The Blago Report
The Obama Transition Office has released the report of White House Counsel-to-be Greg Craig regarding contacts between Obama's circle and that of disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The most interesting part (which, really, isn't all that interesting) concerns a few conversations that future White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had with the Governor and his Chief of Staff. In a conference call with reporters (which is currently underway), Craig said he sees "nothing at all inappropriate" in these conversations.:
Mr. Emanuel had one or two telephone calls with Governor Blagojevich. Those conversations occurred between November 6 and November 8, 2008. Soon after he decided to accept the President-Elect's offer to serve as Chief of Staff in the White House, Mr. Emanuel placed a call to the Governor to give him a heads up that he was taking the Chief of Staff's position in the White House, and to advise him that he would be resigning his seat in the House of Representatives. They spoke about Mr. Emanuel's House seat, when he would be resigning and potential candidates to replace him. He also had a brief discussion with the Governor about the Senate seat and the merits of various people whom the Governor might consider. Mr. Emanuel and the Governor did not discuss a cabinet position, 501c(4), a private sector position for the Governor or any other personal benefit for the Governor.
In those early conversations with the Governor, Mr. Emanuel recommended Valarie Jarrett because he knew she was interested in the seat. He did so before learning -- in further conversations with the President-Elect -- that the President-Elect had ruled out communicating a preference for any one candidate. As noted above, the President-Elect believed it appropriate to provide the names of multiple candidates to be considered, along with others, who were qualified to hold the seat and able to retain it in a future election. The following week, Mr. Emanuel learned that the President-Elect and Ms. Jarrett with the President's strong encouragement had decided that she would take a position in the White House.
Between the time that Mr. Emanuel decided to accept the position of Chief of Staff in the White House and December 8, 2008, Mr. Emanuel had about four telephone conversations with John Harris, Chief of Staff to the Governor, on the subject of the Senate seat. In these conversations, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Harris discussed the merits of potential candidates and the strategic benefit that each candidate would bring to the Senate seat. After Ms. Jarrett removed herself from consideration, Mr. Emanuel – with the authorization of the President-Elect – gave Mr. Harris the names of four individuals whom the President-Elect considered to be highly qualified: Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Schakowsky and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.
In later telephone conversations, Mr. Emanuel – also with the President-Elect's approval – presented other names of qualified candidates to Mr. Harris including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Ms. Cheryle Jackson. Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the Governor in any of these conversations. There was no discussion of a cabinet position, of 501c(4), of a private sector position or of any other personal benefit to the Governor in exchange for the Senate appointment.
Although Mr. Emanuel recalls having conversations with the President-Elect, with David Axelrod and with Valerie Jarrett about who might possibly succeed the President-Elect in the Senate, there was no mention of efforts by the Governor or his staff to extract a personal benefit in return for filling the Senate vacancy.
Craig says, "No one in the Obama circle was aware what was going on in the Governor's office or in the Governor's mind until the time he was arrested."
At another point, a union official raised with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett an idea that Craig says she dismissed as "ridiculous":
On November 7, 2008 -- at a time when she was still a potential candidate for the Senate seat -- Ms. Jarrett spoke with Mr. Tom Balanoff, the head of the Illinois chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Mr. Balanoff is not a member of the Governor's staff and did not purport to speak for the Governor on that occasion. But because the subject of the Governor's interest in a cabinet appointment came up in that conversation, I am including a description of that meeting.
Mr. Balanoff told Ms. Jarrett that he had spoken to the Governor about the possibility of selecting Valerie Jarrett to replace the President-Elect. He told her that Lisa Madigan's name also came up.
Ms. Jarrett recalls that Mr. Balanoff also told her that the Governor had raised with him the question of whether the Governor might be considered as a possible candidate to head up the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration. Mr. Balanoff told Ms. Jarrett that he told the Governor that it would never happen. Jarrett concurred.
Mr. Balanoff did not suggest that the Governor, in talking about HHS, was linking a position for himself in the Obama cabinet to the selection of the President-Elect's successor in the Senate, and Ms. Jarrett did not understand the conversation to suggest that the Governor wanted the cabinet seat as a quid pro quo for selecting any specific candidate to be the President-Elect's replacement. At no time did Balanoff say anything to her about offering Blagojevich a union position.
UPDATE: Bottom line -- If this is the full extent of contacts, it would appear that if Blagojevich--or anyone working on his behalf--was trying to get anything out of Obama, they were doing it awfully subtly.
-
1
I am just glad to see that Triple J's name was in the mix after people were trying to make it seem like Obama had snubbed him and there was some kind of tension going on between the two
-
2
KT, there doesn't seem to be a lot of there there. Do you believe this will stem the media speculation? Does this count as being forthcoming enough?
-
3
KT here--
Dave: I think that there are still some more shoes to drop (and that's why Fitzgerald asked the Obama team to delay releasing this), but I would be surprised at this point if those shoes drop anywhere near Obama.
-
4
Oh they are already on Hardball with Chris Matthews casting aspersions so I can only imagine whats going to happen on Bill O and Hannity's shows. The only way this goes away is if something more interesting comes up between now and Jan 20th. The Politico guy is making himself look like such a dumb ass on MSNBC.
-
5
I should point out that they are saying that the Jarrett exchange that you posted KT is another question that needs to be answered. They just can't understand somebody having a conversation that might have gone like this.
.
Balanoff: You know Rod thinks could be a an asset in Obamas Cabinet.
.
Jarrett: Oh really?
.
Balanoff: Yeah he thinks he might get the HHS job.
.
Jarrett: WTF is he smoking? Obama doesn't even like him. He must have lost his damn mind lol
.
Blanaoff: Yeah thats the same thing I was thinking. And I tried to tell him but you know Rod's crazy.
.
Is it really unheard of to think that Valarie Jarrett who was one of Obama's closest advisors might know who he was considering for HHS or that after seeing Blago in an attack ad aimed at Obama that there was no chance he would be bringing him into his administration?
.
I am not even going to get mad though. I am just going to document the atrocities. -
6
Let us not forget that everyone now knows that there were wiretaps in place. This means two things. One is that we can be pretty sure that the information Obama is providing is likely to be reasonably complete. The last place he would want any new relevations to emerge is in a courtroom. The second thing is that we can speculate that the reason Fitz asked them to withhold the information is to loosen up anyone who might have been afraid that there WAS anything substantial on tape.
-
7
It's really too bad this couldn't have been released a week ago. It's hard to see why it needed to be held back, unless Fitzgerald didn't want it known how little was here.
.
I thought I'd heard that Emanuel had conversations with staff or Blago before the election, but that's not indicated here. -
8
KT--one of the blindspots that most of your colleagues seem go share is that only the msm is capable of speculation, which is why they continue to question how blago comes to the conclusion that Obama won't play ball without having a conversation about it. It seems obvious to the rest of us that after years of knowing how Obama operates blago would know pay to play wouldn't fly.
-
9
"I would be surprised at this point if those shoes drop anywhere near Obama"
Don't underestimate the skills of our Press Corps. Someone will land a shoe right on top of his head unlike Iraqis.
-
10
Can you guys stop wasting our time with this sh!t now, please?
-
11
kathy
.
I think it came out that in the interim USA Fitzpatrick interviewed Rahm and Jarrett and that might have been the reason for the delay. -
12
I saw CNN'c replacement for the Blitz Suzanne Malveaux do her level best trying to find ways to keep the story going. She got no help from Jeff Toobin. Paul Begala was in "discount this bs mode" and was surprisingly supported by the Conservative talker. On Hardball Mike Barnicle asked Jim Warren ( an Isikoff wannabee) who was looking for ways to keep the story going while Roger Simon put out the flames. What is with the MSM types that they all go into prosecutorial mode desperately trying to keep this story going? Folks there is no there, there. Move on. Enjoys Christmas and other holidays festivities. Somerby says it best: the MSM are really superb at flogging dead horses.
-
13
kathy says: "I thought I'd heard that Emanuel had conversations with staff or Blago before the election, but that's not indicated here."
.
It was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist that Rahm had spoken with Blago or his team 21 times, but that was not confirmed by any other source.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/1333057,CST-NWS-SNEED16.article -
14
nibblybits: the Chicago Sun-Times has got it wrong in the past. Oops, I should not be saying that, should I?
-
15
bitter
.
I actually thought Simon was trying to keep the story going a little too with his "how did Valarie Jarrett know" talk. I think the conservative talking heads have gotten word from above that flogging this Blago stuff while Obama's approval numbers are still off the charts and after the report came out which is something Bush would have never done, would end up being a losing proposition. I would be surprised if any conservatives other than those appearing on FoxNews continue to try to make hay with this. But that won't stop the Joe Scarboroughs of the world from still flogging it. -
16
kathy
.
from dailykos
.Moreover, it is obvious that the Obama team would have liked to release this report long ago. It was completed on the 15th, but at the request of the U.S. Attorney was not made public until today to allow Fitzgerald's office to complete its interviews, the last of which was conducted on the 20th.
.At the request of the Office, we delayed the release of this report until such time as the interviews could be completed. The interviews took place over a period of three days: Thursday, December 18, 2008 (the President-Elect); December 19, 2008 (Valerie Jarrett); and December 20, 2008 (Rahm Emanuel
-
17
sgw: your response noted. Simon is not a favourite of mine, and I agree you may look at his stuff differently. The key is that this bs is not going anywhere. Thank god that Tweety was not on today: otherwise we would have got spittle inducing bs all round. To you and fellow Swamplanders: enjoy the season: Christmas, Hanukkah and whatever you do. The best. Safe travel. Great reuniuons and happy family gatherings. Next year promises to be tough.
-
18
bitterpill: Yes, maybe I didn't express my contempt clearly that the single source of that information was a gossip columnist. And the MSM jumped on it. As information, it should be discounted entirely.
-
19
It appears there's nothing to this story. Shocking.
-
20
Joe Lowery is up next on MSNBC
-
21
bitter
.
Happy Holidays and safe travels to you and yours as well -
22
SG--I was watching Roger Simon too and you are absolutely right, hence my earlier post. There are still going to be some that try to keep this thing going for reasons that to any truly intelligent person seem self-serving at best. What is interesting to me is that the msm has witnessed a historic awakening of political participation and demand for serious engagement and despite proof if the public's disdain for trivial distractions the press still insists on conducting itself like middle school children. We live in serious times and it demands serious people. We will soon have a government headed by grown-ups. At least the democratic leadership of Congress appears to be adult so far. I think it is high time that the press takes it's responsibility seriously and focus on important matters of state and stop their childish preoccupation with gossip, innuendo and voyeurism.
-
23
BTW if anybody cares Joe Lowery was just on MSNBC and he said he has never said he supports gay marriage but he does support civil unions. And I dare that sanctimonious son of a beyatch John Cloud to call HIM a bigot. Seriously.
-
24
Well, now that Obama has shown himself to be an ethical and classy guy, the obstreperous turds of the right wing, and the media hacks who swarm around them like remoras on sharks, will have to redouble their efforts to take him down.
-
25
Dee
.
Here is the problem. The ass holes of punditry FoxNews also have the highest ratings. I have often wondered myself what that means but I can tell you this, there are some people in power at the rival networks who are saying if you can't beat me join em hence the ass hatery. But in the end they will all lose but in the meantime the people who actually want responsible reporting are the ones losing.
- ktumulty @LATimesrainey Could you get them to check for my earrings? I lost a pair of silver ones and have been hunting all over the house for them. - 1 day ago
- ktumulty @TeresaKopec @fishbowlDC thanks! am declaring my age to be the avg of mine and fellow bday girl jen psaki. - 1 day ago
- ktumulty New Blog Entry, "Health Bill: What Would It Cost Me?" - http://tinyurl.com/y8uxg5w - 1 day ago
Most Popular »
- "Personal Sins Should Not Require Press Releases"
- Congress's Tepid Reaction to Obama's Afghanistan Plan
- Tiger Speaks
- State Dinner, Uh, Fashion
- The 'Alice' Interview: A Very Different Brand of Wonderland
- Gleeks and Shrieks: Fox Unveils Midseason, Glee Gone Until April
- White House Hypocritical Attack on Politico
- The Dreaded X
- First Look: 'Lovely Bones' and Peter Jackson's Virtuoso Vistas
- False Economy: Think You're Saving Money? Think Again
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Italian Town Dreams of a White (No Foreigners) Christmas
- Rachel Uchitel: Tiger Woods' Alleged Affair Connection
- Europe's Secret Nuclear Weapons: What Should NATO Do?
- Can Attack Dogs Be Rehabilitated?
- Why Fritz Henderson Resigned as GM's CEO
- Ireland: Lack of New Catholic Priests Spurs Campaign
- Study: Loneliness Can Be Contagious
- Could White House Party Crashers the Salahis Go to Jail?
- The End of the 2000s: Goodbye to a Decade from Hell
Quotes of the Day »
RSS