Call It A Comeback
Worrisome quote from the Prosecution:
This sort of quote bothers me because the prosecution should have a narrative to point to and not telling the jurors they have to go back and piece it back together.
As Blagojevich stepped down from the witness stand, he walked over to the prosecution table and extended his hand to Assistant U.S. Atty. Reid Schar, who had cross-examined him over parts of three days. Schar, who was busy sorting papers, did not acknowledge the gesture and turned away to confer with the defense and judge at a sidebar.
Moments later, U.S. District Judge James Zagel cautioned jurors that there was a reason Schar reacted that way — lawyers are instructed not to have contact with witnesses. The judge then sent the jury home for the day.
In fact, judges in state court (I have no idea about federal, but I’d expect they do there as well) often make a point of this during jury selection because it also applies to jurors. It was a cheap stunt by Blagojevich and a perfect example of what a clown he is.
Problem? The Governor doesn’t appoint Members of Congress to vacancies, he calls special elections.
Congratulations Chicago, your new Mayor was dumber than Blagojevich on the issue and just as arrogant in thinking a public office was his personal property.
In the Nov. 8, 2008 call, Emanuel tells Blagojevich in the recorded phone call that he wants Forrest Claypool tapped to fill his position after explaining: “in my interest of, uh, you know, having somebody there you know that doesn’t want to make it a lifetime commitment.”
At the time, Emanuel was leaving to be White House chief of staff but he was interested in returning to his House seat to possibly rise to Speaker.
Emanuel says that Claypool would only stay in Congress for a couple of years.
“And then he wants to go to the cabinet,” Emanuel says on the recorded phone call that was made public this afternoon in a defense filing.
Blagojevich repeatedly tells Emanuel he can’t appoint to the post. It’s got to be a special election. But Emanuel presses him.
“You would appoint somebody to finish those three weeks,” Emanuel says, if he were to leave his position early. “And then he, and then he gets, you know, all we are giving him is three weeks of a head start… it’s not like Forest doesn’t have a name or anything like that. It gives him a head start and a presumption.”
At the end of the excerpt of the call, Emanuel tells Blagojevich: “I will not forget this…
“I appreciate it. That’s all I am going to say. I don’t want to go, you and I shouldn’t go farther.”
My guess is that with anyone else, the last sentence wouldn’t have been necessary, but with Rod’s mouth he had to shut him up before he said something stupid.
Really? Attacking him for backing a popular program against creating a voucher system that wouldn’t pay enough for actual insurance for the elderly is the best the RNCC can do?
I mean, unindicted co-conspirator Jerry Costello? And they attack on a plan where he is likely with 70 percent of his constituents?
They have to actually come up with a candidate to run against him given last cycle they ran a contestant in the RFT’s Ask a Cougar columnist contest. Seriously.
Pretty sums it up. Can we move on. Maybe we need an organization for that…
The other way to characterize the defense Blagojevich is making is
Chewbacca
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7P9Z6a93lg[/youtube]
Mediscare is a tried and true campaign tactic since the 1960s to charge your opponent with wanting to cut Medicare. Not do away with it, but make some cut–either significant or not. For example, Republicans tried it out in 2010 because the Obama health care plan forced some cuts largely by reducing costs–it was still a cut. It’s fair game and all, but it has made making some reforms hard to pull off at different times and Medicare does need to reduce the increas in costs to stay fully funded.
That said, the issues with Medicare are pretty much the same with all health insurance. If you don’t reduce the rate of increase in costs, everyone is going to go broke trying to pay for it. There are even 70 year old people that still pay a lot of money towards health insurance. If you are one of them, you should Get rates on life insurance for seniors over 70. This will help you pay less and less or even nothing. This insurance is great and everyone accepts this kind of insurance.
To make clear to the dunderheads in DC this isn’t what is happening with Paul Ryan’s ‘plan.’ Ryan is seeking to cut taxes on the wealthy, keep the deficit high, and end Medicare as we know it by instead providing a $14,000 subsidy for the elderly to go out and seek healthcare on their own.
The problem being that the elderly are far harder to insure because they are more likely to have higher costs. The reason we started Medicare was because medical care was becoming more expensive and the elderly couldn’t realistically afford insurance because of the risks associated with age. Insurance companies like to make money and they aren’t going to insure the elderly without a pretty expensive policy to cover likely costs. $14,000 isn’t going to do it.
Ending the program and providing a too small subsidy for a group of people largely on fixed incomes is what the proposal is–it would end Medicare as we know it and not provide adequate resources for a population that cannot obtain reasonably priced insurance. It’s not Mediscare, it’s reality. And it’s very, very unpopular for very good reasons. People understand this issue because they have older relatives and they understand they will eventually be in that position.
Medicare needs some reform on costs, and probably more revenue. However, it’s continued existence shouldn’t be in question because that’s what the public wants and is willing to pay for as a country. DC pundits who declare we need to fix Medicare and that Democrats are somehow obstructing the process miss the most basic element of reality in the discussion. One side isn’t trying to reform it, they are trying to end it for the benefit of tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy and not even balancing the budget.
Who would support this? Complete cranks.
Just to give full credit here, I’m mostly following Msjournalist AKA Susan Berger who is doing a great job on the trial. Here’s the latest:
And it isn’t going well for him…
Blagojevich has long thought:
A) The Rules Don’t Apply To HIm
B) He Can Talk Himself Out of Anything
Federal Judges tend to have a dim view of such characters and Zagel is not putting up with any of it. Zagel will tolerate a certain level of meandering , but he’s not tolerating violating his rulings which, as a lawyer, Blagojevich should understand. At this point Zagel just told Blagojevich’s attorneys there is no more discussion because their client is going to obey him which one has to believe the next step is a warning for contempt and then contempt.
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