Hotline After Dark -- Second Time's The Charm?
Pres.-elect Obama's second attempt to address the IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) controversy was fully reviewed:
Weekly Standard's Hayes, asked if Obama did enough in his presser to tamp down this controversy: "I think he sort of hit pause. I don't think we learned a ton new in terms of the facts of the case or the facts of the, you know, potential contacts between his staff and the governor's staff. But I think, you know, he sort of properly recalibrated what he said a couple days ago, when he said he was saddened about the news to today, when he said he was appalled, which I think is sort of where everybody else was when they first got the news" ("No Bias, No Bull," CNN, 12/11).
Newsweek's Wolffe, on whether Obama should continue to call for Blagojevich's resignation: "I don't think he can repeat it enough. ... The question here, again, is separating himself in terms of conduct from everything that's gone on in Illinois. He does not want this narrative to bed down that he has come from a corrupt place and that, therefore, he's tainted by it. Because the first whiff of corruption that comes from the Obama administration, and that story will develop at some point, is going to be linked back to these kinds of events" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 12/11).
Chicago Tribune's Kass: "The guy who was not at the Obama news conference today was the fellow who's usually at his left immediately, Rahm Emanuel. I wonder why he wasn't there. Maybe he could have answered some questions about what was going on" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 12/11).
More after the jump.
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Chicago Sun-Times' Marin, on saying the way Obama has dealt with the emerging situation is "classic Obama": "He is not just a pragmatist, but he's an incrementalist. We saw it with his response to Jeremiah Wright. There was a response. Then it grew as the din grew. And, finally, it was at its most forceful. With Tony Rezko and all the questions about his fundraising and his corruption probe, it was a small response. It took about a year for Obama to come to editorial boards and have a full and long discussion, after, again, he said he needed to explore with his staff exactly what happened and to talk about what he knew. This is the same sort of profile. For better or worse, sometimes, it seems cool, and detached, but he's very much in control of his message and deliberates over it for a long time" ("No Bias, No Bull," CNN, 12/11).
Ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA): "This leads to one of the real big questions as to what is Barack Obama going to do with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald? I mean, he's in the middle of an investigation ... [into] Rezko and now the governor. ... Is he going to fire all the U.S. attorneys? Or does he have to hold on to Patrick Fitzgerald? I would suggest that he is now on a hot seat" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 12/11).
CNBC's Harwood: "Obama said today he needs to gather that information. He indicated it would take several days. It's not clear to me why it would take several days, because how many people really going from the transition going to be in conversation with the governor himself or the governor's chief of staff?" ("1600," MSNBC, 12/11).
Meanwhile, IL AG Lisa Madigan (D) was in the "Situation Room," where she was asked how she gets Blagojevich to step down.
Madigan: "The best situation would be he would realize that the best thing to do for the people of the state would be to step aside and to resign. But at this point, he doesn't show any signs of doing that. And then there are really only two other options that are out there. One is for the legislature to move forward on impeachment proceedings. They convene in session on Monday and they are likely to start taking that up. The other is for me to go to the Illinois Supreme Court and ask them to determine that he is simply unable to serve and either to temporarily or permanently remove him from office."
CNN's Blitzer: "Will you do that?"
Madigan: "Well, it's certainly something that we're considering. I mean, these are extraordinary circumstances. ... You can't take it lightly and you don't want to take that too soon. So since Tuesday, we have been looking at the law and, obviously, looking at the circumstances. And we are getting prepared to make a decision. ... Impeachment or a lawsuit could take an undetermined amount of time. But we have issues right now where we need a governor in place who can make decisions. And because of the unimaginable allegations that were in the federal complaint, it really calls into question absolutely everything that the governor has authority to do" (CNN, 12/11).
The body language of Barack Obama when he announced from a podium that he had never had any contact whatsoever with the Ill. Governor, Blago in regard to the disposal of the US senate seat which he has just vacated was very similar to that of his mentor and role-model, Bill Clinton when he declared vehemently under oath, and wagging his index finger at his audience: “ I never had sex with that woman!”. Bribery, like prostitution, is a game which always requires two players – one on each side of the net. And, a telephone conversation needs two participants – one at each end of the line unless it is made out that the Blago bloke was only talking to himself or negotiating with a ghost, neither of which should be actionable under the law. It is, therefore, blatantly unfair and inequitable that only the intending bribe-taker is being charged and prosecuted while no potential bribe-giver is even being targeted. What is happening in this instance is very much akin to the hooker being always hooked but her ‘john’ being invariably left off the hook, as it has happened in the case of another infamous governor, Eliot Spitzer of New York!
The body language of Barack Obama when he announced from a podium that he had never had any contact whatsoever with the Ill. Governor, Blago in regard to the disposal of the US senate seat which he has just vacated was very similar to that of his mentor and role-model, Bill Clinton when he declared vehemently under oath, and wagging his index finger at his audience: “ I never had sex with that woman!”. Bribery, like prostitution, is a game which always requires two players – one on each side of the net. And, a telephone conversation needs two participants – one at each end of the line unless it is made out that the Blago bloke was only talking to himself or negotiating with a ghost, neither of which should be actionable under the law. It is, therefore, blatantly unfair and inequitable that only the intending bribe-taker is being charged and prosecuted while no potential bribe-giver is even being targeted. What is happening in this instance is very much akin to the hooker being always hooked but her ‘john’ being invariably left off the hook, as it has happened in the case of another infamous governor, Eliot Spitzer of New York!
OOOOO, Klapton, you can tell what Obama's thinking by his "body language"! What's next, will you be reading his aura? Maybe you'd like to predict the next earthquake in California while you're at it. You Republicans will stoop to any extreme lengths to make it look like every Democrat is a lying crook while all of you - except the murderer Bush, the carpetbagger Cheney, the thief Doolittle, ad nauseum - are saints. Stop spewing you little loser.