I don't think anyone actually wants to know the truth to that because if they asked for all those who actually wanted to be there just for being there to remain, there would probably be next to no one left. Sad, but true. Perhaps not at the beginning, but it ends up there at some point for many.

  • 0

    Taka313

    According to conservative logic here, sarah palin is guilty as sin and should be investigated.

    After all, she worked with ted stevens on the bridge to nowhere.

    By conservative logic here, george bush should be in Gitmo. After all, he has close ties to the house of saud.

    Ironically enough, we never saw that happen.

    I blame the liberal media and Bill Clinton. Don't judge me.

    Taka

  • 0

    TooFarGone

    goodDonkey:

    Of course Obama knows all about Windy City politics. He has just been cautious enough to always remain above the fray.

    Trouble is "Windy City Politics" is pretty much an exclusively Democrat production, and unfortunately their dirty business reaches far beyond Chicago.

    Was Rahm Emmanuel 'above the fray'? How about 'the other side of Obama's brain' - Valerie Jarret? Michelle Obama was also a player.

    And don't forget - David Axelrod inadvertently placed Obama smack in the middle of the fray two weeks ago:

    "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."

  • 0

    TooFarGone

    According to 'Liberal' logic, since Obama's transition site is censoring any questions related to Blago Gate, Obama must be innocent!

    President-elect Barack Obama’s Transition today launched “Open for Questions,” a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another’s questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.

    It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama’s supporters appear to be using — and abusing — a tool allowing them to “flag” questions as “inappropriate” to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama’s website. . . . So far, Obama’s team does not seem to have stepped in to allow uncomfortable questions to rise to the top, and instead is allowing his supporters to sanitize the site. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Blagojevich_questions_censored_on_Transition_site.html?showall

  • 0

    sailwind

    I blame the liberal media

    Me too. Gov Rod Blagojevich has been under investigation for years.

    Back eight weeks ago we the following environment. There was a known investigation of the Blagojevich administration that had been going on for years involving allegations of pay-to-play conduct and corruption.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/09text-illinois.html

    Yet I never heard about this at all during the campaign except when McCain tried to point out Obama was part of the Chicago political machine and of course was villified here on J.T as using "Rove" tactics.

    Obama acted as an advisor on Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial run and endorsed the governor during his 2006 reelection.

    http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/rnc-highlights-obamas-past-support-blagojevich

    Would've been nice if the Media had done it's job prior to this happening. They are only doing it now because they have to it seems. It was all out there prior but the MSM pretty much ignored all the unsavory connections. To busy looking at Palin's warddrobe expenditures and Troopergate and Wasilla's book banning policy I guess to pay attention to the less desirable aspects of his political career and how he got ahead in politics.

    Thanks Media for doing a bang up job on vetting Obama. If they would have at first then you wouldn't have a whole bunch of "progressives" that are trying to defend Obama now looking like a bunch of fools because the media glossed over all the hard questions about him in the first place. The media should be "McShamed" of itself.

  • 0

    USAFdude

    Thanks Media for doing a bang up job on vetting Obama. If they would have at first then you wouldn't have a whole bunch of "progressives" that are trying to defend Obama now looking like a bunch of fools because the media glossed over all the hard questions about him in the first place. The media should be "McShamed" of itself.

    sailwind - Thanks for the laugh with your above post! It's been a long time since I've read whining and sour grapes on THAT low a level! xD

  • 0

    sailwind

    Obama acted as an advisor on Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial run and endorsed the governor during his 2006 reelection.

    Looking at the Governors indictment and who his advisor was that planned his campaign and supported him to get elected as Governor in the first place would give anyone a good "chuckle".

    Sour grapes? I think not, more like do we really know who we elected as our President? Seems we really don't, yourself included. Hence your deflection to try to divert the issue to "sour grapes and whining" and my part.

    How about you post your thoughts as to why Obama supported this man so much as to be a key advisor to his campaign? It would be more in keeping to the article.

    I do give Obama credit for asking him to resign after the fact he got cuffed though. It always does seem though he is always distancing himself from prior bad relationships that has the potential to damage him politically only after they are revealed not prior. I don't find that very encouraging but I'm just "whining" it seems about that it seems.

  • 0

    Badsey

    I am not sure why every is so_o upset about this? It's not like they tried to sell the Senate seat on eBay or something -although I'm sure they gave it some serious thought.

    With the Gov. pension and free health care for life many people would make fair bids.

  • 0

    SezWho2

    Well, now that he's been found guilty, I think we should hang him.

  • 0

    Blue_Tiger

    This is just the beginning of woes for President Obama...

  • 0

    Taka313

    You know...maybe there IS a media conspiracy. I mean, really; I know I am not alone in wondering why there hasn't been any media coverage over the sudden and sharp increase in accountability issues among republicans after 8 years of none.
    Has anyone read any stories of that nature? NO. I'll bet it's a conspiracy. Also, I don't think I am alone in wondering why there is no media coverage of the growing sense of entitlement among some, over what the media covers. Why no stories about that? Why should I do all the leg work to find out why some people have a growing sense of entitlement regarding the media? I want to read about it. Doesn't that mean THEY have to cover it? It'a a conspiracy I'll tell you.

    Why is the media ignoring how many degrees of seperation exists between Obama and Kevin Bacon?

    Why is it that we know everything there is to know about Britney Spears, george bush's military career and Anna Nicole Smith (except for the bush's military career part) and yet, nothing about Obama?

    And dang it, why is there no tinfoil when I need it!?!?

    It's a conspiracy I tell you. I blame Bill Clinton.

    Sez,

    Trials by jury are only for blackwater mercs. Not Democratic politicians.

    Taka

  • 0

    Taka313

    The more I look into this, the more I'm convinced, there MUST be a media conspiracy.

    Look at what those "lefties" at Time wrote:

    **On more than one occasion **during his stunning press conference on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald bluntly said **he has found no evidence of wrongdoing by President-elect Barack Obama **in the tangled, tawdry scheme that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich allegedly cooked up to sell Obama's now vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

    So, what's the deal? Why is the media not writing about the shady connection between blago and President-elect Obama?
    So what if the media asked, on numerous occassions, if there was a connection and Pat Fitzgerald, on numerous occassion, answered there was no evidence to support that accusation. People want to read about it! If the media is not willing to write stories that a small minority of radicals feel entitled to read, well...I just don't know what more evidence I can provide that there is a media conspiracy (the moment I'm done typing this, I'm throwing my hands up in the air in disgust)!

    I'm outraged, I tell you. If I ever meet Bill Clinton....why...I just may have to demand that someone else's kid do something bad to him! Oh yeah, I'm that mad. It's on. It.is.on!

    Taka

  • 0

    ca1ic0cat

    Here's what the Times is saying today:

    "Mr. Obama said he was “saddened and sobered” by the accusations and told reporters he had not been in contact with the governor or Mr. Blagojevich’s staff. He declined to comment further.

    But those comments contradicted an earlier statement by David Axelrod, a senior adviser, who told Fox News on Nov. 23 that Mr. Obama had spoken to Mr. Blagojevich about the Senate seat, and that “there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced.”

    Late Tuesday, Mr. Axelrod issued a statement saying he had misspoken in his comments to Fox News, and said that Mr. Obama indeed had no contact with Mr. Blagojevich in the conversations over a replacement."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/us/politics/12IllinoisCND.html?_r=1

    Which is what the Economist was saying two days ago.

    "David Axelrod, his chief campaign strategist who will be a close presidential adviser, has reversed a statement made in November suggesting that Mr Obama had spoken to the Illinois governor about the Senate vacancy."

    http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?storyid=12757603&source=featuresbox3

    I don't know what this ads up to but I seem to recall that the way Obama got his first elected position was to have all the other Chicago Dems knocked off the ballot on technicalities.

    I guess Taka will blame Bill Clinton.

  • 0

    adaydream

    Oh course Blagojevich isn't going to resign. He'll take the same actions as our federal leaders have taken and deny, hide and accuse someone else of of morales lower than a snails belly.

    As soon as he resigns he accepts fate even faster then he has to now. By staying in office he'll have benifits and luxeries that will automatically stop.

    If I was Blagojevich I'd make them try me and convict me before I resign, unless the Illinois legislature does something before then.

    Even though I think he did something wrong, innocent until proven guilty. < :-)

  • 0

    VOR

    makes me wonder how Obama navigated his way to the oval office through the dirty sleazy mess that is Illinois politics. he's associated himself with some real scumbags on his ascent but never seemed to notice or distance himself from these questionable characters until after their scandalous behavior became public knowledge. As Dennis Miller points out, Obama is either oblivious or being ingeniousness and he needs to wake up. It would be heartbreaking for a lot of folk if this pattern continued into his presidency.

  • 0

    adaydream

    Is there any proof that anything within the Illinois political machine tainted Barack Obama's politics? Is there any proof that he was involved in any way with dirty politics with Blagojevich? < :-)

  • 0

    USAFdude

    sailwind - no diversion from me, bucko; you're the one doing the whining. You said so yourself, regardless of the quotation marks:

    I'm just "whining" it seems about that it seems.

    How about you post your thoughts as to why Obama supported this man so much as to be a key advisor to his campaign? It would be more in keeping to the article.

    Gladly. Obama supported Blagojevich until Blagojevich proved himself unworthy of that trust, just like America supported bush until bush screwed up. Then, just like America rightfully turned its back on bush and his "party", Obama rightfully called for Blagojevich's resignation; read JT's above article again for more details.

    Sour grapes? I think not, more like do we really know who we elected as our President?

    Yep, we do; we elected the better candidate. Check out the election results at the news source of your choice for details.

  • 0

    ca1ic0cat

    You know, Nixon didn't resign for the longest time either. Same with Clinton. Most men would skulk off with their tail between their legs if they were caught with it hanging out. Not Bill. It seems to be a proclivity of politicians to think that they are somehow above everything.

    I wonder how many other Chicago pols are going to be found out while Blago tries to bail the titanic. The longer he stays in the more heat the others will take. Is this the start of a new era in Chicago politics? Only Mayor Daly knows for sure. Of couse if this was the Mafia old Blago would be offed for embarrasing his associates. He should reconsider his position.

  • 0

    Badsey

    maybe Obama can buy his Senate seat back -and sell it to the highest bidder. Or maybe one of those 10,000 dollars a plate luncheons (ala G.W. Bush). There are so many possibilities here -sort of like a Chicago pizza.

    I wonder how much Hillary's Senate seat is worth?

  • 0

    Sarge

    The president-elect is truly amazing. Despite being surrounded by dirty politics, he remains as pure as the wind-driven snow.

  • 0

    Good_Jorb

    The president-elect is truly amazing. Despite being surrounded by dirty politics, he remains as pure as the wind-driven snow.

    Isn't labelling politics dirty redundant?

  • 0

    Nippon5

    Good Jorb ..

    I　think you got it right.

    Some defend Obama like he is the christ child, others blame him for all the worlds sins. The truth most likely is in the middle. He most likely is like all the other politicians tainted and not clean, but he is trying his hardest to keep it under the covers. They all do it and they all try to cover it. Those who say he is perfectly clean are just kidding them selves, and those who think he is so much worse then any of the others are just wishing.

  • 0

    Betzee

    This tawdry episode underscores Illinois' need to reform its laws regarding contributions to address the "pay to play" problem. This Gov's predecessor, a Republican, is behind bars.

    From the point of view of the nation, it calls glaring attention to our system's inability to remove people. In the parliamentary system the party itself can remove those with executive authority, there's no need to await a criminal indictment. Here we are forced to wait for "guilty until proven innocent." That can take a long time. While it may be appropriate for the average Joe, it's different for those with political power.

    I have no doubt Governor Blagojevich lost the confidence of the Illinois voters a long time ago. In California we had someone with a 9% approval rating 18 months after he'd been reelected. He was removed through a special election that brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to power. And then there's the matter of GWB, who morphed into a caretaker for the most important job in the land and ceased to be relevant as soon as Obama was elected. The president-elect has held more press conferences since Nov 4 than the prez has all year.

    We really can't afford to be led by people whom the electorate has lost confidence in. Moreover, voters have to take these things seriously. We narrowly avoided have a convicted felon win reelection. While that may bar someone from voting, it's no obstacle to running. There's something wrong here.

  • 0

    Badsey

    "Office of the President Elect" is made up and Obama is not President Elect until the electoral college meets (Dec 15).

    Is Blago listening to Obama? -No.

    The self-appointed President Elect is sort of lame duck right now.

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