03-26-11
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
(Melchizedek Communique, MC032611) During last week's tour of South and Central America, President Barack Obama was scheduled to visit some Mayan ruins in Yucatan. But Obama suddenly cancelled the visit. The cover story is, disagreements about the Libyan situation.
Carl Gustav Jung could not bring himself to visit Rome. He had some sort of phobia about going to Rome. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh interpreted the Rome phobia as fear of a decayed system. Jung had built an elaborate psychological system. Jung's "Collected Works" contain about 20 volumes! Seeing Rome would have meant to Jung, according to the Bhagwan, seeing the ultimate decay of his own system.
Barack Obama could not bring himself to visit the Mayan ruins. His knees began to shake and he was sweating profusely. And so, a cover story was used to explain away the cancellation of the planned visit.
If President Obama had gone to the Mayan ruins, it would have collapsed his worldview. For there before his eyes would have been unmistakable evidence for a civilization which had arisen many thousands of years ago. Like most professors, Obama clings to a false notion that the Mayans were more recent, from circa 1000 A.D. Otherwise the professors would have to face the cyclical rise-and-fall of civilizations. To do that would wreck their "reality." (Their "reality" is that of consistent "progress" over thousands of years and of a straight-line evolutionary ascent.)
In June of 2009, Obama was in Cairo where he gave a speech, early in his presidency. In Cairo, Obama declared that "tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations." Later, after the mid-term elections in the United States, an astonishing wave of eruptions began in many Muslim-majority countries. It was as if in 2009, in Cairo, President Obama had foreseen what was about to happen! (Further background: "Cleopatra Rushed To Hospital", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc021211.html)
What do the Arab eruptions mean for Israel? U.S. proxy client states surrounding the Crusader Kingdom are beginning to fall like dominoes. Richard the Lionheart has left the building. Is Israel to be evacuated? (Background: "Israel to be Evacuated", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc012811.html)
Rahm Emanuel, of dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship, is being shoe-horned in as the next King of Illinois, also called "Mayor of Chicago." Chicago politics is peculiar in that, once a Democrat candidate has been selected in a smoke-filled back room, the Republican mayoral candidate is just a formality. Do we even know who the Republican mayoral candidate for Chicago is? Why bother to report it!? Everyone knows a Republican mayor is not possible in Chicago.
South of the Kankakee River, Illinois is just like the "Bob's Country Bunker" from the movie "The Blues Brothers." The northern half is an entirely different state. When Jake and Elwood Blues took the band out on tour and left the Chicago realm, it was like they had entered an entirely different Illinois! Furthermore, Illinois is in the most dire financial situation of all the 50 U.S. states.
But if a 51st state (Israel) were to have an exodus, they could come to Illinois and bring their money with them. This would solve the financial crisis in Illinois. But in which half of Illinois would the arriving refugees settle? A good bet would be the northern half, where Rahm Emanuel is soon to preside.
Showing posts with label Illinois. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illinois. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tea Party Told to Embrace Republican Platform
http://www.prisonplanet.com/subverted-tea-party-movement-told-to-embrace-republican-platform.htmlSubverted Tea Party Movement Told to Embrace Republican Platform
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Friday, February 5, 2010
The Tea Party movement is now almost completely unrecognizable from what it was a few short years ago. It came to prominence in 2008 when the Libertarian Party of Illinois planned to hold an April 15, 2009 anti-tax “Boston Tea Party” in Chicago. In February 2009, the idea grew after CNBC personality Rick Santelli, speaking from the floor of the Chicago stock exchange, criticized the Obama administration’s tax and economic policies and urged Americans become Tea Party activists.
Establishment Republicans plan to run Sarah Palin as the Tea Party presidential candidate.
In fact, the idea began as the Boston Tea Party in 2006. It was founded by a group of former Libertarian Party members who criticized the party for its “abdication of political responsibilities,” declaring that “Americans deserve and desperately need a pro-freedom party that forcefully advocates libertarian solutions to the issues of today.” The Boston Tea Party opposed statism at all levels. “The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose.”
How things have changed.
It didn’t take long for establishment Republicans to steal the idea and claim it as their own. A few weeks after Rick Santelli made his comments, Ron Paul’s media coordinator Steve Gordon went on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show and complained about what he characterized as an attempt by Republicans to hijack the idea. Gordon specifically blamed former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
It didn’t take long for Republicans to embrace the idea. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, and Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota have suggested the Tea Party should be rolled into the Republican Borg hive.
Now there will be a national Tea Party convention in Nashville. It will be a parade of Republican statists with former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin leading the charge. “I look forward to meeting many Americans who share a commitment to limited government, common sense and personal responsibility. This movement is truly a grassroots, organic effort. It’s not a top-down organization,” Palin wrote for USA Today, “it’s a ground-up call to action that already has both political parties rethinking the way they do business.”
Ground-up? Tea Party candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections “will be expected to support the Republican National Committee platform,” according to Fox News. “If a particular candidate meets the proposed Tea Party criteria he or she would be eligible for fundraising and grassroots Tea Party support.”
“Once elected to office, members would be required to join a Congressional Tea Party Caucus, attend regular meetings and be held accountable for the votes they cast. Those who stray from the Tea Party path would risk losing it’s support and a likely re-election challenge.”
In other words, business as usual. Under the rule of George W. Bush and the Republicans, “inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent, according to the libertarian Cato Institute. Eight years of a Republican president, six with a Republican-controlled Congress, resulted in bigger government, the biggest expansion of entitlements in 40 years and a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that continues to grow,” writes Donny Ferguson of the Libertarian National Committee.
Bush and the Republicans also invaded two sovereign nations and killed more than a million Iraqis. Democrats by and large supported these war crimes. They also overwhelmingly supported the Republicans when they attacked the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the so-called Patriot Act being only the most egregious example).
If the co-opted Tea Party embraces the Republican National Committee platform, it will finalize its mutation from a grassroots libertarian organization into an establishment statist tool pushing a national debt for the banksters, bloated government, taxation, perpetual war, and continued attacks on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
It should be obvious by now that the Republicans plan to run Sarah Palin against Obama in 2012. This will be a disaster for the Republicans because many Americans are not fooled by her sudden Tea Party plumage. Republicans are desperate to regain control of the White House and Congress and give us four or eight more years of Bush and his warmongering statist neocons. It is a shabby and absurdly transparent gimmick.
Real Tea Party activists and supporters need to reject Palin, Huckabee, Gingrich, and the Republicans out of hand. They should be vocal about their rejection. Otherwise we will end up with another ideologue and teleprompter reading cigar store Indian for the ruling elite.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Key players in the indictment against Blagojevich
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJkoKCLpl98BhZupoK_PqxQuTp0QD97AM32G5
Key players in the indictment against Blagojevich
By The Associated Press
4-2-9
The federal indictment of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and five co-defendants charges they conspired to trade official government action for Blagojevich's political or personal gain involve a variety of characters. Among key players mentioned in the indictment:
___
Rod Blagojevich, 52, of Chicago, a former state legislator and congressman elected governor in 2002 and re-elected four years later despite wide discussion of federal investigations into his administration. He was impeached and removed from office in January. He faces 16 counts of wire fraud, racketeering and extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements in a "pay-to-play" scheme to trade government action for personal and political enrichment beginning in 2002.
___
John Harris, 47, of Chicago, Blagojevich's chief of staff from late 2005 until December, when he was arrested and resigned. He is charged with a single count of wire fraud and is cooperating with authorities.
___
Alonzo Monk, 50, of Park Ridge, a longtime friend of Blagojevich who served on his staff when the Democrat was in Congress, managed both his gubernatorial campaigns and was his first chief of staff. He is charged with a single count of wire fraud.
___
Robert Blagojevich, 53, of Nashville, Tenn., the ex-governor's brother who became his campaign finance chairman in August. He faces two counts of wire fraud.
___
Christopher Kelly, 50, of Burr Ridge, a construction company owner and principal fundraiser for Blagojevich, who faces counts of fraud and extortion conspiracy and attempted extortion. He pleaded not guilty last month to separate corruption charges involving construction work at O'Hare International Airport and recently pleaded guilty to obstructing the Internal Revenue Service for paying gambling debts with company money and claiming it as a business expense.
___
William F. Cellini Sr., 74, of Springfield, a longtime Republican fundraiser who also collected significant funds for Blagojevich. He faces the same charges as Kelly.
___
Congressman A: An Illinois member of the U.S. House. When he asked about a $2 million grant for a public school in his district that Blagojevich had promised and included in the 2006 state budget, Blagojevich told the congressman's staff member he had to hold a fundraiser for Blagojevich.
___
Senate Candidate A: The indictment claims Blagojevich believed an associate of Senate Candidate A promised to raise $1.5 million in campaign funds if he appointed the candidate to the Senate. This is consistent with U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill.
___
Senate Candidate B: Several counts involve discussions Blagojevich and others had about whether he could get financial benefit or a high-paying job with a not-for-profit organization for appointing Senate Candidate B. This is consistent with Valerie Jarrett, a close adviser to President Barack Obama. Blagojevich thought Jarrett was Obama's choice to succeed him in the Senate, but Jarrett withdrew her name in mid-November.
___
Children's Memorial Hospital: The indictment claims Blagojevich tried to get a $50,000 campaign contribution from the hospital or its CEO, Patrick M. Magoon, in exchange for an $8 million pediatric care reimbursement promised by the state.
Racetrack Executive: John Johnston, owner of two Chicago-area horse racing tracks, from whom Blagojevich wanted to get a $100,000 campaign contribution in exchange for signing a law benefiting horse racing. Johnston's lawyer has said the contribution was not made, the federal government talked to Johnston and told him he is not a target or subject of the investigation.
Key players in the indictment against Blagojevich
By The Associated Press
4-2-9
The federal indictment of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and five co-defendants charges they conspired to trade official government action for Blagojevich's political or personal gain involve a variety of characters. Among key players mentioned in the indictment:
___
Rod Blagojevich, 52, of Chicago, a former state legislator and congressman elected governor in 2002 and re-elected four years later despite wide discussion of federal investigations into his administration. He was impeached and removed from office in January. He faces 16 counts of wire fraud, racketeering and extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements in a "pay-to-play" scheme to trade government action for personal and political enrichment beginning in 2002.
___
John Harris, 47, of Chicago, Blagojevich's chief of staff from late 2005 until December, when he was arrested and resigned. He is charged with a single count of wire fraud and is cooperating with authorities.
___
Alonzo Monk, 50, of Park Ridge, a longtime friend of Blagojevich who served on his staff when the Democrat was in Congress, managed both his gubernatorial campaigns and was his first chief of staff. He is charged with a single count of wire fraud.
___
Robert Blagojevich, 53, of Nashville, Tenn., the ex-governor's brother who became his campaign finance chairman in August. He faces two counts of wire fraud.
___
Christopher Kelly, 50, of Burr Ridge, a construction company owner and principal fundraiser for Blagojevich, who faces counts of fraud and extortion conspiracy and attempted extortion. He pleaded not guilty last month to separate corruption charges involving construction work at O'Hare International Airport and recently pleaded guilty to obstructing the Internal Revenue Service for paying gambling debts with company money and claiming it as a business expense.
___
William F. Cellini Sr., 74, of Springfield, a longtime Republican fundraiser who also collected significant funds for Blagojevich. He faces the same charges as Kelly.
___
Congressman A: An Illinois member of the U.S. House. When he asked about a $2 million grant for a public school in his district that Blagojevich had promised and included in the 2006 state budget, Blagojevich told the congressman's staff member he had to hold a fundraiser for Blagojevich.
___
Senate Candidate A: The indictment claims Blagojevich believed an associate of Senate Candidate A promised to raise $1.5 million in campaign funds if he appointed the candidate to the Senate. This is consistent with U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill.
___
Senate Candidate B: Several counts involve discussions Blagojevich and others had about whether he could get financial benefit or a high-paying job with a not-for-profit organization for appointing Senate Candidate B. This is consistent with Valerie Jarrett, a close adviser to President Barack Obama. Blagojevich thought Jarrett was Obama's choice to succeed him in the Senate, but Jarrett withdrew her name in mid-November.
___
Children's Memorial Hospital: The indictment claims Blagojevich tried to get a $50,000 campaign contribution from the hospital or its CEO, Patrick M. Magoon, in exchange for an $8 million pediatric care reimbursement promised by the state.
Racetrack Executive: John Johnston, owner of two Chicago-area horse racing tracks, from whom Blagojevich wanted to get a $100,000 campaign contribution in exchange for signing a law benefiting horse racing. Johnston's lawyer has said the contribution was not made, the federal government talked to Johnston and told him he is not a target or subject of the investigation.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Harry S. Truman is rolling over in his grave
From Conspiracy Nation ( http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html ):
(Melchizedek Communique, MC031609) Harry S. Truman is rolling over in his grave due to the latest antics of George W. Bush. And a special division of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, charged with response to former presidents rolling over in their graves, is on high alert.
It was Fitzgerald, the mighty U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, who had responded earlier when, here in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln had been rolling over in his grave. But this latest restlessness of the deceased Harry S. Truman has stunned even the case-hardened Fitzgerald.
When Harry S. Truman left the White House in 1953, "he had to take out a bank loan to tide him over in private life. He had no official government income or support except for his Army pension of $112.56 a month." But Truman had too much honor to accept any money for "endorsements" and "consultings". Said Truman, "I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency." [1]
It was beneath the personal honor of Truman to trade off the presidency for "speaking fees" and such.
Gerald Ford was the first to decide, "What is honor, compared with speaking fees?" Ford cashed in by giving paid speeches and by joining some 20 corporate boards. [1]
Then good old Ronald Reagan soared past Ford in income by trading the prestige of the U.S. presidency for $2 million annually. [1]
Along came George H.W. Bush, father of "Dubya" Bush. "Poppy" Bush raked in $$$ millions on the lecture circuit, after he left office in 1993. [1]
"Bill Clinton, though," notices The Week magazine, "has taken the moneymaking ability of ex-presidents to a new level." Today (Nov. 2008), "thanks to thousands of speeches, lucrative consulting jobs, and book advances and royalties, he and Hillary are worth more than $100 million." [1]
Who says the U.S. presidency isn't for sale?
Asked in November 2008 about his plans, Dubya Bush replied, "I'll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers." [1] Now, in an update ironically titled, "Replenishing the ol' coffers", The Week magazine reveals that George W. Bush "announced he was launching an international speaking tour." The Dubya Bush Replenishing The Ol' Coffers International Speaking Tour is scheduled to begin tomorrow, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day), in Canada. [2]
It is not known if Dubya Bush will be guzzling Jim Beam whisky during the tour. It has been rumored ol' Dubya has been hitting the sauce pretty hard. [3]
The special division of Patrick Fitzgerald's Rolling Over In Their Graves department is on high alert. Harry S. Truman could not be reached for comment.
------- Sources -------
[1] "Briefing: Life after the White House", The Week magazine, Nov. 21, 2008, p. 15
[2] "Replenishing the ol' coffers", from "Good Week For" section of The Week magazine, March 20, 2009, p. 6
[3] Melchizedek Communique MC022809
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc022809.html
(Melchizedek Communique, MC031609) Harry S. Truman is rolling over in his grave due to the latest antics of George W. Bush. And a special division of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, charged with response to former presidents rolling over in their graves, is on high alert.
It was Fitzgerald, the mighty U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, who had responded earlier when, here in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln had been rolling over in his grave. But this latest restlessness of the deceased Harry S. Truman has stunned even the case-hardened Fitzgerald.
When Harry S. Truman left the White House in 1953, "he had to take out a bank loan to tide him over in private life. He had no official government income or support except for his Army pension of $112.56 a month." But Truman had too much honor to accept any money for "endorsements" and "consultings". Said Truman, "I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency." [1]
It was beneath the personal honor of Truman to trade off the presidency for "speaking fees" and such.
Gerald Ford was the first to decide, "What is honor, compared with speaking fees?" Ford cashed in by giving paid speeches and by joining some 20 corporate boards. [1]
Then good old Ronald Reagan soared past Ford in income by trading the prestige of the U.S. presidency for $2 million annually. [1]
Along came George H.W. Bush, father of "Dubya" Bush. "Poppy" Bush raked in $$$ millions on the lecture circuit, after he left office in 1993. [1]
"Bill Clinton, though," notices The Week magazine, "has taken the moneymaking ability of ex-presidents to a new level." Today (Nov. 2008), "thanks to thousands of speeches, lucrative consulting jobs, and book advances and royalties, he and Hillary are worth more than $100 million." [1]
Who says the U.S. presidency isn't for sale?
Asked in November 2008 about his plans, Dubya Bush replied, "I'll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers." [1] Now, in an update ironically titled, "Replenishing the ol' coffers", The Week magazine reveals that George W. Bush "announced he was launching an international speaking tour." The Dubya Bush Replenishing The Ol' Coffers International Speaking Tour is scheduled to begin tomorrow, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day), in Canada. [2]
It is not known if Dubya Bush will be guzzling Jim Beam whisky during the tour. It has been rumored ol' Dubya has been hitting the sauce pretty hard. [3]
The special division of Patrick Fitzgerald's Rolling Over In Their Graves department is on high alert. Harry S. Truman could not be reached for comment.
------- Sources -------
[1] "Briefing: Life after the White House", The Week magazine, Nov. 21, 2008, p. 15
[2] "Replenishing the ol' coffers", from "Good Week For" section of The Week magazine, March 20, 2009, p. 6
[3] Melchizedek Communique MC022809
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc022809.html
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Blagojevich's Lawyers Seek Subpoenaes
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/25/blagojevichs-lawyers-want-obamas-aides-subpoenaed/
Blagojevich's Lawyers Seek Subpoenaes for Emanuel, Jackson Jr.
In an effort to prove the Illinois governor's innocence, his lawyers ask the Illinois House panel to subpoena two of Obama's top aides and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Lawyers for embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich want two key aides to President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. subpoenaed, according to Chicago media reports.
Blagojevich's legal team has asked the Illinois House panel that members of Obama's incoming administration testify before the House impeachment committee, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, WBBM-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times reported late Wednesday.
Ed Genson, Blagojevich's chief lawyer, said testimony from the aides will prove the governor's insistence that he did nothing illegal to fill Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The news comes days after Obama's team released an internal review that confirmed no "inappropriate" discussions had taken place in the Blagojevich probe.
The report said Emanuel was the only adviser to talk to Blagojevich and his top aide John Harris on the subject of the Senate seat. The incoming chief of staff was authorized to pass on the names of four people he considered qualified to take over his seat: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Jackson Jr.
Federal prosecutors asked the Illinois House impeachment committee not to delve into the criminal charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday, a request that could hasten a decision on whether to boot Blagojevich from office.
In a letter, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald warned the committee that interviewing witnesses and discussing documents related to the charges against Blagojevich could undermine his criminal investigation. He declined to give the committee documents and other information about his probe, but left open the possibility of giving the committee copies of Blagojevich conversations captured by federal wiretaps.
"Any inquiry into these topics, as well as the taking of testimony from present and former members of the governor's staff, could significantly compromise the ongoing criminal investigation," Fitzgerald wrote.
Committee members had promised to abide prosecutors' recommendations about what should be off limits, so Fitzgerald's request means the panel won't conduct its own investigation of possible criminal activity. They have said that if they can't pursue the criminal charges, then their fact-gathering work is largely done.
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the committee chairwoman, said a decision on whether to recommend an impeachment vote by the full House could come the week of Jan. 5.
Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his authority as governor to appoint Obama's Senate replacement to get cash or a lucrative job for himself, starting days before Obama's Nov. 4 election through Dec. 5. The governor has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including from Obama.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Blagojevich's Lawyers Seek Subpoenaes for Emanuel, Jackson Jr.
In an effort to prove the Illinois governor's innocence, his lawyers ask the Illinois House panel to subpoena two of Obama's top aides and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Lawyers for embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich want two key aides to President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. subpoenaed, according to Chicago media reports.
Blagojevich's legal team has asked the Illinois House panel that members of Obama's incoming administration testify before the House impeachment committee, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, WBBM-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times reported late Wednesday.
Ed Genson, Blagojevich's chief lawyer, said testimony from the aides will prove the governor's insistence that he did nothing illegal to fill Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat.
The news comes days after Obama's team released an internal review that confirmed no "inappropriate" discussions had taken place in the Blagojevich probe.
The report said Emanuel was the only adviser to talk to Blagojevich and his top aide John Harris on the subject of the Senate seat. The incoming chief of staff was authorized to pass on the names of four people he considered qualified to take over his seat: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Jackson Jr.
Federal prosecutors asked the Illinois House impeachment committee not to delve into the criminal charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday, a request that could hasten a decision on whether to boot Blagojevich from office.
In a letter, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald warned the committee that interviewing witnesses and discussing documents related to the charges against Blagojevich could undermine his criminal investigation. He declined to give the committee documents and other information about his probe, but left open the possibility of giving the committee copies of Blagojevich conversations captured by federal wiretaps.
"Any inquiry into these topics, as well as the taking of testimony from present and former members of the governor's staff, could significantly compromise the ongoing criminal investigation," Fitzgerald wrote.
Committee members had promised to abide prosecutors' recommendations about what should be off limits, so Fitzgerald's request means the panel won't conduct its own investigation of possible criminal activity. They have said that if they can't pursue the criminal charges, then their fact-gathering work is largely done.
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the committee chairwoman, said a decision on whether to recommend an impeachment vote by the full House could come the week of Jan. 5.
Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his authority as governor to appoint Obama's Senate replacement to get cash or a lucrative job for himself, starting days before Obama's Nov. 4 election through Dec. 5. The governor has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including from Obama.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Obama clears himself and staff in Blagojevich case
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-blago-obama16-2008dec16,0,5115342.story
Obama clears himself and staff in Blagojevich case
The president-elect says an internal review shows there were no inappropriate conversations with the Illinois governor about who would fill the vacant Senate seat.
By Christi Parsons and John McCormick
December 16, 2008
Reporting from Washington and Chicago -- Barack Obama said Monday that an internal investigation had found his staff had no inappropriate conversations with Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich over who would succeed the president-elect in the Senate.
But Obama said the review of his staff's contacts would not be made public until next week at the request of federal prosecutors, who are investigating whether Blagojevich put Obama's Senate seat up for sale.
"I had no contact with the governor's office, and I had no contact with anybody in the governor's office," Obama said at a news conference called to introduce his energy and environment team. He said the review showed the Blagojevich scandal "had nothing to do with my office."
Obama's comments came as Illinois state lawmakers moved to impeach Blagojevich. The Illinois House voted 113 to 0 to create an investigations committee to consider allegations that the governor, a Democrat, had abused his office.
"We plan to proceed without delay," said House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who is also head of the state's Democratic Party.
In addition to allegedly trying to enrich himself through his power to name Obama's Senate successor, Blagojevich is accused in a criminal complaint of scheming to exchange state favors for campaign funds and of plotting to get Chicago Tribune editorial writers fired for writing pieces critical of him.
Ignoring a chorus of calls for his resignation, Blagojevich reported to work Monday and signed a bill giving tax credits to filmmakers who do work in Illinois.
The scandal has become a distraction for Obama during what had been a smooth transition.
The Chicago Tribune has reported that at least one senior member of Obama's staff, Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the Senate. Sources did not suggest that Emanuel was involved in any discussions about making a deal.
Obama's transition office said in a statement Monday that the internal review had "affirmed" the president-elect's comments that he had not talked directly with Blagojevich or his office and that Obama's staff "was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff."
Obama has promised to release the review. But he said it would not be made public until next week at the request of U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is leading the Blagojevich investigation.
"Those facts will be forthcoming to all of you in due course," Obama said at the news conference. "We just want to make sure we're not interfering with an ongoing and active investigation."
Fitzgerald released a statement backing up Obama's account that a delay had been requested.
"After the president-elect announced an internal transition team investigation, the United States attorney's office requested a brief delay of the release of a report of that investigation to conduct certain interviews," Fitzgerald said in the statement.
One former Justice Department official said prosecutors often wanted to control what was publicly known about the statements of witnesses.
"Information may be released about what one witness says that could compromise the effectiveness of interview or grand jury testimony of other parties to that conversation," said George Terwilliger, a former deputy attorney general.
"Prosecutors never want somebody else mucking around in what they're doing and releasing the results of their own inquiries, whether it's a private company, the Congress or, in this case, a political operation," he said.
Political strategists said the delay would be helpful to Obama, moving the release of new information into a week when people will be more focused on Christmas.
"From a public relations standpoint, it mitigates the exposure somewhat," said Thom Serafin, a Chicago-based political and media advisor. "The unfortunate thing for the president-elect right now is that he's operating out of Chicago, which is ground zero right now."
Parsons is a writer in our Washington bureau. McCormick writes for the Chicago Tribune.
cparsons@tribune.com
Obama clears himself and staff in Blagojevich case
The president-elect says an internal review shows there were no inappropriate conversations with the Illinois governor about who would fill the vacant Senate seat.
By Christi Parsons and John McCormick
December 16, 2008
Reporting from Washington and Chicago -- Barack Obama said Monday that an internal investigation had found his staff had no inappropriate conversations with Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich over who would succeed the president-elect in the Senate.
But Obama said the review of his staff's contacts would not be made public until next week at the request of federal prosecutors, who are investigating whether Blagojevich put Obama's Senate seat up for sale.
"I had no contact with the governor's office, and I had no contact with anybody in the governor's office," Obama said at a news conference called to introduce his energy and environment team. He said the review showed the Blagojevich scandal "had nothing to do with my office."
Obama's comments came as Illinois state lawmakers moved to impeach Blagojevich. The Illinois House voted 113 to 0 to create an investigations committee to consider allegations that the governor, a Democrat, had abused his office.
"We plan to proceed without delay," said House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, who is also head of the state's Democratic Party.
In addition to allegedly trying to enrich himself through his power to name Obama's Senate successor, Blagojevich is accused in a criminal complaint of scheming to exchange state favors for campaign funds and of plotting to get Chicago Tribune editorial writers fired for writing pieces critical of him.
Ignoring a chorus of calls for his resignation, Blagojevich reported to work Monday and signed a bill giving tax credits to filmmakers who do work in Illinois.
The scandal has become a distraction for Obama during what had been a smooth transition.
The Chicago Tribune has reported that at least one senior member of Obama's staff, Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the Senate. Sources did not suggest that Emanuel was involved in any discussions about making a deal.
Obama's transition office said in a statement Monday that the internal review had "affirmed" the president-elect's comments that he had not talked directly with Blagojevich or his office and that Obama's staff "was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff."
Obama has promised to release the review. But he said it would not be made public until next week at the request of U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is leading the Blagojevich investigation.
"Those facts will be forthcoming to all of you in due course," Obama said at the news conference. "We just want to make sure we're not interfering with an ongoing and active investigation."
Fitzgerald released a statement backing up Obama's account that a delay had been requested.
"After the president-elect announced an internal transition team investigation, the United States attorney's office requested a brief delay of the release of a report of that investigation to conduct certain interviews," Fitzgerald said in the statement.
One former Justice Department official said prosecutors often wanted to control what was publicly known about the statements of witnesses.
"Information may be released about what one witness says that could compromise the effectiveness of interview or grand jury testimony of other parties to that conversation," said George Terwilliger, a former deputy attorney general.
"Prosecutors never want somebody else mucking around in what they're doing and releasing the results of their own inquiries, whether it's a private company, the Congress or, in this case, a political operation," he said.
Political strategists said the delay would be helpful to Obama, moving the release of new information into a week when people will be more focused on Christmas.
"From a public relations standpoint, it mitigates the exposure somewhat," said Thom Serafin, a Chicago-based political and media advisor. "The unfortunate thing for the president-elect right now is that he's operating out of Chicago, which is ground zero right now."
Parsons is a writer in our Washington bureau. McCormick writes for the Chicago Tribune.
cparsons@tribune.com
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Blagojevich questions censored on Transition site
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Blagojevich_questions_censored_on_Transition_site.html
December 10, 2008
Blagojevich questions censored on Transition site
President-elect Barack Obama's Transition today launched "Open for Questions," a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another's questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.
It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama's supporters appear to be using -- and abusing -- a tool allowing them to "flag" questions as "inappropriate" to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama's website.
The Blagojevich questions -- many of them polite and reasonable -- can be found only by searching words in them, like "Blagojevich," which produces 35 questions missing from the main page of the site.
"Given the current corruption charges involving Blagojevich, will 'serious' campaign finance reform that takes money completely out of politics through publicly funded elections be a priority in the first term?" asked Metteyya of Santa Cruz, California.
"This submission was removed because people believe it is inappropriate," reads the text underneath it.
Also removed as "inappropriate":
"In light of the recent corruption scandals (Blagojevich, Rangel, Jefferson, Stevens, etc) that have dominated the political scene,is there any ethics legislation being crafted to actually curb corruption and prevent another wave of nixonian cynicism?", a question from "lupercal," of Gainesville.
And: "Is Barack Obama aware of any communications in the last six weeks between Rod Blagojevich or anyone representing Rod Blagojevich and any of Obama's top aides?", a question from Phil from Pennsylvania.
Declaring a question "inappropriate" is different from merely voting it down; it's calling foul on a question, not just disapproving of it.
Community reporting systems like this are often vulnerable to abuse from committed partisans -- YouTube has wrestled with a parallel problem -- and the only solution is conscious efforts to remedy it.
So far, Obama's team does not seem to have stepped in to allow uncomfortable questions to rise to the top, and instead is allowing his supporters to sanitize the site.
December 10, 2008
Blagojevich questions censored on Transition site
President-elect Barack Obama's Transition today launched "Open for Questions," a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another's questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.
It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama's supporters appear to be using -- and abusing -- a tool allowing them to "flag" questions as "inappropriate" to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama's website.
The Blagojevich questions -- many of them polite and reasonable -- can be found only by searching words in them, like "Blagojevich," which produces 35 questions missing from the main page of the site.
"Given the current corruption charges involving Blagojevich, will 'serious' campaign finance reform that takes money completely out of politics through publicly funded elections be a priority in the first term?" asked Metteyya of Santa Cruz, California.
"This submission was removed because people believe it is inappropriate," reads the text underneath it.
Also removed as "inappropriate":
"In light of the recent corruption scandals (Blagojevich, Rangel, Jefferson, Stevens, etc) that have dominated the political scene,is there any ethics legislation being crafted to actually curb corruption and prevent another wave of nixonian cynicism?", a question from "lupercal," of Gainesville.
And: "Is Barack Obama aware of any communications in the last six weeks between Rod Blagojevich or anyone representing Rod Blagojevich and any of Obama's top aides?", a question from Phil from Pennsylvania.
Declaring a question "inappropriate" is different from merely voting it down; it's calling foul on a question, not just disapproving of it.
Community reporting systems like this are often vulnerable to abuse from committed partisans -- YouTube has wrestled with a parallel problem -- and the only solution is conscious efforts to remedy it.
So far, Obama's team does not seem to have stepped in to allow uncomfortable questions to rise to the top, and instead is allowing his supporters to sanitize the site.
Senate scandal snares Obama’s chief aide
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5337807.ece
The Sunday Times
December 14, 2008
Senate scandal snares Obama’s chief aide
Sarah Baxter, Washington
THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat.
Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil the president-elect’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor.
Blagojevich has been accused of plotting to sell Obama’s Senate seat - which is in the governor’s gift - in return for financial and political favours.
Republicans are salivating at the prospect of tying the president-elect to the notoriously corrupt Chicago machine in which he forged his career. Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “If Obama wants to be squeaky clean, he is going to have to cut all his Chicago friends loose. His chief of staff has fingerprints on the murder weapon.”
Emanuel ducked out of view last week, avoiding reporters’ questions and complaining of harassment and “death threats” as the news spread that he was the likely unnamed adviser cited by the FBI with whom the tainted Blagojevich hoped to bargain over the appointment.
For the “No Drama” Obama team, the spiralling controversy has been an alarming distraction in the midst of the US economic meltdown. Obama has yet to release a promised timeline of contacts between members of his transition team and the governor's office, while Emanuel is thought to be consulting lawyers.
Ed Rendell, the outspoken governor of Pennsylvania, said the Obama team was bungling its response. “The rule of thumb is: whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story,” he said.
Private telephone discussions between Emanuel and John Harris, Blagojevich’s chief of staff, began as early as the weekend before the November 4 election, the Chicago Tribune revealed yesterday. Emanuel let it be known that Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser, Tammy Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war veteran, and two other candidates would be “acceptable” to Obama.
Emanuel had further talks with the governor’s office after the election, during which he added another name to the list. It does not appear that Emanuel engaged in any illegal horse-trading - Blagojevich complained at one stage that all the president-elect’s team was offering was “appreciation”. “F*** them,” the governor said.
Jarrett, Obama’s first choice as senator, was swiftly named a senior White House adviser to Obama after Blagojevich complained, according to FBI transcripts, that he was not going to “give f******” Jarrett the f****** Senate seat and I don’t get anything”.
However, questions remain over what Emanuel said when and how much he know about the governor’s “pay to play” scheme. He may have been fully aware of what Blagojevich was attempting. At one stage the governor told an aide that he wanted an unnamed “president-elect adviser”, thought to be Emanuel, to help “raise 10, 15m” for a charitable group, which the governor could head.
Did Emanuel receive the news, and if so, how? Did he report his suspicion of illegal activity to the FBI or did he treat it just as a normal part of wheeler-dealing in the corrupt Windy City? And did he use the same four-letter language to discuss the succession in the same crude terms as Blagojevich?
Obama once joked at a charity “roast” that the notoriously crude Emanuel - who was elected to Congress in Blagojevich’s old seat - was rendered “practically mute” when he lost his middle finger in an accident.
“When you are Rahm Emanuel and you use the f-word all the time, it is supposed to be cute and amusing,” Norquist said. “When the governor of Illinois gets caught, people say, ‘Oh, he’s crazy’, and the proof that he is crazy is that he talks like Rahm Emanuel.”
Obama faces a stark choice. Emanuel was his first apppointment as his chief of staff after the election. If he were to throw him out of the inner circle now with his reputation under siege, it would be a singular act of disloyalty before the transition team has even had a chance to take office.
Emanuel has not yet resigned as a member of the House of Representatives for Illinois, although he has pledged to do so. Obama had to work hard to persuade Emanuel, who had his own independent power base in Congress and a semblance of normal family life with his young children, to join him in the most intensive, high-pressure job in the White House.
However, the scandal is lapping at Obama’s own ankles. Blagojevich is a product of the entrenched graft and corruption that have characterised Chicago’s style of government since the days of Al Capone, the prohibition-era gangster.
He is being investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald, 47, a fearless prosecutor who brought down Scooter Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s neoconservative adviser, and Conrad Black, the media baron.
Fitzgerald is a much-resented figure among Obama’s advisers. David Axelrod, the Chicago mastermind behind Obama’s campaign, once complained: “He goes after fleas and elephants with the same bazooka. At some point there is a line . . . where you begin criminalising politics in its most innocent form.”
Obama is himself embroiled in a sub-plot of the scandal with uncomfortable connections to Blagojevich, even though the president-elect said last week that he was “appalled” by the governor’s actions.
As Fitzgerald widens his inquiry across Chicago, witnesses will be lining up to talk – if only to save their own necks. Harris, who has been accused with his boss of planning to sell the Senate seat, resigned last Friday, prompting speculation that he intends to cooperate with federal investigators.
Ominously for Obama, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the property dealer and fixer who helped him to buy his $1.65m house in Chicago by purchasing an adjacent plot on the same day, has also been talking to investigators in an attempt to reduce a prison sentence following his conviction for fraud and bribery. Rezko is expected to be a key witness in the corruption case against Blagojevich but he also knows more than anybody about the house purchase and other deals with Obama.
When the house came on the market, the seller insisted that both plots were sold at the same time. But while Obama bought his part of the property for $300,000 under the asking price, it has emerged that Rezko’s wife not only paid the asking price for their slice of land – $625,000 – but that the extra piece of property may have been deliberately overvalued.
A valuer who made an initial lower estimate, only to be overruled, is believed to be giving evidence to Fitzgerald’s team.
Rezko also appears to have helped Blagojevich with his domestic affairs. Investigators have been trying to find out whether he charged the governor for $90,000 worth of improvements to the family room and deck of his house.
The governor’s wife, Patti Blagojevich, a Lady Macbeth figure who may face charges herself for encouraging her husband to behave corruptly, received $47,000 in commission from a property deal involving Rezko.
In a further disturbing connection, Rezko regularly supplied Blagojevich with a “clout list” of names of people he thought the governor should appoint to state boards and jobs.
Obama made use of Rezko’s clout list on at least one occasion, when he recommended that Eric Whitaker, an old Harvard friend and doctor, be hired as director of Illinois’s public health department.
Whitaker, Obama said, “had expressed an interest in that job. He did contact me, or Tony contacted me, and I gave him a glowing recommendation because I thought he was outstanding”.
Fitzgerald made it clear that Obama is not a target of investigation. Emanuel is thought to be free from any threat of charges. But that will not be the end of the matter.
The Sunday Times
December 14, 2008
Senate scandal snares Obama’s chief aide
Sarah Baxter, Washington
THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat.
Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil the president-elect’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor.
Blagojevich has been accused of plotting to sell Obama’s Senate seat - which is in the governor’s gift - in return for financial and political favours.
Republicans are salivating at the prospect of tying the president-elect to the notoriously corrupt Chicago machine in which he forged his career. Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “If Obama wants to be squeaky clean, he is going to have to cut all his Chicago friends loose. His chief of staff has fingerprints on the murder weapon.”
Emanuel ducked out of view last week, avoiding reporters’ questions and complaining of harassment and “death threats” as the news spread that he was the likely unnamed adviser cited by the FBI with whom the tainted Blagojevich hoped to bargain over the appointment.
For the “No Drama” Obama team, the spiralling controversy has been an alarming distraction in the midst of the US economic meltdown. Obama has yet to release a promised timeline of contacts between members of his transition team and the governor's office, while Emanuel is thought to be consulting lawyers.
Ed Rendell, the outspoken governor of Pennsylvania, said the Obama team was bungling its response. “The rule of thumb is: whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story,” he said.
Private telephone discussions between Emanuel and John Harris, Blagojevich’s chief of staff, began as early as the weekend before the November 4 election, the Chicago Tribune revealed yesterday. Emanuel let it be known that Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser, Tammy Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war veteran, and two other candidates would be “acceptable” to Obama.
Emanuel had further talks with the governor’s office after the election, during which he added another name to the list. It does not appear that Emanuel engaged in any illegal horse-trading - Blagojevich complained at one stage that all the president-elect’s team was offering was “appreciation”. “F*** them,” the governor said.
Jarrett, Obama’s first choice as senator, was swiftly named a senior White House adviser to Obama after Blagojevich complained, according to FBI transcripts, that he was not going to “give f******” Jarrett the f****** Senate seat and I don’t get anything”.
However, questions remain over what Emanuel said when and how much he know about the governor’s “pay to play” scheme. He may have been fully aware of what Blagojevich was attempting. At one stage the governor told an aide that he wanted an unnamed “president-elect adviser”, thought to be Emanuel, to help “raise 10, 15m” for a charitable group, which the governor could head.
Did Emanuel receive the news, and if so, how? Did he report his suspicion of illegal activity to the FBI or did he treat it just as a normal part of wheeler-dealing in the corrupt Windy City? And did he use the same four-letter language to discuss the succession in the same crude terms as Blagojevich?
Obama once joked at a charity “roast” that the notoriously crude Emanuel - who was elected to Congress in Blagojevich’s old seat - was rendered “practically mute” when he lost his middle finger in an accident.
“When you are Rahm Emanuel and you use the f-word all the time, it is supposed to be cute and amusing,” Norquist said. “When the governor of Illinois gets caught, people say, ‘Oh, he’s crazy’, and the proof that he is crazy is that he talks like Rahm Emanuel.”
Obama faces a stark choice. Emanuel was his first apppointment as his chief of staff after the election. If he were to throw him out of the inner circle now with his reputation under siege, it would be a singular act of disloyalty before the transition team has even had a chance to take office.
Emanuel has not yet resigned as a member of the House of Representatives for Illinois, although he has pledged to do so. Obama had to work hard to persuade Emanuel, who had his own independent power base in Congress and a semblance of normal family life with his young children, to join him in the most intensive, high-pressure job in the White House.
However, the scandal is lapping at Obama’s own ankles. Blagojevich is a product of the entrenched graft and corruption that have characterised Chicago’s style of government since the days of Al Capone, the prohibition-era gangster.
He is being investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald, 47, a fearless prosecutor who brought down Scooter Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s neoconservative adviser, and Conrad Black, the media baron.
Fitzgerald is a much-resented figure among Obama’s advisers. David Axelrod, the Chicago mastermind behind Obama’s campaign, once complained: “He goes after fleas and elephants with the same bazooka. At some point there is a line . . . where you begin criminalising politics in its most innocent form.”
Obama is himself embroiled in a sub-plot of the scandal with uncomfortable connections to Blagojevich, even though the president-elect said last week that he was “appalled” by the governor’s actions.
As Fitzgerald widens his inquiry across Chicago, witnesses will be lining up to talk – if only to save their own necks. Harris, who has been accused with his boss of planning to sell the Senate seat, resigned last Friday, prompting speculation that he intends to cooperate with federal investigators.
Ominously for Obama, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the property dealer and fixer who helped him to buy his $1.65m house in Chicago by purchasing an adjacent plot on the same day, has also been talking to investigators in an attempt to reduce a prison sentence following his conviction for fraud and bribery. Rezko is expected to be a key witness in the corruption case against Blagojevich but he also knows more than anybody about the house purchase and other deals with Obama.
When the house came on the market, the seller insisted that both plots were sold at the same time. But while Obama bought his part of the property for $300,000 under the asking price, it has emerged that Rezko’s wife not only paid the asking price for their slice of land – $625,000 – but that the extra piece of property may have been deliberately overvalued.
A valuer who made an initial lower estimate, only to be overruled, is believed to be giving evidence to Fitzgerald’s team.
Rezko also appears to have helped Blagojevich with his domestic affairs. Investigators have been trying to find out whether he charged the governor for $90,000 worth of improvements to the family room and deck of his house.
The governor’s wife, Patti Blagojevich, a Lady Macbeth figure who may face charges herself for encouraging her husband to behave corruptly, received $47,000 in commission from a property deal involving Rezko.
In a further disturbing connection, Rezko regularly supplied Blagojevich with a “clout list” of names of people he thought the governor should appoint to state boards and jobs.
Obama made use of Rezko’s clout list on at least one occasion, when he recommended that Eric Whitaker, an old Harvard friend and doctor, be hired as director of Illinois’s public health department.
Whitaker, Obama said, “had expressed an interest in that job. He did contact me, or Tony contacted me, and I gave him a glowing recommendation because I thought he was outstanding”.
Fitzgerald made it clear that Obama is not a target of investigation. Emanuel is thought to be free from any threat of charges. But that will not be the end of the matter.
The affair of Illinois Governor Blagojevich
http://wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/blag-d15.shtml
Questions in the affair of Illinois Governor Blagojevich
By Patrick Martin
15 December 2008
Two top aides to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich resigned this week in the wake of the launching of criminal proceedings against the governor, and there was mounting pressure from state and national Democratic Party leaders for the governor himself to step down.
Deputy Governor Bob Greenlee resigned Wednesday and Chief of Staff John Harris stepped down Friday, deepening the governor’s isolation. Harris was arraigned with Blagojevich on Tuesday on charges of influence-peddling, including an effort to sell the appointment to the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Both Greenlee and Harris were rumored to be cooperating with the federal prosecutor, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who announced the charges against the governor at a Tuesday press conference.
Blagojevich met for four hours Saturday with a top criminal lawyer in Chicago, and there were widespread media reports—denied by a Blagojevich spokesman—that he planned to resign as governor on Monday.
While it has long been public knowledge that the US Attorney’s office in Chicago was investigating the Blagojevich administration for a series of “pay to play” arrangements in which construction firms and other companies gave campaign contributions to the governor in return for state contracts, the rapid-fire events since Tuesday raise many questions.
Fitzgerald’s decision to file a complaint and have the governor and his chief of staff arraigned, rather than seeking an indictment from a grand jury are highly unusual, as were his remarks at the Tuesday press conference.
In op-ed columns in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, former federal prosecutors sharply criticized Fitzgerald’s conduct, noting that his much publicized comments at the press conference—declaring that the governor was engaged in “a political corruption crime spree” that “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave”—were highly prejudicial and improper.
Both columns noted that Fitzgerald was violating ethics guidelines. The Justice Department requires that prior to a trial a “prosecutor shall refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” The US district court for northern Illinois mandates that a “lawyer shall not make an extrajudicial statement the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is likely to be disseminated by public media and, if so disseminated, would pose a serious and imminent threat to the fairness of an adjudicative proceeding.”
These guidelines are routinely ignored when the accused are poor, working-class or minority individuals, particularly those purportedly involved in terrorism. But it is relatively rare for a member of the political establishment, in this case a two-term sitting governor, to be treated in this fashion.
The frenzy to remove Blagojevich from office as soon as possible is also remarkable. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a motion with the state Supreme Court Friday seeking to have Blagojevich declared “incapable” of performing his office and have Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn installed as acting governor.
In her motion, Madigan argued that, “The pervasive nature and severity of these pending charges disable Mr. Blagojevich from making effective decisions on critical time-sensitive issues.” She sought to invoke a provision in the state constitution allowing for the replacement of a governor on the grounds of “disability,” although the constitutional history suggests that this term was meant to apply to a physical or mental breakdown, not a prosecution.
The traditional constitutional separation of powers would seem to bar the courts from intervening in such a fashion against the executive branch. Madigan conceded that her motion has no legal precedent, remarking at a news conference, “I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances.”
Madigan’s father, Michael Madigan, the Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives, said he would move for impeachment of the governor at a special session of the legislature called for Monday in Springfield if Blagojevich did not resign or was not removed by the court. Impeachment, the traditional constitutional procedure for removal of a chief executive, would take considerably longer, since it would require a trial before the state Senate and conviction.
Neither of the Madigans, nor Lt. Gov. Quinn, nor Republican state legislative leaders who have given their enthusiastic support, explained why it was necessary to remove Blagojevich from office so precipitously, before any trial or even evidentiary hearing on the criminal charges brought against him by the US Attorney.
It is a peculiar fact that Blagojevich, were he to be forced out of office now, would be the fourth Democratic governor of a major state forced to leave office in the past five years, following the recall of Gray Davis in California in 2003, the resignation of New Jersey’s James McGreevey in 2004 and the resignation of Elliott Spitzer of New York earlier this year.
If there is a political motivation in the charges against Blagojevich, however, this could well involve a desire to protect a more important Democrat—President-elect Barack Obama. At least one top Obama aide, Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Obama’s choice for White House chief of staff, was in contact with Blagojevich about the selection of Obama’s successor in the Senate.
While the Obama transition office refused to release any information on such contacts for several days after the Blagojevich scandal become public, on Friday it confirmed that Emanuel had delivered a list to Blagojevich of a half-dozen prominent Democrats whom Obama could support as his replacement. Any telephone conversations on this topic between Emanuel and Blagojevich or Harris would likely have been tape-recorded by the FBI, which wiretapped the governor’s calls for nearly two months, beginning in mid-October.
The timing of Fitzgerald’s decision to bring charges against Blagojevich suggests that he may have wanted to act before anyone in the Obama camp could respond favorably to the governor’s shakedown effort. This fact is underscored by a report in the Washington Post Saturday noting that “debate raged within the legal community about whether US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald moved prematurely to bring bribery and conspiracy charges before the consummation of an illegal act.”
In plain language, Blagojevich was arrested before he could make any deal for the delivery of the Senate appointment in return for political and/or financial favors. While he may well be guilty of a series of other corrupt practices, among them selling state contracts for campaign contributions, extortion against the owner of the Chicago Tribune and a Chicago-area children’s hospital, on the most sensational charge, the sale of Obama’s seat in the US Senate, he seems to have engaged only in thinking and talking, with no apparent overt action.
Fitzgerald not only preempted any possible deal between Blagojevich and Obama, he included exculpatory information about Obama in the 76-page document charging Blagojevich, including several quotes of telephone conversations in which the governor cursed the president-elect for failing to offer a quid-pro-quo for the Senate selection. The US attorney—whose job depends on re-nomination by the incoming president—also went out of his way to declare that he was making no suggestion that Obama or anyone in his transition team had acted improperly.
Questions in the affair of Illinois Governor Blagojevich
By Patrick Martin
15 December 2008
Two top aides to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich resigned this week in the wake of the launching of criminal proceedings against the governor, and there was mounting pressure from state and national Democratic Party leaders for the governor himself to step down.
Deputy Governor Bob Greenlee resigned Wednesday and Chief of Staff John Harris stepped down Friday, deepening the governor’s isolation. Harris was arraigned with Blagojevich on Tuesday on charges of influence-peddling, including an effort to sell the appointment to the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Both Greenlee and Harris were rumored to be cooperating with the federal prosecutor, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who announced the charges against the governor at a Tuesday press conference.
Blagojevich met for four hours Saturday with a top criminal lawyer in Chicago, and there were widespread media reports—denied by a Blagojevich spokesman—that he planned to resign as governor on Monday.
While it has long been public knowledge that the US Attorney’s office in Chicago was investigating the Blagojevich administration for a series of “pay to play” arrangements in which construction firms and other companies gave campaign contributions to the governor in return for state contracts, the rapid-fire events since Tuesday raise many questions.
Fitzgerald’s decision to file a complaint and have the governor and his chief of staff arraigned, rather than seeking an indictment from a grand jury are highly unusual, as were his remarks at the Tuesday press conference.
In op-ed columns in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, former federal prosecutors sharply criticized Fitzgerald’s conduct, noting that his much publicized comments at the press conference—declaring that the governor was engaged in “a political corruption crime spree” that “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave”—were highly prejudicial and improper.
Both columns noted that Fitzgerald was violating ethics guidelines. The Justice Department requires that prior to a trial a “prosecutor shall refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” The US district court for northern Illinois mandates that a “lawyer shall not make an extrajudicial statement the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is likely to be disseminated by public media and, if so disseminated, would pose a serious and imminent threat to the fairness of an adjudicative proceeding.”
These guidelines are routinely ignored when the accused are poor, working-class or minority individuals, particularly those purportedly involved in terrorism. But it is relatively rare for a member of the political establishment, in this case a two-term sitting governor, to be treated in this fashion.
The frenzy to remove Blagojevich from office as soon as possible is also remarkable. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a motion with the state Supreme Court Friday seeking to have Blagojevich declared “incapable” of performing his office and have Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn installed as acting governor.
In her motion, Madigan argued that, “The pervasive nature and severity of these pending charges disable Mr. Blagojevich from making effective decisions on critical time-sensitive issues.” She sought to invoke a provision in the state constitution allowing for the replacement of a governor on the grounds of “disability,” although the constitutional history suggests that this term was meant to apply to a physical or mental breakdown, not a prosecution.
The traditional constitutional separation of powers would seem to bar the courts from intervening in such a fashion against the executive branch. Madigan conceded that her motion has no legal precedent, remarking at a news conference, “I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances.”
Madigan’s father, Michael Madigan, the Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives, said he would move for impeachment of the governor at a special session of the legislature called for Monday in Springfield if Blagojevich did not resign or was not removed by the court. Impeachment, the traditional constitutional procedure for removal of a chief executive, would take considerably longer, since it would require a trial before the state Senate and conviction.
Neither of the Madigans, nor Lt. Gov. Quinn, nor Republican state legislative leaders who have given their enthusiastic support, explained why it was necessary to remove Blagojevich from office so precipitously, before any trial or even evidentiary hearing on the criminal charges brought against him by the US Attorney.
It is a peculiar fact that Blagojevich, were he to be forced out of office now, would be the fourth Democratic governor of a major state forced to leave office in the past five years, following the recall of Gray Davis in California in 2003, the resignation of New Jersey’s James McGreevey in 2004 and the resignation of Elliott Spitzer of New York earlier this year.
If there is a political motivation in the charges against Blagojevich, however, this could well involve a desire to protect a more important Democrat—President-elect Barack Obama. At least one top Obama aide, Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Obama’s choice for White House chief of staff, was in contact with Blagojevich about the selection of Obama’s successor in the Senate.
While the Obama transition office refused to release any information on such contacts for several days after the Blagojevich scandal become public, on Friday it confirmed that Emanuel had delivered a list to Blagojevich of a half-dozen prominent Democrats whom Obama could support as his replacement. Any telephone conversations on this topic between Emanuel and Blagojevich or Harris would likely have been tape-recorded by the FBI, which wiretapped the governor’s calls for nearly two months, beginning in mid-October.
The timing of Fitzgerald’s decision to bring charges against Blagojevich suggests that he may have wanted to act before anyone in the Obama camp could respond favorably to the governor’s shakedown effort. This fact is underscored by a report in the Washington Post Saturday noting that “debate raged within the legal community about whether US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald moved prematurely to bring bribery and conspiracy charges before the consummation of an illegal act.”
In plain language, Blagojevich was arrested before he could make any deal for the delivery of the Senate appointment in return for political and/or financial favors. While he may well be guilty of a series of other corrupt practices, among them selling state contracts for campaign contributions, extortion against the owner of the Chicago Tribune and a Chicago-area children’s hospital, on the most sensational charge, the sale of Obama’s seat in the US Senate, he seems to have engaged only in thinking and talking, with no apparent overt action.
Fitzgerald not only preempted any possible deal between Blagojevich and Obama, he included exculpatory information about Obama in the 76-page document charging Blagojevich, including several quotes of telephone conversations in which the governor cursed the president-elect for failing to offer a quid-pro-quo for the Senate selection. The US attorney—whose job depends on re-nomination by the incoming president—also went out of his way to declare that he was making no suggestion that Obama or anyone in his transition team had acted improperly.
Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5332897.ece
December 13, 2008
Blagojevich scandal: Rahm Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations
James Bone in Chicago
Pressure grew on two of Barack Obama’s closest political aides yesterday as new details emerged of the “pay-for-play” allegations against the Governor of his home state.
Rahm Emanuel, the President-elect’s new Chief of Staff, and Jesse Jackson Jr, the co-chairman of his presidential campaign, both faced new revelations about their possible involvement in the scandal.
Fox News Chicago reported that Mr Emanuel, a Chicago politician who won the Illinois Governor’s former congressional seat, may have been captured on FBI wire-taps discussing the fate of Mr Obama’s vacated US Senate seat with Rod Blagojevich.
The TV station said Mr Emanuel had “multiple conversations” with the Governor, who is accused of trying to “sell” the open Senate seat for a Cabinet post or lucrative top foundation job. The report said the Governor was given a list of Senate candidates acceptable to Mr Obama. Because the FBI was secretly taping Mr Blagojevich in recent weeks, Mr Emanuel’s conversations may have been recorded, Fox News Chicago said.
Any recordings of the newly appointed White House Chief of Staff speaking to Mr Blagojevich about Mr Obama’s former Senate seat would prove an acute embarrassment to the incoming Obama Administration, even if no illegal deals were discussed, and could even force Mr Emanuel’s resignation. Mr Obama has promised to release details of any contacts between his staff and the Governor’s office but told a news conference on Thursday that he was “absolutely certain” that none of his aides was involved in any deal-making.
Mr Emanuel skipped Mr Obama’s press conference, which he typically attends. Cornered by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter at a concert at his children’s school, he refused to comment.
“I’m not going to say a word to you,” Mr Emanuel said. “I’m going to do this with my children. Don’t do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”
He was asked: “Can’t you do both?” Mr Emanuel replied: “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father.”
Mr Emanuel told an ABC News cameraman, whom he invited into his house to use the toilet yesterday, that he was receiving “regular death threats” because his home address had been put on TV.
Jesse Jackson Jr, the Congressman son of the famed civil rights leader, also faced new questions yesterday about his quest for Mr Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
A group of ethnic Indian businessmen with ties to Mr Jackson and Mr Blagojevich reportedly held a lunch on October 31 and discussed raising $1 million for the Governor’s campaign to encourage him to pick Mr Jackson as Senator, the Chicago Tribune said.
Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich donor who also has ties to the Jackson family, then co-sponsored a fund-raiser for the Governor on Saturday attended by Mr Blagojevich and Jesse Jackson Jr’s brother Jonathan, the newspaper said.
Mr Nayak, a leader of Chicago’s Asian community, owns a string of surgery clinics and was once involved in a land deal with Jonathan Jackson.
Mr Jackson Jr met Mr Blagojevich at 4pm on Monday to discuss his interest in the Senate seat. Mr Blagojevich was arrested at his home at 6am on Tuesday by prosecutors who said they were trying to thwart a “political crime spree”. Jesse Jackson Jr is due to meet prosecutors next week, but has been told he is not a target of the investigation.
He insisted yesterday that no one had offered the Governor money for the Senate seat on his behalf.
“People know me. They know who I am. I’m confident that no one on my behalf made a single offer to anybody for anything. I would not accept the position if it were offered under those circumstances,” he said.
Mr Blagojevich, meanwhile, went to work again yesterday without making any public comment despite the growing clamour for his resignation. Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney-General, filed a motion with the state’s highest court asking the judges to declare the scandal-plagued Governor unfit to hold office. John Harris, Mr Blagojevich’s Chief of Staff, who was charged along with the Governor, last night stepped down from his job, adding to the pressure on his boss.
December 13, 2008
Blagojevich scandal: Rahm Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations
James Bone in Chicago
Pressure grew on two of Barack Obama’s closest political aides yesterday as new details emerged of the “pay-for-play” allegations against the Governor of his home state.
Rahm Emanuel, the President-elect’s new Chief of Staff, and Jesse Jackson Jr, the co-chairman of his presidential campaign, both faced new revelations about their possible involvement in the scandal.
Fox News Chicago reported that Mr Emanuel, a Chicago politician who won the Illinois Governor’s former congressional seat, may have been captured on FBI wire-taps discussing the fate of Mr Obama’s vacated US Senate seat with Rod Blagojevich.
The TV station said Mr Emanuel had “multiple conversations” with the Governor, who is accused of trying to “sell” the open Senate seat for a Cabinet post or lucrative top foundation job. The report said the Governor was given a list of Senate candidates acceptable to Mr Obama. Because the FBI was secretly taping Mr Blagojevich in recent weeks, Mr Emanuel’s conversations may have been recorded, Fox News Chicago said.
Any recordings of the newly appointed White House Chief of Staff speaking to Mr Blagojevich about Mr Obama’s former Senate seat would prove an acute embarrassment to the incoming Obama Administration, even if no illegal deals were discussed, and could even force Mr Emanuel’s resignation. Mr Obama has promised to release details of any contacts between his staff and the Governor’s office but told a news conference on Thursday that he was “absolutely certain” that none of his aides was involved in any deal-making.
Mr Emanuel skipped Mr Obama’s press conference, which he typically attends. Cornered by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter at a concert at his children’s school, he refused to comment.
“I’m not going to say a word to you,” Mr Emanuel said. “I’m going to do this with my children. Don’t do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”
He was asked: “Can’t you do both?” Mr Emanuel replied: “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father.”
Mr Emanuel told an ABC News cameraman, whom he invited into his house to use the toilet yesterday, that he was receiving “regular death threats” because his home address had been put on TV.
Jesse Jackson Jr, the Congressman son of the famed civil rights leader, also faced new questions yesterday about his quest for Mr Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
A group of ethnic Indian businessmen with ties to Mr Jackson and Mr Blagojevich reportedly held a lunch on October 31 and discussed raising $1 million for the Governor’s campaign to encourage him to pick Mr Jackson as Senator, the Chicago Tribune said.
Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich donor who also has ties to the Jackson family, then co-sponsored a fund-raiser for the Governor on Saturday attended by Mr Blagojevich and Jesse Jackson Jr’s brother Jonathan, the newspaper said.
Mr Nayak, a leader of Chicago’s Asian community, owns a string of surgery clinics and was once involved in a land deal with Jonathan Jackson.
Mr Jackson Jr met Mr Blagojevich at 4pm on Monday to discuss his interest in the Senate seat. Mr Blagojevich was arrested at his home at 6am on Tuesday by prosecutors who said they were trying to thwart a “political crime spree”. Jesse Jackson Jr is due to meet prosecutors next week, but has been told he is not a target of the investigation.
He insisted yesterday that no one had offered the Governor money for the Senate seat on his behalf.
“People know me. They know who I am. I’m confident that no one on my behalf made a single offer to anybody for anything. I would not accept the position if it were offered under those circumstances,” he said.
Mr Blagojevich, meanwhile, went to work again yesterday without making any public comment despite the growing clamour for his resignation. Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney-General, filed a motion with the state’s highest court asking the judges to declare the scandal-plagued Governor unfit to hold office. John Harris, Mr Blagojevich’s Chief of Staff, who was charged along with the Governor, last night stepped down from his job, adding to the pressure on his boss.
Is Emanuel the adviser on gov tape?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1326788%2Crahm-emanuel-blagojevich-obama-121108.article
Is Emanuel the adviser on gov tape?
Obama's chief of staff refuses to answer the question
December 11, 2008
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporters
President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama’s news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago’s City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet.
A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.
“You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel said. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Don't do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”
Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.
Blagojevch was caught on tape saying that he wanted the Obama advisor in question to know what Blagojevich wanted in exchange for the Jarrett appointment.
Blagojevich said, “He asks me for the fifth CD thing, I want it to be in his head.” Emanuel represents the 5th Congressional District in Illinois.
No one in the Obama campaign or administration has been charged with any wrongdoing. Obama said this morning that none of his staff has had a hand in any dealmaking on his Senate replacement.
Is Emanuel the adviser on gov tape?
Obama's chief of staff refuses to answer the question
December 11, 2008
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporters
President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama’s news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago’s City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet.
A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.
“You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel said. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Don't do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”
Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.
Blagojevch was caught on tape saying that he wanted the Obama advisor in question to know what Blagojevich wanted in exchange for the Jarrett appointment.
Blagojevich said, “He asks me for the fifth CD thing, I want it to be in his head.” Emanuel represents the 5th Congressional District in Illinois.
No one in the Obama campaign or administration has been charged with any wrongdoing. Obama said this morning that none of his staff has had a hand in any dealmaking on his Senate replacement.
Obama Might Have Caught Wind of Blagojevich
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/11/obama-blago/
Complaint Suggests Obama Might Have Caught Wind of Blagojevich Dealings
Barack Obama says he had no contact with Gov. Rod Blagojevich over his vacant Senate seat, but the sequence of events in the FBI complaint suggests he might have caught wind of the governor's alleged dealings.
FOXNews.com
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Barack Obama insists that he and his staff were not involved in the alleged schemes Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich cooked up to sell off the president-elect's vacant Senate seat.
But the timeline of activity outlined in the FBI's 76-page complaint against Blagojevich suggests Obama's team was aware that his home-state governor was playing political hardball in the weeks before his arrest.
That's because shortly after Blagojevich allegedly told his advisers, in an expletive-laced conference call, that he would not appoint Obama's pick to the Senate absent huge favors in return, Obama's apparent pick promptly dropped out of the running for the Senate and joined the new White House staff.
"Reading between the lines ... clearly somebody from (Obama's) operation did have a conversation with Blagojevich," Democratic strategist Bob Beckel told FOX News. He added that Obama's representative evidently wasn't trying to cut a deal since Blagojevich indicated he was "getting nothing out of the Obama people."
FOX News has confirmed that Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser, is the individual identified in the Blagojevich affidavit as Senate Candidate 1.
The affidavit states that Senate Candidate 1 was likely to be supported by Obama for the seat, and that the Illinois governor was mulling a variety of ways to capitalize on such an appointment. Blagojevich allegedly wanted a corporate board appointment for his wife or millions in donations to a non-profit organization for his benefit, or even an appointment as secretary of health and human services, in exchange for appointing Senate Candidate 1. (Obama nominated former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle for the Cabinet post Blagojevich wanted on Thursday.)
But in the series of wiretapped conversations detailed in the complaint, Blagojevich and his advisers made clear that Obama was not willing to trade anything for the appointment of Senate Candidate 1.
An apparently disappointed Blagojevich discussed the post on a two-hour conference call Nov. 10 with his wife, his general counsel, his chief of staff John Harris (who also was arrested), and "various Washington, D.C., advisers."
"F--- him. For nothing? F--- him," Blagojevich said in response to advice that he wouldn't get anything out of Obama, according to the court document. Blagojevich said he would not pick Senate Candidate 1 without some kind of reward.
The next day, the complaint shows Blagojevich spoke with Harris about the seat, and said of Obama, "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F--- them."
If Obama and his staff didn't know anything about these conversations, then Jarrett at least exercised good timing.
By Nov. 12, news reports broke that Jarrett was no longer interested in the Senate seat. The affidavit shows Harris took this as a bluff.
But two days later, reports broke that Jarrett would be named Obama's senior adviser and assistant for intergovernmental relations in the White House. By Saturday, it was official, and Jarrett was out of the running for Senate.
It's unclear who, if anybody, could have notified Obama about Blagojevich's demands. The "various Washington, D.C., advisers" are not named. The affidavit also says Blagojevich met with a Service Employees International Union official, whom Blagojevich understood to be "an emissary" sent to discuss Senate Candidate 1.
This individual also is not named.
Obama, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, said at a press conference Thursday that not only has he never engaged the governor on the topic of his Senate seat, but "I am confident that no representative of mine would have any part in any deals related to this seat."
He said he has asked his team to compile any information they might have about any contact with the Illinois governor's office regarding his Senate seat, so that he can share that information with the public. But he said he is "absolutely certain" his aides were not involved in any alleged dealmaking.
The affair, nevertheless, has caused headaches for the popular president-elect, who faces accusations from Republicans that he's not being completely honest about who knew what when.
"There's still a lot of questions out there," said Michael Steele, former Maryland lieutenant governor who is running for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. "I think the president-elect did try his best to sort of isolate himself from this. Now the staff and the folks who are representing him, that's a different issue."
RNC Chairman Mike Duncan released a written statement Thursday accusing Obama of providing "less than forthcoming answers to simple questions" about Blagojevich.
"While it is encouraging that the President-elect has stated his office will disclose contacts with the scandal-ridden governor, it remains disappointing that his actions are in response to political pressure," he said.
FOX News' Major Garrett contributed to this report.
Friday, August 29, 2008
No Regrets
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2001/No-Regrets/No Regrets
Marcia Froelke Coburn
August 2001
At 55, Bill Ayers, the notorious sixties radical, still carries a whiff of that rock 'n' roll decade: the oversize wire-rim glasses that, in a certain light, reveal themselves as bifocals; a backpack over his shoulder—not some streamlined, chic job, but a funky backpack-of-the-people, complete with a photo button of abolitionist John Brown pinned to one strap.
Yet he is also a man of the moment. For example: There is his cell phone, laid casually on the tabletop of this neighborhood Taylor Street coffee shop, and his passion for double skim lattes. In conversation, he has an immediate, engaging presence; he may not have known you long but, his manner suggests, he's already fascinated. Then there is his quick laugh and his tendency to punctuate his comments by a tap on your arm.
Overall, it is not easy to imagine him as part of the Weatherman, a group that during the late sixties and early seventies openly called for revolution in America, led a violent rampaging protest in Chicago, and took credit for numerous bombings around the United States.
One of the Weatherman leaders was Bernardine Dohrn, a smart, magnetic figure who, in part because of her penchant for miniskirts and knee-high boots, was dubbed "La Pasionaria of the Lunatic Left" by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. After a bomb exploded accidentally and killed three of their colleagues, Ayers and Dohrn "hooked up," in the parlance of the day, and, since 1982, they have been married. This—violence, death, and white-hot rhetoric—is his past and Ayers insists he has no regrets. "I acted appropriately in the context of those times," he says. But it's hard to reconcile this quick-witted man with that revolutionary. Today Bill Ayers seems too happy to have ever been so angry.
Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, claims to abhor nostalgia ("Nothing is more boring than some old person going on and on about the way things used to be"). But he has been thinking lately about the past—both his and the country's—and soon he will likely be engaged in what he calls "a dialogue" about the sixties, the antiwar movement, and the radical life he led. The spur for this dialogue will be the publication of Fugitive Days (Beacon Press, $24), a memoir Ayers has written about the trajectory of his life, from a pampered son of the Chicago suburbs to a young pacifist to a founder of one of the most radical political organizations in U.S. history.
In the pantheon of radicals of the sixties and seventies, Ayers's place is unique. "He was not as notorious as Bernardine Dohrn," says Don Rose, a political consultant who has written about those times. "But what made Ayers of particular interest then was that he was the son of a captain of industry. Now he's interesting because, of all the farther-out radicals, he has achieved the most scholarly reputation."
Writing the book has been "a daunting task," Ayers says, "because I want to be true to those times. I don't feel nostalgic for the sixties, but there is no doubt in my mind that the events I write about were shaping events, and they provided for me a way of seeing the world that seemed so alive and so resonant that I can't escape it, no matter what I do."
Certainly there are moments when Ayers has the sound of the sixties down pat, like when he tells me, "Imperialism or globalization—I don't have to care what it's called to hate it." And then there are moments when he sounds light-years away from his radical sensibilities, more like an old grump lamenting today's uninformed youth: He tells me a story about going into Starbucks and having the young woman behind the counter mistake his photo pin of John Brown for Walt Whitman. "And when I told her, no, it's John Brown, she said, 'Who is John Brown?'"
But I am struck by another part of that story. What are you doing in a Starbucks? I ask the man who professes to hate globalization.
"Oh," he says. "I have an addiction to caffeine."
There you have the complexity of Ayers: a man who once tried to overthrow his country's government and now works for a state university; an opponent of the bourgeoisie who has been married for 20 years; a left-wing radical who loves a good cup of imperialist coffee. Maybe he's always known how to choose his battles. Once one of his sons wanted to hear about how Ayers had been a draft card burner. "Tell me again how you burned your credit card, Pop," his son confusedly asked.
"I'm not that radical," Ayers retorted.
* * *
He grew up in Glen Ellyn, where the grass was literally always greener. His father, Thomas Ayers, was a long-time executive of Commonwealth Edison and served as chairman from 1973 to 1980. "Nice was crucially important," Bill Ayers writes of his childhood, and it's clear in his memoir that what Ayers has long been running from is not so much the law of the 1960s and 1970s but the upper-middle-class sensibility in which he was raised. He attended Lake Forest Academy, where he was the sole member of the Young Socialists of America; he hated every minute of school there. He liked what he found at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor: freewheeling thought, radicalism, and a passionate desire to stop the war in Vietnam, at almost any cost. Soon he dropped out, joined the Students for a Democratic Society, and became a full-time activist; arrests in demonstrations quickly followed, much to his family's dismay.
One of the more amusing passages in Fugitive Days comes when Ayers recounts a generations-in-conflict conversation when his father counseled caution:
"Don't close too many doors to the future," he said. "Don't take too many steps down a one-way street."
"What are you doing to end the war?" I challenged.
"Edison isn't political," he said. "That's not our business. . . . I'd be doubtful about a group calling itself Students for a Democratic Society—this is, after all, a democratic society."
"Well, I'm doubtful about a group calling itself Commonwealth Edison," I said. "There's nothing common about wealth."
He walked out of jail and into his first teaching job, at a daycare center in Ann Arbor. Soon he was the 21-year-old director of the place. It was there he met Diana Oughton, a beautiful and accomplished young woman. They fell in love and attended SDS conventions together. As the war dragged on and U.S. politics became more polarized, some of the war resisters—including Ayers, Oughton, and Dohrn—turned more militant. They started a group called the Weatherman, a name inspired by the Bob Dylan song lyric "You don't need a weatherman / To know which way the wind blows."
In 1969, they decided to "bring the war home" by staging a protest in Chicago during the trial of the "Chicago Eight" radicals accused of conspiring to cross state lines to incite a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention here. (Their conviction was later overturned.) "The Days of Rage," as the 1969 protest was called, brought several hundred members of the Weatherman—many of them attired for battle with helmets and weapons—to Lincoln Park. The tear-gassed marches, window smashing, and clashes with police lasted four days, during which 290 militants were arrested and 63 people were injured. Damage to windows, cars, and other property soared to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Around this time, Ayers summed up the Weatherman philosophy as "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents—that's where it's really at."
"The rhetoric was excessive because the times were excessive," says Ayers. "The war had escalated, so naturally the language escalated. No one thought I meant that literally."
Between 1970 and 1974, the Weatherman took credit for 12 bombings, including one of the United States Capitol and another involving several police cars. The group always emphasized that their targets were property, not people. And, in fact, no one was injured—except, of course, some of the Weatherman's own.
In 1970, a bomb that was apparently being built in a Greenwich Village townhouse, occupied by at least five members of the Weatherman, accidentally exploded—killing three of the group, including Ayers's beloved Diana Oughton. In Fugitive Days, Ayers tries to imagine what happened. Maybe Diana tried to stop the others from their path? Maybe they all drank too much coffee and smoked too many cigarettes?
Maybe Diana saw that this bomb, packed with nails and screws, would have exacted a heavy human toll if it had ever reached its destination—a New Jersey military base. Could she have, in a gesture of sacrifice, crossed the wires herself? "I'll never know what happened," he says. "That's the price I have to pay."
The deaths—and two federal indictments—sent Ayers and his remaining comrades underground. The fugitives eluded the FBI for ten years through a series of constantly changing identities and locations. In one of the most haunting scenes in Fugitive Days, Ayers wanders through remote Midwestern cemeteries, looking for the gravestones of babies who, like them, had been born between 1940 and 1950 but had died shortly thereafter. It was from those headstones that the fugitives would build their new identities. Overall, Ayers figures, he had at least 12 separate aliases while living in 15 different states. The one he used most often was "Joe." Bernardine's favorite was "Rose," and to honor her, Ayers got the rose tattoo he now sports on his forearm.
In 1980, Ayers and Dohrn turned themselves in. (The first words Ayers's father said to him were, "You need a haircut.") By then they had had two children together, and the bombing conspiracy charge against the couple had been dismissed due to government misconduct.
Dohrn plea-bargained to charges of inciting to mob action and resisting police officers. She was sentenced to three years' probation and a $1,500 fine. Ayers was not charged. Even then he showed a way with words: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country," he said.
The next year, a Weatherman killed a Brink's guard and two state troopers in a bungled armored truck robbery. Kathy Boudin, the daughter of an esteemed New York civil rights lawyer, was sentenced to 20 years to life for her role in the crime; Ayers and Dohrn adopted her infant son. Today Ayers says it was partly because of "[the boy's] questions of who he is and what the background of his mother's life was that [Ayers] started to write this memoir."
* * *
Now, Ayers is a respected name in the field of education; his books, including To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher and A Good Preschool Teacher, are hailed by some as groundbreaking and thoughtful approaches to learning. Certainly they are reactions against the popular theories of the 1950s, which held that students were empty vessels to be filled with knowledge.
"Essentially, you must see the student before you as a locus of energy," he says. "He already has a heart, a soul, a mind, interests, and dreams. You need to help him shape those interests, pursue those dreams." Ayers is distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where two years ago the university named him Senior University Scholar, an award given to outstanding faculty members. He also directs the Center for Youth and Society, an organization that brings an interdisciplinary approach to working with youth—from art education to after-school programs. One of the center's recent efforts was a symposium inspired by the book Racism Explained to My Daughter, by Tahar Ben Jelloun. "We brought together people to discuss how to address racism with kids," says Therese Quinn, associate director of the center. What strikes Quinn about Ayers is "his enthusiasm and optimism," she says. "He is just overwhelmingly generous and supportive."
"Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice," he says. "I've never considered it a neutral or passive profession."
In Fugitive Days, Ayers has a personable style that pulls the reader in from the book's start—when he describes the moment he heard about the 1970 Greenwich Village explosion. It is the moment, of course, when his own life figuratively blew apart. "In the beginning, Bill wanted to write about the Vietnam War and why he thought it was wrong," says Helene Atwan, director of Beacon Press, who edited Ayers's book. "But I told him that most Americans now believed that that war was wrong and certainly the people reading a book of memoirs would feel that. I wanted him to concentrate on his personal story."
Except for a few minor polemics along the way, Ayers does—and then some. "He very effectively captures the spirit of the times," says Bernardine Dohrn, who is now a clinical associate professor at Northwestern University School of Law. "He conjures it up and reflects on it."
Like her husband, Dohrn claims she feels no need to escape the legacy of the 1960s and 1970s. "I feel it's always with me. It's taken a long time to achieve a precarious balance about it, where it's not all defining and a cartoon. But this isn't just my problem; it's a generation's problem."
For two radicals once living underground, Ayers and Dohrn have raised three accomplished children: Zayd (named for a fallen Black Liberation soldier and colleague), 24, graduated from Brown University and has an M.F.A. degree in writing from Boston University, where he now teaches; Malik (for Malcolm X), 21, is attending the University of California at San Diego; and Chesa, 20, their adopted son, just finished his sophomore year at Yale University.
Recently, Ayers himself has returned to school as a student for the first time since he earned his Ph.D. in education at Columbia University—thanks to the monetary award he received from UIC as senior university scholar. He periodically commutes to Bennington College for the school's low-residency M.F.A. program in writing, in which he is concentrating on nonfiction. So far, he has studied with essayist Philip Lopate and novelist/memoirist Susan Cheever. "It's exciting and scary and all those good things," he says. "They have been wonderful in helping me find my own voice."
That is not something you would have thought Ayers needed help with. It is a different time, though, and he is a different man. But not completely changed. Talk to him for any length of time and some rhetoric of the past slips into the conversation. "I think there will be another mass political movement," he predicts, "because I believe that the kind of injustice that is built into our world will not go quietly into the night."
But the time-warp moment is over as quickly as it begins. Ayers—totally back in the present moment—pauses to sip his double skim latte, then greets a graduate student who awaits his attention. "These aren't mountain times, these are valley times," he says, acknowledging a change in the culture, the political climate, and maybe even in himself. "But you can still work the vineyard where you are."
Photograph: Jeff Sciortino
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Republicans fear public has lost confidence
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-14-gopfallout_N.htm
Republicans fear public has lost confidence
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
5-14-8
WASHINGTON — Republicans must regain the confidence of Americans and recast their message to voters to avoid a catastrophe in the fall congressional elections, top GOP officials said Wednesday in a stark postmortem of a loss in rural Mississippi.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi — after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana — was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party."
"What we've got right now is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence by the American people to do what we say we're going to do," Cole said in a conference call with reporters.
He said, "When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong with your product?"
Cole did not elaborate on potential defects, but Democrats had a ready answer.
"The Republican message is 'no, veto, and status quo,' " said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said Republicans couldn't win in Mississippi even though they poured $1 million into the race, sent Vice President Cheney to campaign and tried to link Democratic candidate Travis Childers to the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's former pastor.
Obama mentioned Childers' victory in a speech in Michigan. "This is a hard-core Republican seat, and they lost it by 8 points. They did everything they could. They ran ads with my face on it."
In a memo to GOP leaders posted on Politico's website, retiring Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., offered a blunt verdict: "The Republican brand is in the trash can. … If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf."
"This is as bad as it gets for any party," said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, which tracks each race. "I've never seen a more defeated tone." Nevertheless, Wasserman said, his analysis shows the Democrats will pick up far fewer districts than they did in the 2006 election, when they gained 31 seats. He estimates the Democrats will gain five to 10 seats in the fall. "Democrats won most of the low-hanging fruit in 2006," he said.
Democratic leaders, not surprisingly, have a different view. They hope to capitalize on their winning formula in Mississippi and Louisiana, where their candidates' cultural conservatism played well.
"This clearly is a sign that there is no congressional district that is safe for Republican candidates who are following in the Bush shadow," said Van Hollen, whose committee has $44.3 million on hand, compared with $7.2 million for Cole's National Republican Congressional Committee.
Davis called the atmosphere for House Republicans "the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006."
House Republicans met with Cole in the Capitol to sift through the ashes of defeat in Mississippi's 1st District, which became vacant when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to the Senate to replace retiring Republican Trent Lott. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the result "a wake-up call." But there is no consensus on how to fix it.
Former speaker Newt Gingrich has urged House Republicans to come out with a series of dramatic proposals, including a moratorium on congressionally directed spending items known as earmarks. His ideas were not widely embraced.
Boehner is rolling out an "American Families Agenda" this week focusing on national security, tax cuts, balancing the budget and boosting domestic oil production.
Republicans fear public has lost confidence
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
5-14-8
WASHINGTON — Republicans must regain the confidence of Americans and recast their message to voters to avoid a catastrophe in the fall congressional elections, top GOP officials said Wednesday in a stark postmortem of a loss in rural Mississippi.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi — after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana — was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party."
"What we've got right now is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence by the American people to do what we say we're going to do," Cole said in a conference call with reporters.
He said, "When you lose three of these in a row, you have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong with your product?"
Cole did not elaborate on potential defects, but Democrats had a ready answer.
"The Republican message is 'no, veto, and status quo,' " said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said Republicans couldn't win in Mississippi even though they poured $1 million into the race, sent Vice President Cheney to campaign and tried to link Democratic candidate Travis Childers to the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's former pastor.
Obama mentioned Childers' victory in a speech in Michigan. "This is a hard-core Republican seat, and they lost it by 8 points. They did everything they could. They ran ads with my face on it."
In a memo to GOP leaders posted on Politico's website, retiring Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., offered a blunt verdict: "The Republican brand is in the trash can. … If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf."
"This is as bad as it gets for any party," said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, which tracks each race. "I've never seen a more defeated tone." Nevertheless, Wasserman said, his analysis shows the Democrats will pick up far fewer districts than they did in the 2006 election, when they gained 31 seats. He estimates the Democrats will gain five to 10 seats in the fall. "Democrats won most of the low-hanging fruit in 2006," he said.
Democratic leaders, not surprisingly, have a different view. They hope to capitalize on their winning formula in Mississippi and Louisiana, where their candidates' cultural conservatism played well.
"This clearly is a sign that there is no congressional district that is safe for Republican candidates who are following in the Bush shadow," said Van Hollen, whose committee has $44.3 million on hand, compared with $7.2 million for Cole's National Republican Congressional Committee.
Davis called the atmosphere for House Republicans "the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006."
House Republicans met with Cole in the Capitol to sift through the ashes of defeat in Mississippi's 1st District, which became vacant when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to the Senate to replace retiring Republican Trent Lott. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the result "a wake-up call." But there is no consensus on how to fix it.
Former speaker Newt Gingrich has urged House Republicans to come out with a series of dramatic proposals, including a moratorium on congressionally directed spending items known as earmarks. His ideas were not widely embraced.
Boehner is rolling out an "American Families Agenda" this week focusing on national security, tax cuts, balancing the budget and boosting domestic oil production.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Obama Has Financial Edge For Primary Endgame
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120612639749954097-AGkUP2FET7GMSvWMQNALp4C9eLA_20080420.html
Obama Has Financial Edge For Primary Endgame
Illinois Senator Reports $32 Million in Cash And Minimal Debts
By MARY JACOBY, T.W. FARNAM and AMY CHOZICK
March 22, 2008; Page A4
Barack Obama had three times as much money in the bank at the end of February as Hillary Clinton, putting the Illinois senator on a stronger financial footing heading into the last round of primaries and caucuses for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sen. Obama reported having $32 million on hand at the end of February that could be spent on the nominating contest, with minimal debt, according to his latest monthly financial report, filed with the Federal Election Commission.
New York Sen. Clinton reported having $11 million on hand at the end of February. Her debts to outside vendors were $3.7 million.
The figures are the most recent data publicly available, and the reports don't show whether the financial picture has changed in the past three weeks. The Clinton campaign seems to have improved its financial management over the last month, by improving fund-raising and, apparently, curbing some of the free-spending habits that angered backers earlier this year. Sen. Clinton's campaign was nearly broke at the end of January, forcing her to take out a $5 million personal loan and leading to replace her campaign manager.
It isn't clear, however, whether Sen. McCain can legally continue to spend money during the primary season. He is tangled in a dispute with the FEC about whether he can withdraw from an earlier pledge to follow spending limits.
Sen. Clinton's supporters say their cash gap with Sen. Obama isn't a big disadvantage for the next contest, April 22 in Pennsylvania, and the nine that follow through early June, because extensive news coverage diminishes Sen. Obama's edge in paid TV ads. "The free media coverage when you're down to two candidates in a limited number of states is intense," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic consultant in Washington who supports Sen. Clinton but isn't working for her campaign. "I don't think the cash-on-hand differential matters all that much."
Still, Sen. Clinton's financial position differs markedly from the image she tried to convey through 2007 as an inevitable front-runner and formidable juggernaut. These days, she casts herself as a scrappy underdog battling the well-oiled Obama money machine.
"They're going to try to outspend us three-to-one on the air," former President Bill Clinton said in a March 18 email to supporters asking for contributions of $5 or more to pay for TV advertising. "We are facing a serious financial disadvantage against the Obama campaign," Sen. Clinton said in an email appeal of her own on Friday.
The money gap stems from Sen. Obama's unprecedented fund-raising strength. His success in tapping individuals through the Internet -- he has gathered more than one million donors -- has forced Sen. Clinton to work harder at cultivating individual small donors of her own. The February reports show she succeeded, drawing 200,000 new donors and nearly doubling her take from the previous month to $34 million. But Sen. Obama boosted his total to $55 million -- a one-month fund-raising record for a presidential primary campaign. In January, Sen. Clinton raised $14 million, and Sen. Obama $36 million.
While raising less, Sen. Clinton has been spending at a faster clip: She burned through 92% of her campaign receipts in February, while Sen. Obama spent only 77 % of his contributions.
Even so, the Clinton campaign did cut back on expenses after big donors complained it was spending too much on hotels and catering. Sen. Clinton has begun holding more intimate campaign gatherings at supporters' houses and fewer lavish big events. Staff and reporters flying on her chartered campaign plane are getting cheaper boxed lunches instead of higher-end catered meals.
Staffers are staying at less-expensive hotels, too. In January, the campaign spent $38,000 at relatively plush Radisson Hotels, but only $11,000 at them in February. Spending at Holiday Inns rose to $61,000 in February from $21,000 in January.
Top staffers are also being paid less. Communications director Howard Wolfson's consulting firm was paid $267,000 in January, after picking up $421,000 in 2007. In February, Mr. Wolfson got $33,000.
Top advisor Mark Penn's firm made $3.8 million in January and $3.1 million in February. Media advisor Mandy Grunwald's firm was paid $761,000 in January and $608,000 in February.
Sen. Clinton's previous campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, was paid far more than her counterparts on the Obama and McCain campaigns, earning about $12,000 a month before she resigned from that position in February amid a campaign shake-up. Sen. Clinton's new campaign manager, Maggie Williams, is working without pay.
Clinton campaign payroll expenses dropped 24% from January to February, while Obama's campaign payroll remained constant. In absolute numbers, Sen. Clinton spent $2.4 million on payroll in February while Sen. Obama spent $2.6 million.
Such moves are important because "the Clinton campaign is trying to make the case to uncommitted superdelegates that she's got better prospects in the general," said Democratic strategist Jim Jordan. That case is harder to make, he said, if her campaign appears poorly managed in the primary.
Write to Amy Chozick at amy.chozick@wsj.com
Obama Has Financial Edge For Primary Endgame
Illinois Senator Reports $32 Million in Cash And Minimal Debts
By MARY JACOBY, T.W. FARNAM and AMY CHOZICK
March 22, 2008; Page A4
Barack Obama had three times as much money in the bank at the end of February as Hillary Clinton, putting the Illinois senator on a stronger financial footing heading into the last round of primaries and caucuses for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sen. Obama reported having $32 million on hand at the end of February that could be spent on the nominating contest, with minimal debt, according to his latest monthly financial report, filed with the Federal Election Commission.
New York Sen. Clinton reported having $11 million on hand at the end of February. Her debts to outside vendors were $3.7 million.
The figures are the most recent data publicly available, and the reports don't show whether the financial picture has changed in the past three weeks. The Clinton campaign seems to have improved its financial management over the last month, by improving fund-raising and, apparently, curbing some of the free-spending habits that angered backers earlier this year. Sen. Clinton's campaign was nearly broke at the end of January, forcing her to take out a $5 million personal loan and leading to replace her campaign manager.
It isn't clear, however, whether Sen. McCain can legally continue to spend money during the primary season. He is tangled in a dispute with the FEC about whether he can withdraw from an earlier pledge to follow spending limits.
Sen. Clinton's supporters say their cash gap with Sen. Obama isn't a big disadvantage for the next contest, April 22 in Pennsylvania, and the nine that follow through early June, because extensive news coverage diminishes Sen. Obama's edge in paid TV ads. "The free media coverage when you're down to two candidates in a limited number of states is intense," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic consultant in Washington who supports Sen. Clinton but isn't working for her campaign. "I don't think the cash-on-hand differential matters all that much."
Still, Sen. Clinton's financial position differs markedly from the image she tried to convey through 2007 as an inevitable front-runner and formidable juggernaut. These days, she casts herself as a scrappy underdog battling the well-oiled Obama money machine.
"They're going to try to outspend us three-to-one on the air," former President Bill Clinton said in a March 18 email to supporters asking for contributions of $5 or more to pay for TV advertising. "We are facing a serious financial disadvantage against the Obama campaign," Sen. Clinton said in an email appeal of her own on Friday.
The money gap stems from Sen. Obama's unprecedented fund-raising strength. His success in tapping individuals through the Internet -- he has gathered more than one million donors -- has forced Sen. Clinton to work harder at cultivating individual small donors of her own. The February reports show she succeeded, drawing 200,000 new donors and nearly doubling her take from the previous month to $34 million. But Sen. Obama boosted his total to $55 million -- a one-month fund-raising record for a presidential primary campaign. In January, Sen. Clinton raised $14 million, and Sen. Obama $36 million.
While raising less, Sen. Clinton has been spending at a faster clip: She burned through 92% of her campaign receipts in February, while Sen. Obama spent only 77 % of his contributions.
Even so, the Clinton campaign did cut back on expenses after big donors complained it was spending too much on hotels and catering. Sen. Clinton has begun holding more intimate campaign gatherings at supporters' houses and fewer lavish big events. Staff and reporters flying on her chartered campaign plane are getting cheaper boxed lunches instead of higher-end catered meals.
Staffers are staying at less-expensive hotels, too. In January, the campaign spent $38,000 at relatively plush Radisson Hotels, but only $11,000 at them in February. Spending at Holiday Inns rose to $61,000 in February from $21,000 in January.
Top staffers are also being paid less. Communications director Howard Wolfson's consulting firm was paid $267,000 in January, after picking up $421,000 in 2007. In February, Mr. Wolfson got $33,000.
Top advisor Mark Penn's firm made $3.8 million in January and $3.1 million in February. Media advisor Mandy Grunwald's firm was paid $761,000 in January and $608,000 in February.
Sen. Clinton's previous campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, was paid far more than her counterparts on the Obama and McCain campaigns, earning about $12,000 a month before she resigned from that position in February amid a campaign shake-up. Sen. Clinton's new campaign manager, Maggie Williams, is working without pay.
Clinton campaign payroll expenses dropped 24% from January to February, while Obama's campaign payroll remained constant. In absolute numbers, Sen. Clinton spent $2.4 million on payroll in February while Sen. Obama spent $2.6 million.
Such moves are important because "the Clinton campaign is trying to make the case to uncommitted superdelegates that she's got better prospects in the general," said Democratic strategist Jim Jordan. That case is harder to make, he said, if her campaign appears poorly managed in the primary.
Write to Amy Chozick at amy.chozick@wsj.com
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Obama Fails to Win Over `Archie Bunker' Voters
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKf6J9nuZt4Q
Obama Fails to Win Over White `Archie Bunker' Democratic Voters
By Heidi Przybyla
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama has an Archie Bunker problem.
The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama yesterday. His rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in heavily Catholic Rhode Island.
In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.
``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. ``These people are not necessarily bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''
Clinton's victories yesterday in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's.
Wider Problem
The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio and Rhode Island represents a wider problem for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month.
Obama, 46, has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.''
Ohio exit polls show Clinton beat Obama 62 percent to 35 percent among Catholics, 58 to 40 percent among those with no college degree and 56 percent to 42 percent among those who earn less than $50,000 a year. In Rhode Island, she won Catholics 66 percent to 34 percent, those with no college degree 61 percent to 38 percent, and those earning less than $50,000 by 59 percent to 39 percent.
The Illinois senator is still the Democratic front-runner and has shown strength attracting independents and younger voters. While yesterday's results were welcome in the Clinton camp, she barely cut into Obama's overall lead of about 150 pledged delegates.
Next Round
In addition, the next states to hold contests, Wyoming and Mississippi, are likely to increase his margin. Wyoming on March 8 holds a caucus, a type of contest in which Obama has generally prevailed. Mississippi, which holds a primary on March 11, has a heavy concentration of black voters. Neither state has big populations of white ethnic voters.
Yet Obama will need to do better with the white ethnic working class in places like Pennsylvania and to build a majority in a general election if he is the nominee.
The challenges he faces with these groups are evident in his hometown of Chicago, where voters know him and he is popular. Still, he faces resistance in working class, white ethnic neighborhoods.
``I can't support him,'' said Richard Dorsch, a 53-year-old paramedic fire chief from Chicago's Edison Park. Dorsch, who said his kids liken him to Archie Bunker, voted for Clinton in the primary, though he plans to support Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona if Obama wins the nomination.
`Talking Down'
``When he talks to you, it's like he's talking down to you,'' Dorsch said. ``He doesn't have the experience to talk like that.''
Dorsch's 41st Ward, which gave Clinton, 60, a six- percentage-point advantage, is 90 percent white, dominated by German, Polish and Irish ethnic police officers, teachers and city workers.
Obama has had problems with similar types of voters in Chicago since he began running for public office, though he has made some progress. He beat his white Democratic rivals in the 2004 Senate primary in places like the 41st Ward.
Yet communities like Edison Park remain a challenge for Obama, said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois in Springfield.
``When Democrats win national elections they really do put that old New Deal coalition back together,'' he said. ``They have to get that Reagan Democrat.''
Working-Class Neighborhood
Chicago's 41st Ward is a classic white working-class neighborhood of bungalows, modest two-flats and Dutch colonials that shuts down on Pulaski Day, the March holiday celebrating Casimir Pulaski, a Pole who fought in the Revolutionary War.
An informal survey of employees at a local bank, gym, library, and neighborhood restaurant turned up no Obama supporters. Some residents said they were concerned that he might not take into account the concerns of whites.
``If Obama gets in, it's going to be a black thing and it's going to be all blacks for blacks,'' Victoria Mikulski, a 63- year-old clerk in Edison Park. ``Everything's got to be equal.''
Some residents still harbor resentment from 35 years ago, when a growing black population on the city's west side pushed whites north into Edison Park and Norwood Park, said Mary O'Connor, who owns a local bakery. Brian Doherty, the 41st Ward alderman, said he was ``shocked'' by Obama's success in the 2004 Senate primary.
New Generation
O'Connor, a Democrat who voted for Obama and recently won a seat as ward councilwoman, said a new generation that is less concerned with racial politics and history is taking over.
Far more important are the Iraq war and the economy, said O'Connor, who met with many residents during her door-to-door campaign this year.
Some younger voters said are turned off by the race.
``It's a gender and race war; that's why I'm just not interested in it,'' said Nicholas Georgopoulos, a 27-year-old auto technician and Democrat who lives in Norwood Park. ``They're not concentrating on the right things,'' he said. Dorsch, the fire paramedic, said race isn't a factor in his vote.
The importance of white, working-class neighborhoods like the 41st isn't lost on Obama. When in late 2003 the then Illinois state senator was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, he invited Senate colleague and close friend Larry Walsh for breakfast in Springfield.
Walsh represented Joliet, a majority white rural community south of Chicago.
``He said, `if I cannot appeal to the constituency that you represent how am I going to ever think about wining statewide?''' said Walsh, who is now Will County executive.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net
Obama Fails to Win Over White `Archie Bunker' Democratic Voters
By Heidi Przybyla
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama has an Archie Bunker problem.
The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama yesterday. His rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in heavily Catholic Rhode Island.
In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.
``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. ``These people are not necessarily bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''
Clinton's victories yesterday in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's.
Wider Problem
The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio and Rhode Island represents a wider problem for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month.
Obama, 46, has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.''
Ohio exit polls show Clinton beat Obama 62 percent to 35 percent among Catholics, 58 to 40 percent among those with no college degree and 56 percent to 42 percent among those who earn less than $50,000 a year. In Rhode Island, she won Catholics 66 percent to 34 percent, those with no college degree 61 percent to 38 percent, and those earning less than $50,000 by 59 percent to 39 percent.
The Illinois senator is still the Democratic front-runner and has shown strength attracting independents and younger voters. While yesterday's results were welcome in the Clinton camp, she barely cut into Obama's overall lead of about 150 pledged delegates.
Next Round
In addition, the next states to hold contests, Wyoming and Mississippi, are likely to increase his margin. Wyoming on March 8 holds a caucus, a type of contest in which Obama has generally prevailed. Mississippi, which holds a primary on March 11, has a heavy concentration of black voters. Neither state has big populations of white ethnic voters.
Yet Obama will need to do better with the white ethnic working class in places like Pennsylvania and to build a majority in a general election if he is the nominee.
The challenges he faces with these groups are evident in his hometown of Chicago, where voters know him and he is popular. Still, he faces resistance in working class, white ethnic neighborhoods.
``I can't support him,'' said Richard Dorsch, a 53-year-old paramedic fire chief from Chicago's Edison Park. Dorsch, who said his kids liken him to Archie Bunker, voted for Clinton in the primary, though he plans to support Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona if Obama wins the nomination.
`Talking Down'
``When he talks to you, it's like he's talking down to you,'' Dorsch said. ``He doesn't have the experience to talk like that.''
Dorsch's 41st Ward, which gave Clinton, 60, a six- percentage-point advantage, is 90 percent white, dominated by German, Polish and Irish ethnic police officers, teachers and city workers.
Obama has had problems with similar types of voters in Chicago since he began running for public office, though he has made some progress. He beat his white Democratic rivals in the 2004 Senate primary in places like the 41st Ward.
Yet communities like Edison Park remain a challenge for Obama, said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois in Springfield.
``When Democrats win national elections they really do put that old New Deal coalition back together,'' he said. ``They have to get that Reagan Democrat.''
Working-Class Neighborhood
Chicago's 41st Ward is a classic white working-class neighborhood of bungalows, modest two-flats and Dutch colonials that shuts down on Pulaski Day, the March holiday celebrating Casimir Pulaski, a Pole who fought in the Revolutionary War.
An informal survey of employees at a local bank, gym, library, and neighborhood restaurant turned up no Obama supporters. Some residents said they were concerned that he might not take into account the concerns of whites.
``If Obama gets in, it's going to be a black thing and it's going to be all blacks for blacks,'' Victoria Mikulski, a 63- year-old clerk in Edison Park. ``Everything's got to be equal.''
Some residents still harbor resentment from 35 years ago, when a growing black population on the city's west side pushed whites north into Edison Park and Norwood Park, said Mary O'Connor, who owns a local bakery. Brian Doherty, the 41st Ward alderman, said he was ``shocked'' by Obama's success in the 2004 Senate primary.
New Generation
O'Connor, a Democrat who voted for Obama and recently won a seat as ward councilwoman, said a new generation that is less concerned with racial politics and history is taking over.
Far more important are the Iraq war and the economy, said O'Connor, who met with many residents during her door-to-door campaign this year.
Some younger voters said are turned off by the race.
``It's a gender and race war; that's why I'm just not interested in it,'' said Nicholas Georgopoulos, a 27-year-old auto technician and Democrat who lives in Norwood Park. ``They're not concentrating on the right things,'' he said. Dorsch, the fire paramedic, said race isn't a factor in his vote.
The importance of white, working-class neighborhoods like the 41st isn't lost on Obama. When in late 2003 the then Illinois state senator was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, he invited Senate colleague and close friend Larry Walsh for breakfast in Springfield.
Walsh represented Joliet, a majority white rural community south of Chicago.
``He said, `if I cannot appeal to the constituency that you represent how am I going to ever think about wining statewide?''' said Walsh, who is now Will County executive.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/us/politics/05cnd-bill.html
March 5, 2008
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
By MICHAEL LUO
It was a declaration that quickly became etched in the granite of conventional wisdom.
Ignoring all the thou-shalt-nots inscribed in the bible of expectations management, former President Bill Clinton declared in Beaumont, Tex., several weeks ago that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, needed to win Ohio and Texas to stay alive in her battle with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee,” Mr. Clinton said. “If you don’t deliver for her, then I don’t think she can be.”
Last night, Mrs. Clinton pulled off triumphs in both Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island. So instead of becoming Exhibit No.1 for Democratic power brokers, pundits and others marshaling arguments for her to bow out of the race, Mr. Clinton’s pronouncement now looks like a dead-on critical call-to-arms, showing his legendary political instincts.
Mr. Clinton’s statement that his wife had to win Texas and Ohio ended up dogging Mrs. Clinton on the campaign trail, as she was constantly asked about the remark, including at a news conference on Tuesday morning in Houston.
She sidestepped the query, saying she did not “think like that,” but hinted at plans for a long battle to come.
“You know, this is a long process,” she said. “As you’ve heard me say before, my husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June.”
Mr. Obama’s campaign fired back, using Mr. Clinton’s own words as ammunition.
“Three weeks ago, when they led polls in Texas and Ohio by 20 points, the Clinton campaign set their own test for today’s primaries,” Bill Burton, a spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Conceding the pressure on her to exit would be enormous if she lost either state, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had been doing their best to walk back Mr. Clinton’s declaration, suggesting that an Ohio victory alone, coupled with her strong fund-raising recently — $32 million in February, still lagging behind Mr. Obama, who brought in about $50 million — would be enough for her to continue on to the delegate-rich Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Some outside political strategists saw Mr. Clinton’s comments as a tactically shrewd effort to re-energize a flagging campaign and remind voters of the stakes of her losing the two states — a tactic that, in the end, seemed to have worked.
Joe Trippi, who was a senior strategist for John Edwards’s campaign, said he believed Mr. Clinton’s remarks were politically astute, whether they were scripted or improvised in the heat of the moment.
“People, deep down, like both her and Obama,” Mr. Trippi said. “When either one of them is on the ropes, they don’t want to see either one of them die.”
He added that he believed Mr. Clinton recognized that pattern when he made his comments.
“She needs your help,” Mr. Trippi said, “is not a bad strategy.”
Paul Begala, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton, said he believed the comment was a moment of candor, which voters tend to appreciate, comparing it to when Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, declared at a rally in Iowa before the caucuses that her husband needed to win the state in order to continue.
“Authenticity is the thing voters want most,” Mr. Begala said. “Here’s Bill Clinton standing up, having gone to Georgetown and to Oxford and to Yale. He now has a Ph.D. of the obvious. After 11 losses, you need a win.”
Mr. Begala said he had no idea if the moment was poll-tested and planned ahead of time but said he tended to doubt it, adding he believed Mr. Clinton saw the political benefits, as well as the potential fallout.
“He is the most transparent of politicians,” he said. “If he thinks something, he says it.”
There is, however, the matter of simple mathematical reality. With the way the two have been splitting the proportional allocation of delegates, it remains extremely difficult for Mrs. Clinton to catch Mr. Obama among pledged delegates, something the results Tuesday did little to alter. But at the same time, neither candidate is likely to garner enough delegates to clinch the nomination
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said Mr. Clinton simply articulated a reality that was obvious, with or without his comments.
Mrs. Clinton still faces steep odds, he said, but she can at least make a case now to the all-important super-delegates who could decide the contest.
“Her only chance was to win both big ones,” Mr. Mellman said. “And she did.”
March 5, 2008
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
By MICHAEL LUO
It was a declaration that quickly became etched in the granite of conventional wisdom.
Ignoring all the thou-shalt-nots inscribed in the bible of expectations management, former President Bill Clinton declared in Beaumont, Tex., several weeks ago that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, needed to win Ohio and Texas to stay alive in her battle with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee,” Mr. Clinton said. “If you don’t deliver for her, then I don’t think she can be.”
Last night, Mrs. Clinton pulled off triumphs in both Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island. So instead of becoming Exhibit No.1 for Democratic power brokers, pundits and others marshaling arguments for her to bow out of the race, Mr. Clinton’s pronouncement now looks like a dead-on critical call-to-arms, showing his legendary political instincts.
Mr. Clinton’s statement that his wife had to win Texas and Ohio ended up dogging Mrs. Clinton on the campaign trail, as she was constantly asked about the remark, including at a news conference on Tuesday morning in Houston.
She sidestepped the query, saying she did not “think like that,” but hinted at plans for a long battle to come.
“You know, this is a long process,” she said. “As you’ve heard me say before, my husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June.”
Mr. Obama’s campaign fired back, using Mr. Clinton’s own words as ammunition.
“Three weeks ago, when they led polls in Texas and Ohio by 20 points, the Clinton campaign set their own test for today’s primaries,” Bill Burton, a spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Conceding the pressure on her to exit would be enormous if she lost either state, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had been doing their best to walk back Mr. Clinton’s declaration, suggesting that an Ohio victory alone, coupled with her strong fund-raising recently — $32 million in February, still lagging behind Mr. Obama, who brought in about $50 million — would be enough for her to continue on to the delegate-rich Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Some outside political strategists saw Mr. Clinton’s comments as a tactically shrewd effort to re-energize a flagging campaign and remind voters of the stakes of her losing the two states — a tactic that, in the end, seemed to have worked.
Joe Trippi, who was a senior strategist for John Edwards’s campaign, said he believed Mr. Clinton’s remarks were politically astute, whether they were scripted or improvised in the heat of the moment.
“People, deep down, like both her and Obama,” Mr. Trippi said. “When either one of them is on the ropes, they don’t want to see either one of them die.”
He added that he believed Mr. Clinton recognized that pattern when he made his comments.
“She needs your help,” Mr. Trippi said, “is not a bad strategy.”
Paul Begala, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton, said he believed the comment was a moment of candor, which voters tend to appreciate, comparing it to when Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, declared at a rally in Iowa before the caucuses that her husband needed to win the state in order to continue.
“Authenticity is the thing voters want most,” Mr. Begala said. “Here’s Bill Clinton standing up, having gone to Georgetown and to Oxford and to Yale. He now has a Ph.D. of the obvious. After 11 losses, you need a win.”
Mr. Begala said he had no idea if the moment was poll-tested and planned ahead of time but said he tended to doubt it, adding he believed Mr. Clinton saw the political benefits, as well as the potential fallout.
“He is the most transparent of politicians,” he said. “If he thinks something, he says it.”
There is, however, the matter of simple mathematical reality. With the way the two have been splitting the proportional allocation of delegates, it remains extremely difficult for Mrs. Clinton to catch Mr. Obama among pledged delegates, something the results Tuesday did little to alter. But at the same time, neither candidate is likely to garner enough delegates to clinch the nomination
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said Mr. Clinton simply articulated a reality that was obvious, with or without his comments.
Mrs. Clinton still faces steep odds, he said, but she can at least make a case now to the all-important super-delegates who could decide the contest.
“Her only chance was to win both big ones,” Mr. Mellman said. “And she did.”
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