Blago's Revenge

“As governor I am required to make this appointment.”

-- Embattled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich announcing his appointment of Roland W. Burris, a former state attorney general, to Barack Obama's empty senate seat.


December 31, 2008

Defiant Illinois Governor Names Pick for Obama Seat
By Monica Davey

CHICAGO — Defying Senate leaders in Washington and a galaxy of political leaders here, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois announced Tuesday that he would fill the Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama, which he has been accused of trying to sell.

Mr. Blagojevich said he would appoint Roland W. Burris, a former state attorney general who was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois. The decision set off efforts to block the move by state legislators, the secretary of state, and, most significantly, Democratic leaders in the United States who said they would not seat anyone Mr. Blagojevich chose.

Still, even as the selection was clearly destined for battles on many fronts, Mr. Blagojevich sounded breezily confident as he introduced his appointee to reporters as the “next United States senator from Illinois.” Having been charged this month with conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery, he said the accusations against him should not taint Mr. Burris, whom he called “a good and honest man.”

Standing beside him, Mr. Burris, who, at 71, is seen by many here as an elder statesman in Democratic politics, seemed to brush aside gaping questions about how federal criminal charges against Mr. Blagojevich might tarnish his potential Senate tenure — and whether he would really ever make it to the Senate chamber in the first place.

“I’m honored that I have been appointed,” Mr. Burris said, “and we will deal with the next step in the process.”

Of the criminal case against Mr. Blagojevich, Mr. Burris said, “I have no relationship with that situation.”

Mr. Obama, on vacation in Hawaii and who, aides said, was surprised by the news of the appointment, issued a statement condemning the move.

“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat,” Mr. Obama said. “I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it.”

The Senate Democratic caucus, which controls the chamber, issued a statement saying that no one appointed by the governor could be an effective representative, and that Mr. Burris would not be seated. It is not clear, however, whether the caucus can bar a qualified appointee, and the issue may be headed to court.

The choice of Mr. Burris immediately injected the issue of race into the appointment process, which may very well have been part of the governor’s calculation. Representative Bobby L. Rush, Democrat of Illinois, who was called to the lectern at the news conference by Mr. Burris, noted that there were no blacks in the Senate and said that he did not believe any senator “wants to go on record to deny one African-American from being seated in the U.S. Senate.”

Senate Democrats are in a panic regarding Blagojevichgate. Try as they might, they can't shake the Blagojevich-sized albatross that is tightly wound around the collective liberal neck.

Who in their right mind would accept an appointment of any kind from such a tainted political figure? Is Burris the winner of the Blagojevich senate seat raffle?

Mr. Burris, a soft-spoken, never flowery speechmaker, seemed an unlikely person to be in this moment. Having been elected as state comptroller nearly three decades ago and later as attorney general, he left public office after a series of bids for governor (including a primary race against Mr. Blagojevich in 2002, in which Mr. Obama had endorsed Mr. Burris). His political career seemed to be over, and he went to work as a consultant at a firm that was formed in 2002, Burris & Lebed Consulting, and also as a lawyer.

Though Mr. Burris and Mr. Blagojevich are politicians of vastly different styles, they have had a political relationship in recent years. After the 2002 primary for governor, Mr. Burris encouraged Mr. Obama to endorse Mr. Blagojevich, and Mr. Burris served at one point as the vice chairman of the governor’s transition team.

Mr. Burris and his consulting firm (which has held, he said, at least one state contract) have made contributions to Mr. Blagojevich’s campaign fund, too: more than $9,000 in cash and in-kind contributions from his consulting firm and at least $4,500 from Mr. Burris personally, state records show. In June of this year, the records show, Mr. Burris gave the campaign $1,000.

Notice the president-elect's name all over this story. No reaction from Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, yet.

Tick-Tock ... Tick-Tock ... Tick-Tock ...

Rod Blagojevich scandal a ticking bomb for Rahm Emanuel

Posted By: Toby Harnden at Dec 23, 2008 at 23:29:39

So the Obama team's internal report into its contacts with Governor Rod Blagojevich is out - held, conveniently enough, until late afternoon on the day before Christmas eve when Obama is in Hawaii and the normally very available Rahm Emanuel is en route to Africa.

The US attorney's interviews with Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Emanuel were completed on Saturday so the report could have been released then. Instead, Team Obama waited another three days, during time which they made a strategic Sunday leak to ABC News to draw the sting. Cute (perhaps a little too cute) media management.

Surprise surprise, the report - read it here - completely exonerates everyone in the Obama camp. And it's true that there is no suggestion in the report - and no one has plausibly claimed - that anyone close to or working for Obama was involved in the attempted sale of his former Senate seat.

But the report is extremely vague about the "one or two" conversations that Emanuel had with Blagojevich and the "about four" conversations he had with John Harris, the governor's chief of staff, who was also arrested at dawn on December 9^th and has since resigned.

The problem with this is that it's a drip, drip that doesn't make the issue go away. The conversations were presumably all recorded by the FBI so the details will come out.

Emanuel was initially pushing Obama's buddy Valerie Jarrett for the seat with Blagojevich himself before he learned that "the President-elect had ruled out communicating a preference for any one candidate".

It's not clear whether Emanuel was speaking for Obama, though presumably he was. Which leaves a feeling of cronyism - Jarrett has a very limited track record for a US Senator.

Emanuel then gave Harris four more whom Mr Obama "considered to be highly qualified" - Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Representative Jan Schakowsky and Representative Jesse Jackson Jnr. So Obama was not exctly taking a hands off approach to the Senate seat, as he said he would.

He was involved like any other politician. Which is fine, except that Obama presents himself as being unlike any other politician. [More]

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, continues to hide from the media, even though he has been "exonerated" by the "Office of the President-Elect's" investigation of itself. Baracko Bama is already drenched in scandal and he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. It's Clinton all over again.

Dealing With Terrorism 101

Video: Hamas Rocket Launching Pad Located in Residential Area

Hamas once again overplayed its hand and is currently suffering the consequences. After weeks constant rocket attacks from the terrorist group, Israel has retaliated with extreme prejudice. Reports indicate over 200 dead and scores of wounded during Israeli's offensive.

"When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons."

-- Golda Meir (1898-1978), founder and fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel

The Fishwrap Times: Obama Must Keep Gas Taxes Artificially High Through Taxes

NY Times Editorial
The Gas Tax
Published: December 26, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress seem to have a clear vision of the auto industry they think the country needs. It must be financially self-sufficient. It also must be capable of producing highly fuel-efficient, next-generation vehicles that can help the nation cope with climate change and finite supplies of oil.

Yet for all the conditions attached to it, the multibillion-dollar aid package for Detroit’s carmakers approved by the White House (with Mr. Obama’s support) fails to address one crucial question: Who will buy all the fuel-efficient cars that Detroit carmakers are supposed to make?

The danger is that too few will, especially if gasoline prices remain low. Therefore, it might be time for the president-elect and Congress to think seriously about imposing a gas tax or similar levy to keep gas prices up after the economy recovers from recession.

Americans did not buy enormous gas guzzlers just because Detroit marketed them relentlessly. They bought them because they wanted big cars — and because gas was cheap. If gas stays cheap, Americans would be less inclined to squeeze their families into a lithe fuel-efficient alternative.

Furthermore, even if the government managed to convert General Motors, Chrysler and Ford to the cause of energy efficiency, cheap gas could open the door for a competitor — Toyota, perhaps? — to take over the lucrative market for gas-chuggers, leaving Detroit’s automakers eating dust once again.

Americans have flirted with fuel-efficient cars before only to jilt them when gas prices fell. In the late 1970s, for instance, they spurned light trucks as gas prices doubled. But as gas prices declined between 1981 and 2005, the market share of sport-utility vehicles, pickups, vans and the like jumped from 16 percent to 61 percent of vehicle sales in the United States.

The recent infatuation with the Toyota Prius and other fuel-efficient cars could well come to a similar end. It took a gallon of gas at $4.10 to push the share of light trucks down to 45 percent in July. But as gasoline plummeted back to $1.60 a gallon, their share inched back up to 49 percent of auto sales in November.

There are several ways to tax gas. One would be to devise a variable consumption tax in such a way that a gallon of unleaded gasoline at the pump would never go below a floor of $4 or $5 (in 2008 dollars), fluctuating to accommodate changing oil prices and other costs. Robert Lawrence, an economist at Harvard, proposes a variable tariff on imported oil to achieve the same effect and also to stimulate the development of domestic energy sources.[More]

Just when you thought liberals couldn't get any more fanatically loony in their quixotic crusade against fossil fuels,there comes this jewel from the liberal NY Times editorial board. They know that the only way to force families to "squeeze" into "a fuel-efficient alternative" is to coerce them into doing so by keeping gas prices artificially high.

Now that their boy Obama is about to become president, it's time to force the issue. I don't think they will have to work too hard to convince the Obamabuddha that it's the way to go. As if he is not planning on it anyway.

The question is, will the American people put up with this abuse of the tax system?

ACORN, Soros Linked to Franken Vote Grab
Monday, December 22, 2008 9:22 PM
By: David A. Patten

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Democratic challenger Al Franken a lead some six weeks after incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to both the ACORN organization now under federal investigation for vote fraud, and to MoveOn.org ultra-liberal kingmaker George Soros.

In 2006, ACORN endorsed Ritchie in his bid to become secretary of state, and Ritchie also received a campaign contribution that year from Soros.

Indeed, Ritchie has credited his own political career in large part to an obscure, Soros-funded group called the Secretary of State Project (SoS), whose express purpose is to seed state election bureaucracies nationwide with partisan activists -- Ritchie among them -- who are strategically positioned to influence the outcome of close recounts like the one now underway in Minnesota.

The SoS Web site lauds Ritchie as “arguably the most progressive secretary of state in America,” and states: “Thanks to SoS Project donors, Minnesota’s Mark Ritchie – a true champion for Democracy – was able to defeat a two-term incumbent Republican by less than 5 points. We helped close the gap and make the difference with cable television ads targeting women and seniors.”

Nor does Ritchie downplay the role of the Soros-funded nonprofit in his own election win.

“I want to thank the Secretary of State Project and its thousands of grassroots donors for helping push my campaign over the top,” he states on the partisan political site.

Soros is becoming the real power broker behind liberal Democrats. For all their whining about Karl Rove, "The Architect" never bought or fixed an election.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas At Arlington National Cemetery

Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.

Know the line has held, your job is done.

Rest easy, sleep well.

Others have taken up where you fell, the line has held.

Peace, peace, and farewell..

These wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington,Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest parts of the state.

Fightin' Blago

“I will fight, I will fight, I will fight, till I take my very last breath. I have done nothing wrong.”

-- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich during his "I am not a crook" press conference in downtown Chicago today.

Coincidentally, this is the 10th anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky scandal when Bill "I am not a crook" Clinton famously said,

Good Times

Liberal Democratic Corruption: Follow the Blagojevich Stench Wherever It May Lead, Even If It Reaches the "Office of the President-Elect"

“Scarborough Rips MSM: In Wasilla Instead of Investigating Obama-Blago Connection” - video available here.

Excerpts:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: How rich is it that we sit around and say “we don’t know, we have to wait until Obama tells us. We don’t know what these connections, we don’t know whether he really ran the 2002 [Blago] campaign or not”? Again, I will guarantee you, if Sarah Palin had run the most corrupt—if Sarah Palin had run Ted Stevens’s campaign in 2002, and somebody had bragged about it in the New Yorker, the press would have savaged her. But we sit here now, it’s almost Christmas, and we don’t know the truth about it. We don’t know the truth about any of this, because we haven’t done the investigative work . . . I’m convicting the press because they didn’t investigate this past summer, when they were sending all those people to Wasilla, a town of 9,000, they should have been going to Chicagoland.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I think that’s really fair.

SCARBOROUGH: The press never covered --

JOHN HARWOOD: To cover Blagojevich?

SCARBOROUGH: To look at the background of a candidate who had only been in national politics for one year before he decided to run for president of the United States, and was born from the most corrupt political city in America. Do you not think, do we not think, that warranted an investigation? Not to suggest he did anything wrong, but to see what his background was?

HARWOOD: Of course. There was coverage of his background—Ryan Lizza’s piece.

SCARBOROUGH: OK, then tell me this—yeah, Lizza’s the only one that wrote about it and he got kicked off the campaign plane. So here’s my question for you: if we know so much about this, answer this question. Did Barack Obama, was Barack Obama intimately involved in Blagojevich’s 2002 campaign?

Why are some in the MMM (Moribund Mainstream Media) so interested in the Obamafraud's past associations now that the Blagojevich scandal is in full throttle? Why are they all of a sudden surprised that they themselves failed to scrutinize their own liberal god when they had the chance? Will they do the right thing and ask the hard questions and follow the corruption wherever it may lead? Given their past record, I highly doubt it. As far as I am concerned, the MMM is an accessory to the Democratic Party corruption.

Openness and Transparency from the Office of the President-Elect: "Let Me Cut You Off" and "Don't Waste Your Question"

John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune gets schooled on what happens when a reporter veers off script and actually asks the Obamabuddha tough questions. The president-elect is obviously testy and irritated with the question and he was not about to let McCormick finish asking it, much less answer it truthfully. Predictable.

Blagojevichgate, the Obamathug's pre-inauguration scandal, will not rest.

President-elect Barack-O-bama Exonerates Self, Staff on Blagojevichgate

“Listen closely. I am only going to say this once. I ... have ... never ... had direct contacts with that corrupt governor, Mr. Blagojevich,” BarackO said while jabbing his finger at the press corps.

Alrighty, then.

Government Bailout: Cash Cow for Congressional Liberal Democrats

“[New York Senator Chuck Schumer] is serving the parochial interest of a very small group of financial people, bankers, investment bankers, fund managers, private equity firms, rather than serving the general public. It has hurt the American investor first and the average American taxpayer.”

-- John C. Bogle, the founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group.

“If you get Chuck Schumer on your side, you are O.K."

-- Lee A. Pickard, a corporate lawyer whose business clients have lined Shumer's and other Senate Democrats' campaign pockets in order to beat back regulatory initiatives


December 14, 2008

A Chamption of Wall St. Reaps the Benefits
By Eric Lipton and Raymond Hernandez

“We are not going to rest until we change the rules, change the laws and make sure New York remains No. 1 for decades on into the future.”

— Senator Charles E. Schumer, referring to financial regulations, Jan. 22, 2007

WASHINGTON — As the financial crisis jolted the nation in September, Senator Charles E. Schumer was consumed. He traded telephone calls with bankers, then became one of the first officials to promote a Wall Street bailout. He spent hours in closed-door briefings and a weekend helping Congressional leaders nail down details of the $700 billion rescue package.

The next day, Mr. Schumer appeared at a breakfast fund-raiser in Midtown Manhattan for Senate Democrats. Addressing Henry R. Kravis, the buyout billionaire, and about 20 other finance industry executives, he warned that a bailout would be a hard sell on Capitol Hill. Then he offered some reassurance: The businessmen could count on the Democrats to help steer the nation through the financial turmoil.

“We are not going to be a bunch of crazy, anti-business liberals,” one executive said, summarizing Mr. Schumer’s remarks. “We are going to be effective, moderate advocates for sound economic policies, good responsible stewards you can trust.”

The message clearly resonated. The next week, executives at firms represented at the breakfast sent in more than $135,000 in campaign donations.

Senator Schumer plays an unrivaled role in Washington as beneficiary, advocate and overseer of an industry that is his hometown’s most important business.

An exceptional fund raiser — a “jackhammer,” someone who knows him says, for whom “ ‘no’ is the first step to ‘yes,’ ” — Mr. Schumer led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the last four years, raising a record $240 million while increasing donations from Wall Street by 50 percent. That money helped the Democrats gain power in Congress, elevated Mr. Schumer’s standing in his party and increased the industry’s clout in the capital.

And, if you are not disgusted yet, here's more ...

Mr. Schumer became a magnet for campaign donations from wealthy industry executives, including Jamie Dimon, now the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase; John J. Mack, the chief executive at Morgan Stanley; and Charles O. Prince III, the former chief executive of Citigroup. And he was not at all reluctant to ask them for more.

Donors describe the Schumer pitch as unusually aggressive: He calls repeatedly to suggest breakfast or dinner, coffee or cocktails. He enlists intermediaries to invite prospects to events and recruits several senators to tag along. And he presses for the maximum contribution — “I need you to max out,” he is known to say — then follows up by asking that a donor’s spouse and four or five friends write checks, too.

“He was probably the kid that sold the most candy in grade school,” said Julie Domenick, a Democratic lobbyist who has given to the senatorial campaign committee. “He is not shy.”

Mr. Schumer, in the interview, acknowledged his full-speed-ahead approach. “Any job I do, I work hard at and I try to succeed at,” he said.

As a result, he has collected over his career more in campaign contributions from the securities and investment industry than any of his peers in Congress, with the exception of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzed federal data. (By 2005, Mr. Schumer had so much cash in reserve that he shut down his fund-raising efforts.)

Liberals have found a way to market themselves as pro-business while reaping millions of dollars in campaign contributions from business interests. Shame on businesspeople who grease the palms of disgusting politicians like Chuckie Schumer in order to secure taxpayer money to prop up their failing enterprises. Read the entire piece to find out how Schumer has worked to actually deregulate the financial industry.

This bailout scheme turned out to be nothing less than a shakedown operation on the American taxpayer courtesy of the Democratic Party. Schumer, Barack "The Fraud" Obama, Chris "Sweetheart Bank of America/Countrywide Mortgage Deal" Dodd and Barney "I Had No Idea My Lover Was Running a Male Prostitution Ring Out of Basement of My Town Home" Frank of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mack infamy, along with every other Congressional Democrat who has opposed regulation of businesses that contribute to their campaigns, are principally responsible for the economic mess in which we are - not "the invisible hand of the marketplace" as intellectually dishonest liberals claim.

What Did Obamagojevich Know and When Did He Know It?

December 12, 2008

Obama to Detail Any Staff Talks on Senate Seat
By SUSAN SAULNY and MONICA DAVEY

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama pledged Thursday to disclose any interaction between his transition team and the office of besieged Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, while declaring again that he and his staff had no involvement in deal-making over an appointment to his vacated Senate seat.

Federal officials also acknowledged that a grand jury was weighing evidence in the case against Mr. Blagojevich, though the timing of any indictment was unclear. Mr. Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes in a case that involved, among other things, accusations that he had sought to put Mr. Obama’s seat in the Senate up for sale.

In a rare firsthand account of how Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, went about the selection process, an Illinois state senator said in an interview that he had felt pressured to respond to the governor’s interest in him with a quid pro quo agreement and has withdrawn his name because of increasing wariness about the process.

The state senator, Kwame Raoul, who represents the South Side of Chicago, offered few details of his interaction with the governor’s office but said he received a call about a month ago confirming that he was under consideration. Soon afterward, however, Mr. Raoul said he ran head-on into another message: that the governor was looking for a candidate who offered something of tangible value to him.

“It was open knowledge among people in and around Springfield,” Mr. Raoul said. “Legislators and lobbyists alike openly talked about the fact that the governor would want to appoint somebody who would benefit him. I can firmly say that I’ve had these conversations, that I’ve spoken with both legislators and lobbyists who felt that that would be the consideration in his appointment.”

Mr. Raoul would not specifically say what the content of the conversations were, or whom they were with, except that the initial inquiry from the governor’s office was made by Victor Roberson, deputy director for intergovernmental affairs. Interest in his candidacy died on both sides, Mr. Raoul said, adding, “Obviously, the perception was that I didn’t have anything to give other than my service.”

Mr. Blagojevich did not respond to interview requests Thursday and made no public statements, and his lawyer did not return telephone calls. Pressure to resign continued to build, even as he worked from his downtown Chicago office to address, a spokeswoman said, the state’s $2 billion budget gap.

At a news conference in Washington, Mr. Obama said he had asked his team to “gather the facts of any contacts” with Mr. Blagojevich’s office so he could share them “over the next few days.”

Mr. Obama added that he was appalled and disappointed by what he read in the federal wiretap transcripts contained in the sprawling criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich, which included profanities and other references about the president-elect.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, has said Mr. Obama was not implicated in the investigation.

“What I want to do,” Mr. Obama said, “is gather all the facts about any staff contacts that I might — may have — that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor’s office.

“But what I’m absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I’m absolutely certain of.”

At first, Obamagojevich said there were absolutely no contacts between his office and the Illinois governor's, now he wants to "gather the facts" about "staff contacts" that "[he] might or "may have" taken place. It's like Watergate: the cover up is worse than the crime.

Corruption: Obamastlye

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (above) and his chief of staff were arrested yesterday as a result of a federal corruption probe where Blagojevich is believed to have sought financial advantages in exchange for Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate Seat.

"I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."

-- President-elect Barack Obama during yesterday's press conference when asked about what contacts he had had with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich regarding his U.S Senate replacement

"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."

-- Obama's senior campaign advisor David Axelrod on November 28, 2008, during an interview on Fox News Chicago. Axelrod now claims he "misspoke" during the interview and there were no contacts between Obama and Blagojevich regarding the issue of Obama's Senate replacement.

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor."

-- FBI's Chicago office special agent Robert Grant on the Blagojevich probe

Blagojevich arrested; Fitzgerald calls it a 'political corruption crime spree'

By Jeff Coen, Rick Pearson and David Kidwell
Tribune staff reporters

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a "political corruption crime spree" that included attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich and Harris were named in a federal criminal complaint that alleged a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy aimed at providing financial benefits to the governor, his political fund and to his wife, First Lady Patricia Blagojevich.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody by FBI agents at his North Side home Tuesday morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.

The arrests dealt a tumultuous blow to Illinois government, at once raising questions about the leadership of the state and the fate of the open Senate seat—which the governor alone has the power to fill under the state law.

The allegations against Blagojevich provide a sharp contrast to a Democratic governor who campaigned for office promising reforms in the wake of disgraced, scandal-tainted Republican chief executive George Ryan. The complaint against Blagojevich comes little more than two years after Ryan was sentenced to 61/2 years in prison on federal corruption charges.

Obama hasn't even been inaugurated yet and the scandals are already a part of his future administration. The president-elect was quick to distance himself from Blagojevich by claiming he had not contacts with the Illinois governor about his former U.S. Senate seat and chanting the usual mantra of not commenting on an ongoing investigation. Right.

Earlier this year, Obama's chief campaign strategist David "Dr. Frankenstein" Axelrod said that his boss and Illinois Governor Blagojevich had been talking about the senate seat replacement.

Yesterday Axelrod changed his story and claims that he "mispoke" regarding "direct" contacts between Obama and Blagojevich about the Illinois Senate vacancy. Uh-huh. Sure.

This thing with Blagojevich stinks and there is a waft of it around the "Office of the President-elect." Moribund mainstream media types are bending over backwards to exonerate Obama instead of "letting the facts come out." It's Clinton all over again, only Black this time.

We are sure to hear the predictable criticism of the "guilt by association" charges. But when someone consistently associates with the guilty (radical/racist preachers, indicted slumlords, unrepentant domestic terrorists, and corrupt governors), you've got to wonder about his claims of innocence.

Promises, Promises

"I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier. And I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House."

-- President-elect Barack Obama, today, on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his smoking addiction.


Obama pledges not to smoke in White House
Dec 7, 12:47 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama says you won't catch him lighting up a cigarette in the smoke-free White House.

"There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," the president-elect said when asked in a broadcast interview whether he has kicked the habit.

"I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier," he said. "And I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House," he said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC.

Obama told the magazine Men's Health in an interview for its November issue that he wished he had more time for staying fit and that he still occasionally smoked a cigarette.

Obama said in that interview that he had bummed a cigarette a couple of times during the campaign. "But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack," he said.

I wonder what else Obama is planning to cut himself a little slack once he is sworn in as president.

Palin Power!

"We had John McCain and Mike Huckabee and Gov. Romney and Rudy Giuliani, but Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite. We packed the houses everywhere we went. And it really did allow us to peak and get our base fired up."

-- Re-elected Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss on how Alaska Governor Sarah Palin put him over the top


Chambliss: Palin 'allowed us to peak'

By ANDY BARR 12/3/08 10:20 AM EST

Fresh off his runoff victory Tuesday night, Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss credited Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with firing up his base.

“I can't overstate the impact she had down here,” Chambliss said during an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News.

“When she walks in a room, folks just explode,” he added. “And they really did pack the house everywhere we went. She's a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she's got a great future in the Republican Party.”

Chambliss said that after watching her campaign on his behalf at several events Monday, he does not see her star status diminishing within the party.

The Republican also thanked John McCain and the other big name Republicans that came to Georgia, but said Palin made the biggest impact.

Just when you thought liberals couldn't hate Sarah Palin more than they do, her uncanny ability to energize the conservative base of the Republican Party has denied liberal Democrats a filibuster-proof senate majority. Go Sarah!

Saxby Chambliss Wins GA Senate Seat: Liberal Dem Senate Majority DOA

“You have delivered tonight a strong message to the world that conservative Georgia values matter. You have delivered a message that a balance of government in Washington is necessary, and that’s not only what the people of Georgia want but what the people of America want.”

-- Saxby Chambliss, after winning reelection after today's Georgia senate runoff election.


December 3, 2008
Republican Wins Runoff for Senator in Georgia
By ROBBIE BROWN and CARL HULSE

ATLANTA — Saxby Chambliss, a first-term Republican senator, was re-elected by Georgia voters on Tuesday in a substantial victory, ending Democratic hopes for a 60-vote majority in the Senate that would make it difficult for Republicans to filibuster the Obama administration’s legislative agenda.

With 96 percent of the state’s precincts reporting in the runoff election, Mr. Chambliss had 57.5 percent of the vote, and his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin, 42.5 percent. The margin was far greater than the three percentage points that separated the two men in the Nov. 4 election, when neither won the required 50 percent. Many of the Democrats who turned out last month in enthusiastic support of Barack Obama apparently did not show up at the polls on Tuesday.

“For a lot of African-American voters, the real election was last month,” said Merle Black, an expert in Southern politics at Emory University. “The importance of electing the first African-American president in history generated enormous enthusiasm. Everything else was anticlimactic.”

A little more than two million people voted in the runoff, compared with 3.7 million on Nov. 4. In heavily black Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, Mr. Martin’s vote was less than half what it was in the earlier election. Only 9.2 percent of registered Georgians cast early votes in the runoff, compared with 36 percent in the general election.

Mr. Chambliss, 65, a pro-business conservative, campaigned in the runoff on a platform of limiting Mr. Obama’s ability to pass legislation in a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Calling himself the “41st senator,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters in his victory speech that the runoff was the first race of 2010, signaling a new wind for Republicans.

The NY Times is going out of its way to poopoo Chambliss's key senate victory: Blacks didn't show up, the election was anti-climatic, fewer people voted in today's runoff election than on November 4, wah wah wah. What a blow to U.S. Senate Dems and libs everywhere.

Senator Norm Coleman's looming victory over Al Frankenporn will be the frosting on the cake.