Obama Team Releases Blago Report
The Obama transition team has now released its much-awaited internal report on staff contacts with Rod Blagojevich and his own office, saying that members of the transition team did not behave improperly.
The report confirms one thing that has been widely reported -- that Rahm Emanuel did speak to Rod Blagojevich's chief of staff John Harris about a list of acceptable candidates for Obama's Senate seat. But beyond that it makes very clear that no sort of corrupt deal was ever discussed:
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.
Beyond that, the report says that neither Barack Obama himself, nor Valerie Jarrett or David Axelrod had any conversations with Blago or his staff about the Senate seat.
The report also gets into Obama friend Eric Whitaker, saying he had a conversation shortly after the election with a Blagojevich aide, who wanted to know who spoke for Obama on the Senate seat:
The President-Elect told Dr. Whitaker that no one was authorized to speak for him on the matter. The President-Elect said that he had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process, and he would not do so, either directly or indirectly through staff or others. Dr. Whitaker relayed that information to Deputy Governor Peters.
Late Update: Another key nugget from the report is that Obama has spoken to the feds about this, in addition to Jarrett and Rahm.
We finally are going to have an adminsitration which is willing to impose some levels of transparency.
But something tells me the media are not going to give up, after all unemployment is yet to hit double digits and far fewer bankruptcy and wall-street fraud deaths have happened.
Also, we are just in two wars, not sufficient to distract the media from focusing on this case which will determine our national fate.
Let me know if any children were molested, mutilated and killed. Then may I will take an eye-off from this story for a day or two.
December 23, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'm glad this matter is settled.
/snark
December 23, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
This report is BORING.
December 23, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............
December 23, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I cried when Dumbledore died at the end.
December 23, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The best part was when the terrorists had Obama imprisoned in a cave, and he used his inventing skills to make a high tech suit of armor that could fly, also!
December 23, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Blago aide does a scouting mission and reaches out to back channel Obama friend, friend goes to Obama who tells friend that no one speaks for him but himself and has no interest in getting involved with Blago swamp, where back channel communication goes back to Blago back channel surrogate.
Blago aide had natural conversations with Rahm about acceptable candidates but with no biting from the bait, for no bait offered.
Parlor game coming to an end, press needs to find new parlor game.
December 23, 2008 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Press will put Rahm Emanuel front and center. That's what they know, that's what they do for a living.
This story is so much more easy than investigating war crimes or economic fraud. Those stories or too complex and soooooo not good for ratings.
I hope the economic crisis tanks a network or two, I would then call the market correcting itself.
December 23, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
But what part did Bill Ayers play in this?
December 23, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't you read the part where Rev.Wright says "God Damn Bill Ayers" for being a liason?
December 23, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh yes, I see it now! I was relieved to read further and see that Rick Warren helped them to resolve their differences!
December 23, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
And what about his golf handicap?
December 23, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
These sound like perfect witnesses for the defense in the case of The People vs. Gov Blagojevich.
December 23, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have had more friends email me shirtless Obama pics than any news about Blago.
Blago is a ZZZZZZZ
Shirtless Obama is an OOOOO!
December 23, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
That photo scares me to death. How the hell did a photographer get that close to Obama? Where the hell was the Secret Service? Obama is just too important to our future to leave exposed. I hope somebody catches hell, but after the shoe throwing incident last week I wonder the head of the Secret Service has a real fire in his belly.
December 23, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Transparency in government = reassuring, but boring reports
Transparency in Obama attire = not reassuring, but interesting photos
December 23, 2008 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention... Woof!
:-)
December 24, 2008 7:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
The photographer was on the beach 200 feet from Obama and used his photolens. It is a public beach so the SS did not make a big issue of it.
December 23, 2008 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would you folks accept in-house Bush Administration findings saying that they did nothing wrong? I'm certainly not saying that I think Obama and staff did anything wrong, but in-house investigations are not going to appease the MSM and GOP wingnuts.
December 23, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a point. Limbaugh et al will be calling for a special prosecutor. Perhaps Mukasey can get Ken Starr to tackle this after he finishes defending Prop 8 : : :
December 23, 2008 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course not
But the good news is that Fitzgerald has said that the Obama team has done nothing wrong and he is the Federal Investigator. If Fitzgerald saw a hint of a problem than he would have said so and he has cleared the Obama team (remember he has the wiretaps).
The MSM can go on and on but people will just tune out because people are REALLY worried about the economy.
December 23, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately the conservatards abhor Fitzgerald because of the Libby prosecution. So the word of the Fitz will not be good enough for them.
But fuck the conservatards - let them waste their time and energy on this while 77% of the population ignores them!
December 23, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, this scandalette hits the wall when the Obama report gee-haws perfectly with what Fitzgerald says.
December 23, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is that both the tapes and the prosecutor have exonerated Obama already. The only reason Obama released this report at all was because of the "Unanswered Questions, Troubling Questions that Remained" which required Obama to speak to the details.
"Obama must come clean!"
So now, he has released a report which details every contact he or his staff had. Combine this with the indictment which cleared Obama and his staff on day one, and you can clearly see what bullshit this all is.
At this point, the press is exposed as pure scandal mongers since no reasonable person could expect anything more from the guy, short of Vishnu coming down from the sky and saying "HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, YOU MORONS!"
December 23, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, this does allow the MSM to move from "Why isn't Obama telling us anything?" to "Psshawww...who cares what they have to say? Of course they're going to say they did nothing wrong."
December 23, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
(Yawn) as i expect the Obama transition team did nothing wrong, this measly report was not needed. However, the a$$e$ in the MSM wanted this report and they got it, I hope they can move on.
December 23, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where in the report does it say that "Obama has spoken to the feds about this..."
The closet things I could find is on page 1 where it says "These accounts were communicated to the Office of the United Sates Attorney..." It doesn't say by whom, does it?
December 23, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, damned, am I an idiot. It's there in black and white. Shucks, it only took me thrre readings.
Doh.
December 23, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well it doesn't say if Michelle, or Sascha or Mahlia (sp) spoke with Blago or one of his aides...
Seriously, you would think this would put all the idle speculation to bed, but our media is bored and they are LOOKING for something to be wrong.
December 23, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Call me cynical, but I'm with Digby on this one -- it's over when the press says it's over and not until then. The press is falling back into their Bill Clinton bashing habits very easily it seems. The thing is, behaving in this way validates the media's sense of itself as players. The fact that the internal report clears Obama and his people just proves there's something to hide, don't you know? So, while I hope the folks here who think this is a big snooze are right, I wouldn't bet on it. As Digby shows, the narratives are already being spun.
December 23, 2008 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I mean, why would you need a report to clear someone if there wasn't something negative to accuse them of in the first place? The RNC should follow through by running advertisements starring men in hard hats asking Obama to explain his relationship with Blagojevich further.
December 23, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it all pretty scoopy that, according to Eric Kleefeld -Valarie Jarrett, Rahm Emmanuel, David Alexrod, and Barack Obama, have a scoop to investigate, along with Rod Blagojevich. I would also agree with Eric Kleefeld that Norm Coleman probably has a pretty decent shot at being re-elected to the Senate in Minnesota.
Congratulations, Talking Points Memo, Election Central! You certainly rival the scoopiest blog of all, Politico, in getting two scoops of scoopy political speculation, with each and every post.
December 23, 2008 9:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the hell did you just say? If you are going to be cutesy, at least make sense . . .
December 24, 2008 2:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hate sleazy pols as much as anybody, and I know Blago is a dumb asshole whom Illinoisans have come to despise for good reason, but is he really guilty of anything more than talking some stupid BS on the phone (which isn't illegal)? I'm really sensing overzealous-prosecutor syndrome here.
December 24, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Fitzgerald had some real concern that the Governor was going to move forward and try to make a deal for the Senate seat. Fitzgerald was willing to risk his case to prevent the Governor from sealing the deal, moving early to expose what was happening.
Blagojevich has been under investigation for almost five years. The potential sale of the Senate seat was only one of several aspects of the investigation. I have little doubt that the US Attorney has more to build his overall case.
December 24, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama parses things carefully: Harris sought no personal benefit for Blago. Recall that one of Blago's proposed schemes was that he would get the new Administration to help the unions who would then grant Blago a lucrative post. So we need to know whether Blago sought favors for the unions in these discussions about the Senate seat.
December 27, 2008 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink