Squeal! Squeal! Weeeeeeeee. This is gonna be interesting, ifn Blago makes it to the denouement without falling down the stairs or nonexistent elevator shaft
In a dramatic development in the ongoing impeachment proceedings, lawyers for Gov. Rod Blagojevich want two key aides to President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to testify before the House impeachment committee. "ahem ....Senatorial Candidate Bachelor #5. If we went out to a Senatorial nomination date, what would it be like?"
Sources tell CBS station WBBM-TV that a letter sent by Blagojevich's lawyers to committee chairman, State Rep. Barbara Currie, asks that the committee subpoena Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Jackson. good luck trying to find and serve Rahm. "I was cleared in Senator Obama's internal investigation. What the hell is this?
On Tuesday, a transition official disclosed that Obama, Emanuel and Jarrett, have been interviewed in connection with the federal investigation into Blagojevich. The transition official, speaking on a condition of anonymity, also confirmed that Emanuel had been captured on wiretaps taken as part of the investigation hope Fitz left a couple out of his discussions with "Tiny Dancer" - his new Sec. Service name
Blagojevich was charged on Dec. 9 with plotting to use his governor's authority to appoint Obama's Senate replacement and make state appointments and contracts in exchange for cash and other favors. He has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including one from Obama.
In an internal review, released on Tuesday by Obama's team, found that Emanuel was the only Obama adviser to talk to Blagojevich and his top aide, John Harris. The two men have been arrested as part of a federal corruption investigation.
Emanuel had one or two conversations with Blagojevich and four with Harris on the subject of the Senate seat, according to the review.
The report said Obama authorized Emanuel to pass on the names of four people he considered to be highly qualified to take over his seat - Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Jackson Jr.
"In later telephone conversations, Mr. Emanuel - also with the president-elect's approval - presented other names of qualified candidates to Mr. Harris including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Ms. Cheryle Jackson," the report said. "Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the governor in any of these conversations. There was no discussion of a Cabinet position, of 501c(4), of a private sector position or of any other personal benefit to the governor in exchange for the Senate appointment."
The report said that earlier, Emanuel recommended Jarrett for the Senate seat without Mr. Obama's knowledge, and Jarrett later accepted the job as a senior White House adviser. uh huh - Rahm does a lot without O's approval - under the bus, dammit
CBS 2 left messages with Blagojevich's attorneys, Ed Genson and Sheldon Sorosky as well as Currie seeking comment.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
3 words, Rahm. Lube, oil and filter. Get used to'em.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/25/2008 1:04 Comments ||
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#2
Ya have to love Blago... he's such a honest crook!
[
Coroner: "Three bullets in the head..."
Cop: "Apparent suicide."
]
By MARTIN PERETZ
This is not about former President Bill Clinton's shakedown of the sheikhs. They can take care of themselves, Clinton Foundation or no Clinton Foundation.
This is also not about Hillary Clinton's vulnerability to her husband's donors. She can tell him to "go stuff it," which people say she's been doing for a long time anyway. Rest assured, the next secretary of state will not shirk her diplomatic obligations for the benefit of some scummy foreign mineral magnate's uranium.
What I've been tying to discern about the Clinton Foundation is why -- aside from the annual fancy party in New York -- foreign governments, other foundations and charities have given money to fund what they already do themselves.
I understand why McDonald's of central Arkansas would make a contribution to Mr. Clinton's present career. He has spent so much cash on Big Macs over three decades that they actually owe it to him. But I fail to grasp why the "I Won't Cheat" foundation gave a donation to Bill's charity. He isn't exactly an ideal poster boy.
None of these gifts were really big money, at least not for Mr. Clinton, for whom a million dollars isn't at all big anymore. But the scrounging operation seems to have dug down very deep to pull in thousand-dollar gifts.
There were four United Way contributions, one from the national outfit, three from local branches. Since when is the Clinton Foundation one of the approved charities of the United Way?
Then there are more serious questions about operating charities. What was the purpose of a contribution by the National Opera of Paris? Or of hospitals themselves in strained circumstances, like Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and Arkansas Children's Hospital?
The University of Cambridge and Liverpool University in the United Kingdom threw into the pot from the other side of the pond. American universities like Tufts, Columbia, Georgetown, Iowa State, Texas, Brown, Rensselaer Polytechnic, UCLA and its school of public health all gave, plus the University of Judaism with a whopping sum between $100,000 and $250,000. (Is Bill Clinton now supporting studies in theology?) Do these educational institutions have such deep pockets to share with Bill Clinton's ego?
On the donor list are also the names of the charities we all give to generically: Human Rights Watch (well, not me), Feed the Children, and the Hunger Project. The foundation also receives funding from the International Bank for Recovery and Development of the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. They have their own, far-reaching projects. Why would they give cash to charitable work for which Mr. Clinton is at most a matchmaker?
There's a certain looseness here that spreads downwards: District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union gave old comrade Bill somewhere in the range of half a million bucks. And then spreads upwards, so to speak: Citi gave him from $1 million to $5 million. Perhaps Citi's gift was just a pledge. In that case, is Treasury now paying up?
Many are focused on the contributions of the Arab states. Mr. Clinton started his charity in 1997 with four years to go in his presidency, a period when no American law provided for the most elementary public reporting of the enterprise. Still, the fact that Saudi Arabia is on the donor list comes as no surprise.
What we now know is that Mr. Clinton was indiscriminating when it came to accepting cash from all sorts of countries. He took money from poor countries like Jamaica, and more prosperous countries like Italy. He dipped into the Irish Aid Fund and the Swedish Postal Lottery for big money, and for small money from the Social Economic Council of the Netherlands. And then there was an especially strange source from which he schnorrered: Citgo, Hugo Chávez's oil company. Even if the revolucion didn't gain points for this, it is unseemly for an American president to ask the energy company of the Venezuelan dictatorship for spare cash.
So where did all this fund-raised money go? Wouldn't you want to know to which philanthropic undertaking the King of Saudi Arabia and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques committed himself? This information is not in the report -- and it doesn't look like President-elect Obama has any interest in pushing for further disclosure. Maybe the king just gave to general expenses.
Mr. Peretz is editor in chief of The New Republic.
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in his U.S. Senate recount battle with Democrat Al Franken, refusing to order election officials to throw out more than 100 ballots Colemans campaign says may have been double-counted.
Franken says he holds a lead of 35 to 50 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. The courts decision means any election result will wind up being challenged in court, Colemans lawyer said.
This ensures that no certificate of election will be issued because it is inevitable the recount will be challenged, Fritz Knaak, Colemans lawyer, said in a statement. A legal challenge would mean Minnesota wont have the Senate race decided by the Jan. 6 start of the next term, he said.
State election officials are trying to certify the results in the next few weeks.
Colemans campaign argued to the court that in 25 precincts, voters whose ballots were damaged were given duplicate ballots, allowing them to vote twice. Most of those were Franken voters, Coleman said.
Todays unanimous ruling means that the process can move forward despite attempts to halt its progress, Franken spokesman Andy Barr said in a statement. The recount we strongly believe will result in the election of Al Franken.
The decision leaves it to state election officials to continue their review. More than 1,000 absentee ballots must also be sent to state election officials by Jan. 2, according to a ruling earlier today by the same court.
Additional hearings of the canvassing board will be held Dec. 30 and Jan. 5 to address disagreements over spreadsheets of votes and absentee ballots, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said yesterday.
#1
It was staggering that the Dummos could get Bambino thru the gate. But to get a certified idiot into the Senate may top that. (course it is Hubert Humphrey territory) And, yes, still working that Princess coronation in New Yawk.
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