The buzz increases: the buses are circling Rahm

'
As I mentioned here on the 17th, I believed that Rahm Emanual, President-Elect Obama's Chief of Staff, would be thrown under a bus in an effort to deflect scrutiny from his own actions in the Blago mess.

Well, it looks like Obama may be circling the buses. Expect Rahm to be gone... and soon.

Senate-for-sale case threatens new chief of staff

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press Writers Brett J. Blackledge And Tammy Webber, Associated Press Writers – Sat Dec 20, 6:41 pm ET AP – In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, White House Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emanuel listens to President-elect … CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich is legendary in Illinois political circles for not picking up the phone or returning calls, even from important figures like the state's senior senator, Dick Durbin.

But there was always one call Blagojevich regularly took, say his aides, and that was from Rahm Emanuel — his congressman, his one-time campaign adviser and, more recently — and troubling for Emanuel — one of his contacts with President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff.

The friendly rapport Blagojevich and Emanuel shared over the years has suddenly become a troubling liability for Emanuel and the new president he will serve as chief of staff.

Emanuel and Obama have remained silent about what, if anything, Emanuel knew of the governor's alleged efforts to peddle Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Emanuel did contact the governor's office about the appointment and left Blagojevich with the impression that he was pushing Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama friend, so he wouldn't have to compete with her in the White House for Obama's attention, said a person close to Blagojevich. The person was not authorized to talk about the governor's discussions regarding the vacancy and requested anonymity.

AP – In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, White House Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emanuel listens to President-elect …

It was not clear whether Blagojevich inferred Emanuel's motive for advocating Jarrett, or whether Emanuel discussed the appointment with Blagojevich directly or with John Harris, the governor's then-chief of staff who also is charged in the case, according to the source.

Emanuel's refusal to discuss the matter publicly, and the few comments offered by Obama to date, have prompted questions about Emanuel's ties to Blagojevich and what fallout he'll face as the criminal case unfolds, although sources have said he is not a target of prosecutors. Even so, any hint of scandal for Emanuel threatens to tarnish Obama's promise of new political leadership free of scandal and corruption.

More:

Obama's AG pick Holder and HIS "Inconvenient Truth."

.

With no apologies to Al Gore, I picked up this little nugget via NW Republican as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times: It seems that Mr. Holder "forgot" his relationship with erstwhile seat-seller Gov. Blago (D-Illinois)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Another Obama appointee under Blagojevich cloud

Oh crap... Now Obama's choice as the "top cop" (Eric Holder) has storm clouds circling above him as well.

Read full Chicago Sun-Times story here.

Holder omitted Blagojevich link from questionnaire
Announced as a ‘special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board’ in 2004

Recommend (12) Comments
December 17, 2008

BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter/cfusco@suntimes.com

Before Eric Holder was President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be attorney general, he was Gov. Blagojevich's pick to sort out a mess involving Illinois' long-dormant casino license.

Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.

» Click to enlarge image
Eric Holder (right) appears at a March 24, 2004, news conference with Gov. Blagojevich. (AP file)

Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week -- an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama's transition team indicated late Tuesday.

"Eric Holder has given hundreds of press interviews," Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement. "He did his best to report them all to the committee, but as he noted in the questionnaire itself, some were undoubtedly missed in the effort to reconstruct a list of them."

More:

___________________________________________

Can this country stand an Attorney General with such a terrible memory? As I recall, past AG's with memory problems seemed to be objects of derision and scorn from the learned left. Will we hear the same when one of their own is so infected, or will their base hypocrisy rule the day as they maintain their thundering silence?

Thus continues the troubling and growing pattern of obfuscation. Why is this happening? I am increasingly concerned with such political ineptitude.

This guy Obama is SUPPOSED to be all that. Instead, he's showing the instincts of a board fence.

I'm already looking back with fondness on the relative political superiority of Rove compared to this player. Rove wouldn't have tolerated this kind of amateurish nonsense.

Clearly, Mr. Obama and his handlers are over their heads, as this boil on our Nation's butt continues to grow and fester.

Where will it end?

When will Obama toss Rahm Emanuel under a bus?

.
Look, we all remember the campaign... Obama's nonsensical handling of the Reverend Wright issue, tossing the good Rev, his own racist grandmother, and the "black community" under several buses. In short, Obama has no trouble sacrificing others in the name of political expediency; a curious yet undeniably successful tool he uses quite well to deflect attention from himself and on to others.

Well, the President-Elect hasn't even taken office, and we've seen the pattern of lies form from the beginning. In everything from his mysterious and bizarre responses to the issues surrounding his birth certificate up through his handling of the Blago debacle, this "Man of Transparency" has shown a level of opaqueness that comes straight out of the Richard Nixon playbook.

The latest? Rahm pit-yorkie Emanuel was, in fact (and contrary to Obama's incessant assertions) pressuring Blago to appoint one Valerie Jarrett to the seat Mr. Obama had vacated. (Jarett has since been named a Senior Advisor to Obama in the upcoming White House)

OK. We've already established the man has lied on this issue. At some point, one of two things are likely to happen, as I see it. Mr. Obama will have to act to cover his involvement in this matter... and make no mistake... he IS involved in this, either directly or indirectly... because the American people will have FINALLY awakened to what this man is.

Or, the people will continue to drink the kool aid and let this guy continue his rather dangerous course of saying he is one thing when his actions clearly show he's something quite different... and he continues in his role of the new opiate of the masses.

I believe the likely outcome of this is that Mr. Emanuel, who is allegedly on 21 different fed- taped conversations dealing with the very thing Obama has denied he or his people have dealt with, namely, Mr. Obama's replacement; will be sacrificed as something of a rogue element within the Obama transition team in an effort to, once again, deflect responsibility from Mr. Obama directly.

As more information comes out, Mr. Obama will have to stop dodging the questions. This astounding effort to avoid the issue; this direct violation of every promise he made on the campaign trail concerning the "transparency" thing... all of this will have to be dealt with some how. And I, for one, find Mr. Obama's increasing level of tone-deafness, his mishandling and bumbling of this relatively simple and straightforward issue to be rather frightening, in that, if he can screw this up to this level (and he has) how can we realistically expect this guy to handle the more minute issues confronting us, like terror, the Russians, that mental midget idiot running Venezuela, the whack job running Iran, our energy policies and on and on and on?

Nothing happening here instills confidence in me. Rezko's sentencing has been delayed, and that is certainly a troubling sign for the President-Elect. I stand by my prediction that in the end, Mr. Obama will be indicted for issues involving his political history in the Chicago machine.

If Mr. Obama were to actually live up to his promises, then he could actually become the greatest president in our history. But so far, he's starting out to look like Richard Nixon, part deux. Will the people stand for it?

Stay tuned.
.