Are you surpised? I mean really man, come on. Are you surprised? In an American environment where everything is up for sale at any given moment, are you surprised that now troubled Illino
is Governor Rod Blagojevich sought to sell his ability to open Obama’s open senate seat? Are you surprised that Jesse Jackson Jr.’s camp decided to find out ways to pull a couple cool million together to make it so?
Personally, I am not. Bribes, AKA greasing the wheel, AKA loaded palm handshakes have been around well, hell, they have been around I suppose since cavemen started jocking for position by the fire. Note: Grug the cro-magnon pulling Grunta the fire keeper behind home rock and giving him that pterodactyl leg. According to sources:
“Raghu said he needed to raise a million for Rod to make sure Jesse got the seat,” an unidentified source who attended the meeting told the Tribune. Blagojevich also attended the meeting, which was sponsored by Nayak, an Oak Brook businessman. – (Source – Yahoo News, 12.12.08 – Link Below)
What I am surprised with however is that more of these events don’t get exposed. Unfortunately in American we have a Deification / Demonization approach to our political figures. This, I think, is a result of us as Americans being forced into the playdo mold of the two party system. So if they are on our team (AKA the Palinites overlooking her vivid hypocrisy and the Obamites thinking he will save the universe Luke Skywalker style) they can do no wrong. It is only until the dramatic such as the requested bribe, the foot tapping under the stall, the hooker coming clean that our deification of those on “our team” forces us to humanize them.
Hopefully Jesse Jackson Jr. is cleared. It seems (in my cynical view) that he must have done enough to have “plausible deniability” so we will see. But damn! When are we as Americans going to wake up and really look at our political machine?
Others Talking About It:
Source Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_on_re_us/illinois_governor_jackson
After listening to various reports about JJ Jr.’s involvement, I’m beginning to think this Blagojevich character is very narcissistic; so much so that he may have made up JJ Jr’s involvement in his pay to play scenario. I think JJ Jr’s biggest mistake was not to run fast enough away from Blagojevich, and Jarret (Obama’s choice and candidate #1) did.
Or maybe I’m just naïve.
By: t-shirts101 on December 13, 2008
at 3:38 pm
and Jarret did = as Jarret did.
By: t-shirts101 on December 13, 2008
at 3:39 pm
I hope he doesn’t (Jr.) get caught up in this guys wake.
Here is a bigger question though. If this cat was as brazen as he has been to open up a bidding war for the senate seat, what other stuff has he been involved in?
By: Deus Ex Machina on December 15, 2008
at 3:01 pm
We’ll find out in much the same way we will learn some new, stratling, unknown “truths” about the Bush administration… after many of the key players have died, and some author who may feel safe from retribution publishes a book.
By: t-shirts101 on December 15, 2008
at 3:35 pm
Looks like another case of coitus interruptus for the Rethugly sockthuckers masturbatory glee at the opportunity to bring another elected black official down -
Jackson has been fighting for his reputation since the federal complaint revealed his supporters were willing to raise money for the governor, if Jackson was appointed to the Senate.
The new information appears to support Jackson’s claim that he was not involved in a scheme to buy a U.S. Senate seat.
ABC7 has learned that since late last summer, the congressman has worked with federal prosecutors, informing on an alleged Blagojevich administration scheme two and half years earlier.
The meeting in June of 2006 at a Gold Coast hotel included Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
The topic was a proposed third airport at Peotone, Jackson’s pet project which needed more state money. Rezko allegedly demanded that the governor be given control of the airport’s board. Jackson refused and state support for the project stopped.
Then last summer, weeks after Rezko was found guilty of un-related corruption, the U.S. Attorney’s Office interviewed the congressman as a possible witness against the governor in the Peotone matter.
And sources tell ABC7 that Jackson has been in regular contact with the feds and has told the government that in 2003 Blagojevich denied the congressman’s wife Sandi an appointment as Illinois lottery director because Jackson would not donate $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund.
Hours before Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested, Jackson says prosecutors gave him a ‘courtesy call’ to let him know he was mentioned in the criminal complaint.
The U.S. attorney may have been referring to Jackson when he issued a warning to reporters last week.
“There may be people who had no idea what was going on…who had no idea they were being discussed,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney. “We ask that the press in particular not cast aspersions. This complaint is only about the two people who were charged.”
A U.S. attorney’s spokesman said of Jackson’s role months ago in the Blagojevich case: “We don’t confirm or deny the contacts. We have consistently refused to comment on the status of any individual not charged in this investigation.”
Jackson supporters ABC7 talked to on Monday want the U.S. attorney to give the congressman a clean bill of health so to speak.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6557529
This has yet to be confirmed (unsurprisingly by the folks who let the Dick get away with treason in outing Plame) by the Feds…
But BT feels that one of the Inauguration activities should include a public tar and feathering of the outgoing Rethugly Administration on the mall in recompense for bringing the country so low.
By: BT on December 16, 2008
at 6:18 pm
You know I agree with you. It seems like some folks have a terrible fetish for tearing down politicians, particularly of the black type. Yet when all of this dramatic fraud is occurring people seem to yawnnnnnnn….as if it isn’t sexy enough.
By: Deus Ex Machina on December 16, 2008
at 9:04 pm