alien rants: What we would have LIKED to hear

“Valerie Jarrett reported to me in mid-November that Governor Blagojevich had asked her for political favors and money in exchange for naming her to my vacant senate seat. Valerie wisely declined to participate in this illegal activity and immediately informed Mr. Fitzgerald’s office of the incident.

“The Obama administration has been cooperating fully with federal agents.

“As for my contact with the Governor, I spoke with him on November 7 to indicate my timeline for relinquishing the senate seat. He mentioned a few names he was considering and I simply told him it was his decision to make, not mine.”
(The FANTASY quote from Obama on the Illinois Governor’s scandal)

The ACTUAL quote:
"I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening." Obama, December 9, 2008

But, of course, his right-hand man David Axelrod told the press on November 23rd, "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

Damage control kicked in yesterday and Axelrod retracted his statement of two weeks ago when he said, “I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.”

Axelrod is in the PR business, in particular the POLITICAL PR business. And he is part of the Obama inner circle. He knows what to say and he knows what Obama is doing every day.

Change.gov, the daily diary of the President-elect and his transition has all sorts of things about the daily doings of Obama… and yet I got ZERO, ZIP, NADA, ZILCH hits when I entered the word “Blagojevich” in the search box.

So much for change. We're back to the old, "What did the President know and when did he know it" routine.

A couple of interesting threads emerge when you read the actual complaint filed by the feds against Blago.

Thread #1. Blago had the distinct impression that Obama was not going to bid on the senate seat. Blago had given up on that angle with some rather definite language. We don’t know where he got that impression but the new White House wasn’t playing his game.

Thread #2. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) WAS actively involved in the negotiation for “Senate Candidate 1.” (Senate Candidate 1 appears to be Jarrett.)

This can’t be good and it ought to open an investigation all its own about a labor union who throws LOTS of political money around having enough specifics about government officials and high level posts to even have a conversation about quid pro quos.

Here SEIU proudly announces, “Record contributions by SEIU members make SEIU’s political action fund the largest in the country.” SEUI website link: http://www.walkadayinmyshoes2008.com/building-seius-political-stren/