Rod Blagojevich has been insisting for a year and a half that he’s innocent of trying to sell President Obama’s old Senate seat.
Now, he’s taking his claim a step further, by trying to make everyone around him look guilty. First, it was his chief persecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.
In his two-minute press rant earlier this week, Blago accused Fitz of attempting to cover up his taped conversations in order to preserve “the big lie that foreseeably led to a chain of events that stole a governor from the people of Illinois and undid the will of the people.”
Blagojevich has always boasted of his testicular virility, and subpoeanaing the president is a ballsy move. The ex-governor wants to prove that he wasn’t the only one who thought an open Senate seat was a golden opportunity to profit politically and financially.
According to redacted portions of the subpoena, Obama asked a union official to recommend his old ally Valerie Jarrett to Blagojevich. In addition, an Obama supporter allegedly offered to raise funds for the president if Jarrett was appointed.
As the president-elect, Obama should not have involved himself in the appointment of a senator. It didn’t matter that this was his home state, and his old Senate seat. It wasn't illegel per se, but it violates the spirit of the Constitution for the head of the executive branch to appoint members of the legislative branch.
Politics
In the subpoena, Obama comes off as a cunning, controlling politician -- which is exactly how Blagojevich wants us to see him.
Judging by some of the comments Ward Room and others have been receiving about this story, Blagojevich may be succeeding in dragging Obama down to his level -- at the very least, the subpoena's another arrow in the quiver of an increasingly vocal anti-Obama segment of society.
A sampling of some pro-Blago/Anti-Obama screeds:
“A pox upon both their houses, that of Blago and that of Obama,” wrote Walter12. “They are two of the same. Which one is more crooked and which one is the best liar? The only difference is that Obama is a much bigger leftist radical.
"It would be extremely hard to believe that President Obama was not involved in some way with the Blago investigation, considering the heavy hand he had in the open-deal-making of the health care bill." -- Ed from Arizona on New York Times"I knew there must be something to incriminate Obama in those tapes. Blago was acting way too confident while running around demanding that they be played in full. Will it be the act or the cover up that is Obama's downfall? Or will he get away with it because he is The One? -- VAGAL on AstuteBlogger. "Blagojevich’s defense seems to have some pretty good arguments for requiring more information. Like why they haven’t been provided with requested information about the interview of the president by federal authorities." -- Amerpundit on Hot Air
“What ever happened to ‘Let the people elect their representative?. We get public officials pushing "their" candidates, and ignoring the ‘public’ will.” -- Constitutionalguy on Ward Room
"If there is anything that “may” implicate teh One, you can bet your bottom dollar that ABCCBSNBCMSNBCCNN will bury it, lie about it, cover it up, say it doesn’t implicate him and claim Obama is the Messiah." -- TfT on Mediaite“If this had been Bush lying about trying to arrange a Senate seat for a friend the media would have been all over it 24/7.” -- Mollypitcher on Ward Room.
Obama and Blagojevich have never had much use for each other. Both wanted to be president, and Blagojevich, raised in a dreary Northwest Side apartment by a steelworker father, thinks Hyde Parkers are pampered elitists.
Obama got to be president. Blagojevich sees this trial as a chance to get his revenge.
