The Damage Blagojevich Arrest Could Do And Other Facts

My Top 3

Democratic Rod Blagojevich was arrested and arraigned this morning on corruption charges. Nothing new there at all. That seems to be a running game with governors in Illinois. The arrest has the potential to spell big trouble for the president elect and the Democratic Party as a whole (like the Democratic Party didn’t cause enough trouble this year by selecting The One as their candidate. The fix was in so to speak.)

Let’s examine some of those problems according to Sam Stein at HuffPo (did I mention I still can’t stand HuffPo, no love lost there):

The governor, accused of seeking cash for the political appointment of Obama’s Senate replacement, is not a close associate of the President-elect. Indeed, in the affidavit, Blagojevich called Obama a “motherf***er” for wanting him to appoint an official that the governor either did not like or wouldn’t receive money from.

(Yeah! Obama wanted to name his own successor. That is not Obama’s right, the correct thing to do is to appoint someone no strings attached (that means NO MONEY) or hold a special election (time is running out for the second option.)

Blagojevich put, in essence, a for-sale sign on Obama’s Senate seat — and some of the lengths he went to in order to extract financial benefit from the process — could create for long-term damage for the Democratic Party and, by extension the

Ya think Sam! Blagojevich sure has created real problems for the Democrats but he is one in a long line of Democratic Party members that should be thrown out of politics….Pelosi, Dodd, Barney, Rahm and me thinks Obama should be too!

More problems on the horizon for Dems…that crazy bunch of

Blagojevich’s attempts to forge a three-way deal involving Obama and the SEIU, wherein he would be appointed the head of the union’s affiliate — Change to Win — Obama would help the SEIU advance its political objectives, and the group and the President-elect would have a favorable official appointed into the vacant seat.

“JOHN HARRIS [Blagojevich’s chief of staff] suggested that SEIU Official make ROD BLAGOJEVICH the head of Change to Win and, in exchange, the President-elect could help Change to Win with its legislative agenda on a national level. Advisor B asked why SEIU Official cannot just give the job to ROD BLAGOJEVICH. HARRIS responded that it would be just a big “give away” for SEIU Official and Change to Win since there are already individuals on the Change to Win payroll doing the functions of the position that would be created for ROD BLAGOJEVICH. HARRIS said that Change to Win will want to trade the job for ROD BLAGOJEVICH for something from the President-elect. HARRIS suggested a “three-way deal,” and explained that a three-way deal like the one discussed would give the President-elect a “buffer so there is no obvious quid pro quo for [Senate Candidate 1].” ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that for him to give up the governorship for the Change to Win position, the Change to Win position must pay a lot more than he is getting paid right now. Advisor B said that he liked the idea of the three-way deal. ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that he is interested in making $250,000 to $300,000 and being on some organization boards. Advisor B said they should leverage the President-elect’s desire to have Senate Candidate 1 appointed to the Senate seat in order to get a head position with Change to Win and a salary. Advisor B agreed that the three-way deal would be a better plan than ROD BLAGOJEVICH appointing Senate Candidate 2 to the Senate seat and getting more done as

Doesn’t look very good at all from where I am writing, just more Chicago and Illinois corruption. It does indeed taint the president elect. This will certainly be remembered during the mid term elections in 2010. There is a good chance that seats the Democrats gained will be lost during the 2010 elections. Good for Blagojevich. The Dems are beginning to reap what they sowed and The One hasn’t even taken office yet!

More from HuffPo:

As such, multiple officials (including Democrats) who spoke to the Huffington Post said that the Democratic Party should be pleased that Blagojevich was being arrested now, as opposed to after the Senate appointment was made. The timing will help the party and Obama avoid accusations of insider trading, although Blagojevich may not step down and still seems likely to name Obama’s replacement.

“As for the quid pro quos… I think people are cynical enough so that they know there are interest groups with their goals and deals, so I don’t think it is a huge problem,” said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report. “I think the bigger problem is if there are more dots that are connected. We do know that [Minority Leader John] Boehner has already talked about running against William Jefferson, Blagojevich, and you have Charlie Rangel… These problems build up. And the Republican Party’s brand was damaged when these problems built up.”

It really doesn’t matter whether the Change To Win buncn knew or not the taint remains upon them. As for the president elect, it is well known that he took campaign funds from some of the same donors as Blagojevich. Obama may regret the following words….

State Senator Barack Obama (D-Chicago): …right now, my main focus is to make sure that we elect Rod Blagojevich as Governor, we—

Jeff Berkowitz: You working hard for Rod?

Barack Obama: You betcha.

Jeff Berkowitz: Hot Rod?

Barack Obama: That’s exactly right. You know, I think that having a Democratic Governor will make a big difference. I think that I am working hard to get a Democratic [state] senate and Emil Jones President, replacing [Republican Senate President] Pate Philip and once all that clears out in November, then I think we’ll be able to make some good decisions about the [U. S.] Senate race.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you want to see a Democratic State Senate, a Democratic State House, a Democratic Governor—

Barack Obama: I am a Democrat.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is that balanced? And I thought we wanted a fair and balanced approach to things.

Barack Obama: I am a Democrat.

Jeff Berkowitz: Card-carrying Democrat?

Barack Obama: Card-carrying Democrat. I really believe that the core Democratic philosophy is one that is—you know—really helps working people, and hopefully you know, we’ll be able to make sure that we carry out a mandate in this next election in November [2002].

Obama campaigned so hard for the “Hot Rod”. He wanted to make certain that Illinois went entirely Democratic in Springfield with little thought to the eventual outcome…Illinois has a huge budget deficit as does Chicago…

While we are talking about Obama stumping for Blagojevich, we need to remember that these two politicians have a common political friend, Tony Rezko…now convicted in “pay-to-play” schemes…

And here are the 8 things to remember about Rezko and Obama:

1. They met in 1990. Obama was a student at Harvard Law School and got an unsolicited job offer from Rezko, then a low-income housing developer in Chicago. Obama turned it down.

2. Obama took a job in 1993 with a small Chicago law firm, Davis Miner Barnhill, that represents developers — primarily not-for-profit groups — building low-income housing with government funds.

3. One of the firm’s not-for-profit clients — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis — was partners with Rezko’s company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm. Only five hours of that came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, the firm says. The rest of the future senator’s time was helping WPIC strike the deal with Rezko. Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp., also partnered with the firm’s clients in four later deals — none of which involved Obama, according to the firm. In each deal, Rezmar “made the decisions for the joint venture,” says William Miceli, an attorney with the firm.

4. In 1995, Obama began campaigning for a seat in the Illinois Senate. Among his earliest supporters: Rezko. Two Rezko companies donated a total of $2,000. Obama was elected in 1996 — representing a district that included 11 of Rezko’s 30 low-income housing projects.

5. Rezko’s low-income housing empire began crumbling in 2001, when his company stopped making mortgage payments on the old nursing home that had been converted into apartments. The state foreclosed on the building — which was in Obama’s Illinois Senate district.

6. In 2003, Obama announced he was running for the U.S. Senate, and Rezko — a member of his campaign finance committee — held a lavish fund-raiser June 27, 2003, at his Wilmette mansion.

7. A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko’s wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood — a deal that has dogged Obama the last two years. The doctor sold the mansion to Obama for $1.65 million — $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko’s wife paid full price — $625,000 — for the adjacent vacant lot. The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko’s wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Questioned later about the timing of the Rezko deal, Obama called it “boneheaded” because people might think the Rezkos had done him a favor.

8. Eight months later — in October 2006 — Rezko was indicted on charges he solicited kickbacks from companies seeking state pension business under his friend Gov. Blagojevich. Federal prosecutors maintain that $10,000 from the alleged kickback scheme was donated to Obama’s run for the U.S. Senate. Obama has given the money to charity.

The most important thing to remember, the Democratic Party headquarters is now in Chicago where much of this corruption happened. It is Obama’s home state as well. What connects Blagojevich and Obama…fund raising held for both by now convicted Tony Rezko. Big problems loom ahead!