The American Spectator

Neo| 12.10.08 @ 2:22PM

The governor's web site shows that Obama did meet with Governor Blagojevich on Nov 5, 2008, the day after the election to discuss a replacement.

IMKessel| 12.10.08 @ 3:21PM

Mr. Brooks, this is a civil forum.

Please show respect for the readers while you express your free speech. The difference between discourse and intercourse is more than just etiquette.

boozebuster| 12.10.08 @ 4:03PM

What a disappointment this is. I voted for change, hope and a new beginning. Its hard not to convict first...this feels like the same old crap...thanks for nothing obama...

ruth| 12.10.08 @ 4:17PM

Mr. Brooks, why the desperation? The only mention of race here, is yours.

Alan Briijs| 12.10.08 @ 5:47PM

trial, then verdict, sentence, execution.

Alan Brooks| 12.10.08 @ 5:51PM

ruth,
its not race, its the underestimation of Obama, as i've written ten times about. already he is being written off.
but if im wrong, then sorry.

DaveS| 12.10.08 @ 5:59PM

It is not illegal to talk to anyone about anything. There is more than one source of info that Obama and Rod talked, or were at least scheduled to talk, about the replacement. OHB: just say you talked it over with Rod; say nothing more than that. (Oops, can't say we talked now.)

ruth| 12.10.08 @ 6:18PM

Hi, Alan. I didn't realize that first post was you--duh! I'm not happy about this Obama dustup because I believe it destabilizes our country. I just wish the Media had vetted him properly before he was elected. This just doesn't bode well for his administration, don't you think?

k. kline| 12.10.08 @ 6:21PM

i'm sure that obama wants to have some say about who follows him into the senate. that's just the nature of things. hearing what bloggo said about him, i'm reasonably certain that obama really wanted to distance himself from the process.

Marc Jeric| 12.10.08 @ 6:42PM

"I have not talked with Governor Blagojevich about my replacement in the Senate" - does this remind anyone of that famous declaration - "It depends of what the meaning of "is" is"?

Alan Brooks| 12.10.08 @ 10:32PM

i KNEW someone would bring in lewinsky. Good thing the writers at the spectator arent cranks like us commenters.

Jeremiah| 12.10.08 @ 10:40PM

Obama is the luckiest man I ever saw.

After a few on the right fringe began making noises like those above -- that he might have somehow been involved in this skullduggery -- it was reported by an actual news agency that it very well could have been Obama's own pressure to pass an ethics bill that brought this guy down.

I won't go through the whole story, but you guys can flash all the pictures with Obama and the governor together you want. It just doesn't hold water. No one could explain what Obama could possibly stand to benefit or why after 36 months of near flawless political strategizing he would get involved with this incompetent and corrupt scam artist.

Should I go with a few right wing nutjobs who absolutely hate Obama? Or should I assume the guy that ran the smartest, tightest, best campaign in modern political history knows what he's doing?

Charles Jackson| 12.11.08 @ 1:27AM

So, the list of tainted politicians grows...Blago, perhaps Obama not to mention those indicted or involved in scandals just this year alone. I say, BRING THE REVOLUTION!! In the meantime, don't balme me, I Voted for Jefferson Davis, thank you very much.

ruth| 12.11.08 @ 1:37AM

Jeremiah, it was not a right wing nutjob who caused this mess for Obama. Right? Last time I checked, Blagojevich was an Obama homie, no right-winger, he. You might think this scandal is very lucky for Obama, but I would hate to see what you consider unlucky: And he hasn't even been inaugurated yet.

Alan Brooks| 12.11.08 @ 3:58AM

Jefferson Davis? well i voted for Ulysses S. Grant.

Jim| 12.11.08 @ 7:46AM

It's easy to run a "smart, tight" campaign when the press is on their knees and completely in the tank. The only way this man could be elected was if the press refused to vet him, and so they didn't. Shame on them, but the consequences of this disaster will fall on us, as always. By this time next year, this will be obvious to all, but way too late.

stu.b.con| 12.11.08 @ 8:02AM

Once again here we go, hopenchangers assigning the blame to anyone who would dare to question BHO instead of where it belongs.
A simple old saw...you're known by the company you keep. It's already getting deeper and deeper and we're not even to inauguration.
And frankly, shouldn't someone ask Fitz why he dropped the hammer so early? Is he protecting
someone? Curiouser and curiouser...

Rick LaBonte| 12.11.08 @ 9:12AM

Anyone who is still deluding themselves as to what Obama is all about, after the litany of his associations with corrupt, radical, anti-American, racist, haters , ACORN-thugs, terrorists and crooks - if you are self-delusional enough to believe for one nano-second Obama's lies about not being in contact with Blago - then you should, for the sake of your country, abstain from voting for at least the next several decades. You are simply too stupid to be trusted with such a precious thing.

Dustoff| 12.11.08 @ 9:59AM

The funny part. Looks like Jesse Jackson JR is caught up in this. His presser was dang funny yesterday. He talked about 'everything' except the $500.000 Senate buy.

RustyG| 12.11.08 @ 10:00AM

How dare you imply Obama is involved in this mess. He was totally in the dark. Just like he sat 20 years in Rev. Wrights church and had no idea he was a race baiting radical. He served on boards with Ayers and knew him from the hood, but he had no idea of his terrorist past and radical nature. Rezko was just a guy that helped with his real estate. To imply that he had any insight at all to Blago's corrupt style is totally beyond comprehension. Hope. Change. Believe.

james| 12.11.08 @ 11:20AM

Age old truth ''if you wallow with pigs you will get pig sh.t on you. Barry old sport is a product of that Chicago pigsty. 50% of US voters are simply not qualified to vote. Third world people WILL destroy my beloved adopted country.

Chris| 12.11.08 @ 11:36AM

We're supposed to believe that the man just elected President isn't involved at all in who succeeds him in his U.S. Senate seat? That this megalomaniac is not personally involved in who will carry on his legacy representing Illinois in the Senate? Ok. I will.

Dustoff| 12.11.08 @ 12:28PM

Has anyone other than me noticed that Obama is really studdering these days. 0-:

OCPatriot| 12.11.08 @ 12:33PM

Dear Mr Lloyd:
I am getting fed up with this pursuit of Obama after he has clearly said he wasn't involved and he hasn't been charged. The Republicans and Conservatives, and the Main Stream Media, which has nothing to do these days it seems, all want to know more about this stupid contretemps when there is important work to be done.

Bear with me on this: One of the problems the Republican Party (and Conservatism) faces is restoring peoples' faith. By this I mean the Republican Party supposedly stood for the principles of fiscal responsibility, minmum interference in individuals' lives, limited government (not the same as minimum interference in people's lives), prosperity and the restoration of morality in government. The Republican Party has failed on all of these accounts. It is easy to blame George W. Bush for this, but the Party went along with him for two terms without protest. This has brought us to the brink of disaster as a country. Fiscal responsibility has been abandoned and our country's debt is the highest it's ever been. We see meddling in peoples' lives on a regular basis, including adopting the right-to-life position and the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage. Limited government has been a joke since Reagan, with the current government being the largest ever. Prosperity is another joke with even the richest people I know wondering where the bottom is. As for morality in government, the Republicans certainly racked up a majority of the criminal and moral infringements in the last two terms. Not that the Democrats haven't had their faults.

Neil Gabler has written that the true Republican tradition is McCarthyism, scaring people, and he makes a good case of it. You're doing this without, probably being aware of it.

The concomitant of this is that, instead of criticizing everything the Democrats do, presenting positive believable programs would make the Republicans believable once more. Instead, from McCain to Palin, to your own blog, They (and now the Media) harp on the negatives, nitpicking everything the Democrats do (the latest contretemps being what Obama said or didn't to the Governor of Illinois when it's obvious he wouldn't "pay to play", as caught on the quote from the wire that Obama was a "blanker." It's easy to criticize when you're not really doing deep thinking about this great country of ours; it's too easy to blame it all, and I mean everything wrong, on the Democrats and not assume any responsibility for the Republicans.

I urge the Republicans and Conservatives and the Main Stream Media to abandon the McCarthy scare tactics, trying to besmirch the Democratic Party as it tries to fix our country, which is why they were voted in, because you ought to face it, by being negative you border on being self-destructive, and if you want to face more economic loss and more fiscal destruction of our country, just keep it up, forget about really helping, and find you're losing everybody but the ignorant and the truly angry.

I think Republican and Conservative principles, if truly enforced, can be a fine moral structure to run a country on; but you have to mean it, not just propagandize it; and you have to make it believable and workable. And the Media needs to keep it's powder dry until something really crops up that is meaningful. How disgusting.

RationalGeezer| 12.11.08 @ 1:13PM

"Governor Blagojevich? He's just a guy from my neighborhood." -- Ineligible-Affirmative-Action-President-Elect O'Bama

ruth| 12.11.08 @ 1:40PM

A scandal before inauguration. This is what happens when a country's "Watch dog" media are corrupt and don't vet a candidate properly. Disgusting, indeed.

Dustoff| 12.11.08 @ 2:44PM

OC...

Please explain to all why Obama is STIll lying about not meeting with the gov of ILL.
The news service has shown he did.

What is Obama hidding?

Jeffrey Lord| 12.11.08 @ 5:06PM

OC...

So when Nixon said he had no involvement in Watergate the matter should have been dropped. When Clinton pointed his finger into the camera and said he "didn't have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky" we should have dropped that too and simply taken his word for it.

For the record, I see no indication that Obama personally has done anything wrong here. But it is simply crazy to believe that negotiations with a corrupt governor were left only to the governor. Blagojevich had to be dealing with SOMEBODY on the Obama team or he would have no reason to say the things the wiretaps have him saying, ie: that Obama expects to have the governor name a Senator for nothing in return.

After 8 years of being told that Bush/Cheney were arresting American citizens and locking them away without trial, that the hand of big brother was upon us, that big oil was running the government etc etc etc I have to say I am amazed at the idea that it is conservatives who campaign on fear.

The reason we have checks and balances in a democracy, which is to say opposing parties, is, among other things, to keep an eye on those who abuse power, an all too human trait that has zero to do with party. What we are seeing at the moment is the imminent population of the most sensitive positions in the US government...White House chief of staff etc etc...being taken by products of the very machine that nurtured this corrupt governor. Having been burned by Nixon and Clinton, it would be crazy to ask for anything less than transparency. Sunlight, as the saying goes, is the best disinfectant.

jon| 12.11.08 @ 5:49PM

Over a month has gone by since the BHO election it is crazy to think that he has not once talked to the man that is going to choose who he would like to see succeed him in the senate. I know he is busy with his fictitious "Office of the President Elect," but there had to be some sort of contact between BHO or one of his staffers and the IL Gov office.

Brian| 12.11.08 @ 6:06PM

If Obama did know what was going on with Blogo, Rezko and in general, Chicago politics as usual, then he's corrupt.

If not, he's incompetent.

Either way, he shouldn't be President.

Good thing the MSM covered for Obama. Now we have a clearly unqualified and likely corrupt President.

Jason| 12.11.08 @ 11:46PM

I'm sure Obama has covered his tracks well.

Alan Brooks| 12.12.08 @ 12:25AM

After Blag spends a year in prison, he will get a book deal, then he'll sell the rights to the film. "Showdown in Chicago".
He is a handsome guy, so Tom Cruise will play him; Sharon Stone will portray his wife. Oliver Stone will be in charge of the whole thing.

ruth| 12.12.08 @ 12:28AM

Alan, you think Blago's handsome? Blech.

Alan Brooks| 12.12.08 @ 3:51AM

point is, Blago will make a bundle.
Blago looks better'n Michael Jackson. For a guy that is, that is...

i mean...

Ralph Adam Fine| 12.12.08 @ 6:39PM

I lived in Massachusetts from 1958 to 1962 while attending Tufts. It was generally (known) (suspected) that Foster Furcolo was under serious investigation for corruption--the newly built roadways were colloquially known as the Foster Furcolo memorial highways.

The scuttlebutt was that the quid pro quo for Furcolo’s appointment of Ben Smith as the seat-warmer, rather than a formidable candidate like Eddie McCormick, nephew of Speaker John McCormick (who lost a bitter race to Teddy 2 years later: the famous line: “If your name was Edward Moore, rather than Edward Moore Kennedy, your candidacy would be a joke” was thought by Kennedy-philes to be too heavy-handed), was his not being prosecuted. He appointed Smith and was never prosecuted. Sometimes, there are things more valuable to a politician then money.

It was a different era, and the press ignored all of Kennedy’s failings. Despite the passes Obama received from the mainstream press during the campaign, there will be some Woodward wannabe who will make his or her name by turning over the rocks of the soil from which Obama sprang. This cannot be good for our country though, although it will be the right thing to do.

link of london| 9.10.09 @ 11:11PM

Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good！

links london| 9.10.09 @ 11:11PM

Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good！

links of london| 9.10.09 @ 11:12PM

Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good！