1 Boring Old Man

^{72. On the evening of November 3, 2008, Rod Blagovelich talked to Deputy Governor A. Rod Blagovelich stated that he was concerned about possibly being impeached in the Spring and that the Chicago Tribune will be “driving” the impeachment discussion. Rod Blagovelich asked Deputy Governor A to check to see if the Tribune has recently “advocate[d]” that he be impeached. In fact, the Chicago Tribune recently had published editorials critical of Rod Blagovelich.}

^{73. In another call between Rod Blagovelich and Deputy Governor A that occurred a short time later on November 3, 2008, Rod Blagovelich and Deputy Governor A discussed an editorial from the Chicago Tribune regarding the endorsement of Michael Madigan and calling for a committee to consider impeaching Rod Blagovelich. During the call, Rod Blagovelich’s wife can be heard in the background telling Rod Blagovelich to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that fucking Cubs shit… fuck them.” Rod Blagovelich asked Deputy Governor A what he thinks of his wife’s idea. Deputy Governor A stated that there is a part of what Rod Blagovelich’s wife said that he “agree[s] with.” Deputy Governor A told Rod Blagovelich that Tribune Owner will say that he does not have anything to do with the editorials, “but I would tell him, look, if you want to get your Cubs thing done get rid of this Tribune.” Later, Rod Blagovelich’s wife got on the phone and, during the continuing discussion of the critical Tribune editorials, stated that Tribune Owner can “just fire” the writers because Tribune Owner owns the Tribune. Rod Blagovelich’s wife stated that if Tribune Owner’s papers were hurting his business, Tribune Owner would do something about the editorial board. Rod Blagovelich then got back on the phone. Rod Blagovelich told Deputy Governor A to put together the articles in the Tribune that are on the topic of removing Rod Blagovelich from office and they will then have someone, like John Harris, go to Tribune Owner and say, “We’ve got some decisions to make now.” Rod Blagovelich said that “someone should say, ‘get rid of those people.’” Rod Blagovelich said that he thinks that they should put this all together and then have Harris or somebody go talk to the Tribune owners and say, “Look, we’ve got decisions to make now… moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA helping with the Cubs sale) … someone’s gotta go to [Tribune Owner], we want to see him … it’s a political fuckin’ operation in there.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that Harris needs to be “sensitive” about how he does it. Rod Blagovelich said there is nothing sensitive about how you do it and that it’s “straight forward” and you say “we’re doing this stuff for you, we believe this is right for Illinois [and] this is a big deal to [Tribune Owner] financially” but what Rod Blagovelich is doing to help Tribune Owner is the same type of action that the Tribune is saying should be the basis for Rod Blagovelich’s impeachment. Rod Blagovelich said Tribune Owner should be told “maybe we can’t do this now. Fire those fuckers.” Deputy Governor A suggested that Rod Blagovelich say, “I’m not sure that we can do this anymore because we’ve been getting a ton of these editorials that say, look, we’re going around the legislature, we gotta stop and this is something the legislature hasn’t approved. We don’t want to go around the legislature anymore.” Rod Blagovelich agreed and said that he wants Harris to go in and make that case, “not me.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that he likes it. Rod Blagovelich asked Deputy Governor A to put the list of Tribune articles together.}

This is a remarkable level of corruption. It gets worse. There’s no evidence that his deliberations about who to appoint as Senator have anything much to do with the qualifications of the appointee. The only requirements are that he get something from Obama, from the appointee, something for himself. Fulfilling his obligation to the people of Illinois to give them a representative of quality doesn’t seem to have occurred to Blagojevich. He even considered appointing himself to evade impeachment and as insurance of some kind against a future indictment.

Obama: Blagojevich Should Resign
By Anne E. Kornblut

President-elect Barack Obama believes that Gov. Rod Blagojevich should resign, his advisers said on Wednesday. "The President-elect agrees with Lt. Gov. Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois," Robert Gibbs, the incoming White House press secretary, said.

On Tuesday, shortly after news of the criminal corruption complaint against Blagojevich broke, Obama said he was "saddened and sobered" by the news. But he stopped short of demanding the governor’s resignation or addressing the questions that arose in the wake of Blagojevich’s arrest, including how his successor to the Senate will be picked. The Obama transition team has worked to distance itself from Blagojevich, with whom relations were already strained.

Gibbs said that Obama believes the Illinois general assembly should now take control of the issue of picking a new U.S. Senator for Illinois. The assembly is expected to reconvene next week to debate whether to hold a special election to fill the seat. The assembly should "consider the issue and put in place a process to select a new senator that will have the trust and confidence of the people of Illinois," Gibbs said…

Obama’s Effort on Ethics Bill Had Role in Governor’s Fall

Mr. Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich, who had vetoed it. But after the call from Mr. Obama, the Senate overrode the veto, prompting the governor to press state contractors for campaign contributions before the law’s restrictions could take effect on Jan. 1, prosecutors say.

Tipped off to Mr. Blagojevich’s efforts, federal agents obtained wiretaps for his phones and eventually overheard what they say was scheming by the governor to profit from his appointment of a successor to the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Obama. One official whose name has long been mentioned in Chicago political circles as a potential successor is Mr. Jones, a machine politician who was viewed as a roadblock to ethics reform but is friendly with Mr. Obama.

Beyond the irony of its outcome, Mr. Obama’s unusual decision to inject himself into a statewide issue during the height of his presidential campaign was a reminder that despite his historic ascendancy to the White House, he has never quite escaped the murky and insular world of Illinois politics. It is a world he has long navigated, to the consternation of his critics, by engaging in a kind of realpolitik, Chicago-style, which allowed him to draw strength from his relationships with important players without becoming compromised by their many weaknesses.

By the time Mr. Obama intervened on the ethics measure, his relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, always defined more by political proximity than by personal chemistry, had cooled as the governor became increasingly engulfed in legal troubles. There is nothing in the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday to indicate that Mr. Obama knew anything about plans to seek money and favors in exchange for his Senate seat; he has never been implicated in any other “pay to play” cases that have emerged from the long-running investigation of the Blagojevich administration…