No, No
ArchPundit
Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he knows that the President-elect wants Senate Candidate 1 for the Senate seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.”
No, no Rod, Fuck you.
2008
Best New Nickname
How did we never come up with this one:
Blagealphabet
He’s Not Resigning
CHICAGO— The attorney for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said the governor will be vindicated and he has no plans to resign.
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” attorney Sheldon Sorosky told reporters after Blagojevich was arraigned. “A lot of this is just politics.”
Blagojevich should be in the office Wednesday, Sorosky added.
So, reporters asked, he does not intend to resign?
“Not that I know of, no,” said Sorosky, who added that the governor was “surprised” by the day’s events.
You’ll have to take away the office from my cold, dead hands.
Shrug. Okay.
UPDATE: as a commenter pointed out, let me point out that was meant in a purely metaphorical way. It doesn’t quite read as well as it did in my head. No violence meant to be implied.
Words to Haunt Jesse Jackson Jr.
Nathaniel Zimmer writes an article about the possibility that Jackson is Senate Candidate 5:
The affidavit filed by an FBI special agent in support of the corruption charges against the governor refers only to the candidate by number, making it impossible to know for sure which contender is candidate 5. The affidavit also does not discuss any direct talks between candidate 5 and the governor, indicating only that Blagojevich spoke to “an emissary” and someone from whom he wanted campaign contributions and who he “believes to be close to Senate Candidate 5.”
On Thursday, the governor was taped by investigators saying that he was going to meet with candidate 5 in the next few days, according to the affidavit. Jackson met with Blagojevich Monday at the Thompson Center in Chicago for about 90 minutes to discuss the Senate seat. In his statement, Jackson said he “shared with the Governor my hopes and unique qualifications for succeeding President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.”
Also on Thursday, Blagojevich said in a taped phone call that he was considering appointing Senate Candidate 5 because he would raise money for the governor or give him money “up front,” according to the affidavit.
On Oct. 31, Blagojevich reportedly said on another recorded call that he had been approached by an associate of candidate 5, stating that “We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a senator.”
But Blagojevich apparently wanted evidence of the candidate’s ability to raise money for him sooner rather than later, saying that he had “a prior bad experience with Senate Candidate 5 not keeping his word,” the affidavit says.
“Some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now–right now–and we gotta see it,” Blagojevich allegedly said.
To be fair, there is a lot of things that could happen between what Blagojevich heard and what Jackson meant to convey through an emmissary–however, none of that is good for Jackson.
The Thing About Pissing Off Everyone in the State
They are all reveling in Blagojevich getting nailed and no one will help him.
Teh Best Radio Show Evah
Leave it to Rosenberg to bring in Freddoso to talk about Blagojevich.
– Then, at 9:00pm, Milt Rosenberg hosts a special edition of Extension
720. His scheduled guests include Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, political commentator Chris
Robling, and political reporter from National Review David Freddoso.
Between him and Kass, can’t wait to hear the conspiracy theories.
The Wife
Ouch:
BLAGOJEVICH. During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the
background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that
fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A what
he thinks of his wife’s idea. Deputy Governor A stated that there is a part of what ROD
BLAGOJEVICH’s wife said that he “agree[s] with.” Deputy Governor A told ROD
BLAGOJEVICH that Tribune Owner will say that he does not have anything to do with the
editorials, “but I would tell him, look, if you want to get your Cubs thing done get rid of this
Tribune.” Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife got on the phone and, during the continuing
discussion of the critical Tribune editorials, stated that Tribune Owner can “just fire” the
writers because Tribune Owner owns the Tribune. ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife stated that
if Tribune Owner’s papers were hurting his business, Tribune Owner would do something
about the editorial board. ROD BLAGOJEVICH then got back on the phone. ROD
BLAGOJEVICH told Deputy Governor A to put together the articles in the Tribune that are
on the topic of removing ROD BLAGOJEVICH from office and they will then have
someone, like JOHN HARRIS, go to Tribune Owner and say, “We’ve got some decisions
to make now.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “someone should say, ‘get rid of those
people.’” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that he thinks that they should put this all together and
then have HARRIS or somebody go talk to the Tribune owners and say, “Look, we’ve got
decisions to make now. . . moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA
helping with the Cubs sale) . . . someone’s gotta go to [Tribune Owner], we want to see him
. . it’s a political fuckin’ operation in there.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that
HARRIS needs to be “sensitive” about how he does it. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said there is
nothing sensitive about how you do it and that it’s “straight forward” and you say “we’re
doing this stuff for you, we believe this is right for Illinois [and] this is a big deal to [Tribune
Owner] financially” but what ROD BLAGOJEVICH is doing to help Tribune Owner is the
same type of action that the Tribune is saying should be the basis for ROD
BLAGOJEVICH’s impeachment. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said Tribune Owner should be told
“maybe we can’t do this now. Fire those fuckers.” Deputy Governor A suggested that ROD
BLAGOJEVICH say, “I’m not sure that we can do this anymore because we’ve been getting
a ton of these editorials that say, look, we’re going around the legislature, we gotta stop and
this is something the legislature hasn’t approved. We don’t want to go around the legislature
anymore.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH agreed and said that he wants HARRIS to go in and make
that case, “not me.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that he likes it. ROD
BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A to put the list of Tribune articles together.
The Best Solution–Quickee Impeachment
I’m not kidding either. Without it he’s still in place if regardless of any other course of action involving legislation to take the power of appointment away. Impeach in the morning in the House and convict in the Senate by afternoon and hope he doesn’t rush an appointment in the meantime. Every moment he is free is another moment he can be delusional and try something. True, he has to find someone who will accept, but I’d rather not find out if he can.
And…
There’s some question the Supreme Court could do that…the Constitution is unclear and the conditions are largely about death, incapacity and conviction. I don’t think it will work–quickee impeachment is the best idea