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| Home Front: Politix |
| Blagojevich's Big Conference Call and Valerie Jarrett's Clean Break |
| 2008-12-11 |
| Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 29, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos, journalists and others in Washington. It was a marathon conference call on Monday, Nov. 10. The call lasted about two hours. On the phone were Mr. Blagojevich, his wife, his general counsel, an unnamed adviser, and John Harris, the governor's chief of staff and his co-defendant in this week's case. But what's drawing the most interest is who was on the line from Washington, and the sequence of political events that followed that same night and in the ensuing days regarding Barack Obama's close friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett. According to the FBI, there were "various Washington, D.C., based advisers" on the call with Mr. Blagojevich & Co., although the Washington callers are not named. The FBI also said participants popped on and off the line throughout the conversation. During the call, Mr. Blagojevich and those closest to him allegedly detailed virtually every one of their ideas for turning Mr. Obama's open Senate seat into something valuable. Specifically, the governor asked "what he can get from the President-elect for the Senate seat," the FBI alleged, adding later that callers talked about how to "monetize" Mr. Blagojevich's connections. Mr. Blagojevich also bemoaned what he called his financial struggles, although his post reportedly pays about $177,000 per year. "The immediate challenge," the governor allegedly said, "[is] how do we take some of the financial pressure off of our family." Callers discussed the possibility of ambassadorships, which are made by the president. They talked about an appointment for Mr. Blagojevich as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, also made by the president. They explored the idea of getting Mr. Obama to use his clout to put the governor's wife on corporate boards. And they discussed a deal involving the Service Employee International Union, which would be asked to install Mr. Blagojevich over one of its top political groups in exchange for the union getting to tell Mr. Obama that it was delivering the open U.S. Senate seat to his favorite candidate. That candidate, Mr. Blagojevich believed, was Valerie Jarrett, according to sources familiar with this part of the probe. There is no inference that Mr. Obama knew about or encouraged any of this alleged scheming, and he has explicitly denied it. But the big question is today is this: Were any members of his transition team among the "Washington advisers" on the line during this marathon conference call, or did one of the participants fill them in about these wild ideas? Mr. Obama's people are not commenting on details about the case. But the reason that question is on so many minds today is because of what happened that very same Monday night. At 7:56 p.m. Eastern Time, CNN reported that "two Democratic sources close to President-elect Barack Obama tell CNN that top adviser Valerie Jarrett will not be appointed to replace him in the U.S. Senate." That was an abrupt turnaround. While we can't vouch for CNN's reportage, the network had reported that same weekend that Ms. Jarrett was Mr. Obama's top choice. (Ms. Jarrett herself confirmed that she was out of contention two days after it was reported by CNN, and two days after the marathon conference call. She told the PBS show The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, "Well, you know what? I`m actually not interested in the Senate position.") At a bare minimum, the timing of Team Obama's decision to remove Ms. Jarrett's name from contention, or at least to remove her name from the public speculation about the post, seems extraordinarily lucky. It came on the very same day the FBI secretly recorded Mr. Blagojevich telling a huge conference call loaded with politicos, in Illinois and Washington, that he wasn't about to give Senate spot away for nothing. It's also the same recorded conversation in which Mr. Blagojevich uses an obscenity to refer to Mr. Obama, before the governor makes clear he won't give the president-elect the seat for free. "F-- him. For nothing? F-- him." Look for everyone to continue focusing on this call, and who from Washington was on the line. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 "And they discussed a deal involving the Service Employee International Union [SEIU]..." Hmmm...the SEIU? Now where have I heard of them before? Oh yeah...now I remember...they're the single largest financial donar to the Obama campaign. But I'm sure everything is on the up and up. I mean...Chicago...Unions...fawgettaboutit. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2008-12-11 19:37 |
| #5 the timing of Team Obama's decision to remove Ms. Jarrett's name from contention, or at least to remove her name from the public speculation about the post, seems extraordinarily lucky. Extraordinarily. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-12-11 14:34 |
| #4 Barry's wife isn't in the news much of late. No interviews, comments, publicity. Do I hear something ticking? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-11 12:52 |
| #3 NS - that's the exact unanswered question I've had, and I live here and have yet to see a detailed reply. Most of the commentary echoes USA Fitzgerald's comment that the crime was imminent, and part of a "spree" that had to be stopped. What I wonder is if anyone has looked at the Gov's schedule for Tues. morning - recalling that he met with Jesse Jr. Monday afternoon, and the feds showed up at 6 am the next day - was the announcement set for a few hours later? Or - did Fitz feel he had enough info on the Gov., and wanted to freeze everyone else in place and make them race in to see him and confess before they got ratted out by the others in on the dealings? I trust Fitz that the Tribune forced his hand to some extent (and all properly done as an aggressive news outlet) and the time to strike was opportune before the defenses were built by all the others aside from the Gov.. |
| Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2008-12-11 12:44 |
| #2 I'm more interested in why the arrest was made when it was. Blago had not yet done anything really bad. And he can claim he was exaggerating, his staff knew to discount his rants, they were just bounding ideas around. But all they've got is stuff like conspiracy, soliciting, etc. The same kind of soft core crime they got on Martha Stewart, Frank Quattrone, etc. Why didn't they let him cut a deal and then bust him? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-12-11 11:15 |
| #1 "Mr. Blagojevich uses an obscenity to refer to Mr. Obama" At least he didn't threaten the family jewels. Cause he knew Jesse has called dibs on that. Nice to know that Bambalooza is so highly regarded be his fellow criminals. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-12-11 10:44 |