* I overslept this morning (either I slept through my alarm or it didn’t go off), so everything is running way, way behind schedule. There will be a late version of Capitol Fax for subscribers, but for now here’s my Sun-Times column…
‘The idea that Rahm Emanuel would be in the house gym . . . lobbying another congressman whether he had clothes on or not is the reason I wanted him to cut the deal to make the attorney general a senator in exchange for jobs, health care and no taxes,” Rod Blagojevich said earlier this week on WLS-AM.
As ever, Blagojevich was babbling about pure fantasy. The former governor was referring to his claimed plan to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat back in 2008, right before he was arrested by the FBI for, among other things, allegedly trying to sell that seat to the highest bidder.
The impeached and ousted governor has used this Madigan cover story over and over to “prove” that he wasn’t trying to sell Obama’s seat.
A few days after a newspaper story appeared in December 2008 that Blagojevich was being wiretapped by the feds, I received a tip from a top source that Blagojevich was seriously talking about appointing Lisa Madigan. But let’s back up a bit.
The day before that wiretap story ran, Blagojevich was caught on federal recordings attempting to speed up a deal to appoint U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to Obama’s seat in exchange for something “tangible upfront.”
“Some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now, right now, and we gotta see it. You understand?” Blagojevich instructs an aide to tell a Jackson intermediary. He then added an ominous warning: “You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody’s listening, the whole world is listening. You hear me?”
The day the story ran, wiretap transcripts show that Blagojevich tried to hide some of his dirty deeds, ordering an aide to “undo” the Jackson deal. (Jackson has not been charged with anything.)
Blagojevich knew he was under the gun, so I believe he concocted the Lisa Madigan appointment to give himself an alibi. He could then say that he wasn’t trying to sell a Senate seat, he was just trying to do what was best for the state.
Blagojevich has often pointed to the plan as a way to bring peace to Illinois politics. He and both Madigans — Lisa and her father, speaker of the House Mike Madigan — feuded for years. They totally despised one another. Blagojevich says the idea was to use the appointment to break loose his long-stalled (by Speaker Madigan) multibillion-dollar capital construction bill and his universal health-care proposal.
Balderdash.
First, Speaker Madigan hadn’t returned Blagojevich’s calls in months and wouldn’t even sit in the same room with him during closed-door legislative meetings. Madigan wouldn’t pass a $30 billion capital bill because he was worried that Blagojevich would try to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down. The universal health-care bill included a gigantic tax increase on businesses that Madigan staunchly opposed.
Attorney General Madigan was widely known to loathe the man she had been investigating for years until she turned over the case to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. And she had no interest in the Senate.
In other words, there’s absolutely no chance that this Lisa Madigan appointment deal could’ve been pulled off.
The impossibility of closing such a deal wouldn’t have meant much to Blagojevich if he was looking to establish an alibi, however. He could’ve just announced his decision with great fanfare and the federal case against him might have been undermined.
The FBI knocked on his door one cold December morning before he had a chance to make everything public, but that hasn’t stopped him from peddling this nonsense ever since. As usual with this guy, don’t believe a word.
- Lincoln Parker - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 8:51 am:
Good article Rich, I think this whole thing is fascinating. I heard awhile back that the reason they arrested him early on that particular morning, while they were still building the case was because he and JJJ were going to appear at an press conference together about some unrelated topic, and the feds were worried he would announce he was appointing JJJ then. Has anyone else heard this?
- train111 - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:21 am:
Rich
Don’t be hard on yourself for not responding to the alarm clock. Given the hangover anybody would have after hearing RRB’s blathering, you have to cut yourself some slack.
train111
- "Stupid is as stupid does" - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:22 am:
Blagojevich is prepared to throw many individuals under the bus before, during after this freak show of trial.
- Moving to Oklahoma - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:36 am:
Maybe Rod is telling the truth.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:37 am:
And when has he ever done that?
- dupage dan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:42 am:
@Moving to Oklahoma,
Why haven’t you left yet?
- GetOverIt - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:45 am:
Who really knows? The Feds jumped in way to earlier by arresting Blago before the proverbial trigger was pulled. They should have waited out the appointment until fruition. At which point we’d have two and possibly more indictments. This is just messy…messy…messy…messy
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:52 am:
Madigan isn’t involved, but Jackson is. Jackson staged an elaborate public hoax, remember?
Who campaigns around the state for an gubernatorially appointed position? No one ever did that until Jesse Jackson Jr. did in 2008 after Obama’s election. For those of us aware of how preposterous this faux statewide campaign was, the best reason we could think up was that Jackson was preparing for a statewide run in the future, and would see if he could look senatorial enough for Blagojevich for a possible Obama appointment.
But we didn’t know that it really was until a panicked Jackson gave his staggering deer-in-the-headlights-look press conference trying to wash his fingerprints off the whole affair after Blagojevich’s arrest. Remember how completely wierd Jackson’s presser was and how many gaps and holes were in his first story tellings? The Congressman didn’t know how much was going to be revealed, but recognized the need to start spinning before all the shoes fell. So he ended up with a very strange press conference, making a very strange nervous spectacle of himself.
Jackson and his team were staging a public hoax to cover for his Blagojevich appointment, a dog and pony show to defuse any bad appearances or questions of backroom dealings to get the appointment. It was an elaborate stunt that shows how far Jackson was willing to go, and how worried he was about appearing improper. Jackson knew better. He has enough political sense after a decade in Congress to realize what he was doing. And he knew it was wrong.
That is what galls me the most. If this corrupted US Congress just lets Jesse Jackson Jr. slide on this entire deal and public hoax, then Jackson wins and everyone else loses. I learned to like Jesse Jackson Jr, and I would like to continue supporting him, but he owes us all a honest explanation regarding his Blagojevich US Senate seat dealings. He’s been hoping that hiding for the past year would help, and it has. But I hope that The Impeached One will force Jackson to do the right thing and be honest with us. I know these people have to be ambitious. I know sometimes temptations are overpowering. But I want honesty most of all. I can forgive, but I cannot if the one I need to forgive, does not admit wrongdoing.
- Fed up - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 9:58 am:
Hmm who do you think the Feds were protecting by stopping the investigation before Blago got the final offers from the interested partys.
- dupage dan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:01 am:
one person claims incompetency, one person claims conspiracy. silly
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:03 am:
So Jackson’s statewide campaign to replace Obama was an act of incompetence? Are we saying that the Congressman didn’t know that it was up to the governor of Illinois, not voters, to choose Obama’s replacement? Jackson isn’t incompetent.
- dupage dan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:06 am:
Sorry VM, I was commenting on the brief posts by Fed up and GetOverIt, not your post. I didn’t clarify since your post hadn’t appeared on my screen yet.
- dupage dan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:09 am:
BTW, I agree with your post, VM. The evidence know so far shows that RB & JJJ were in the thick of it just prior to the whole wiretapping stuff being released. RB went to the LM defence and JJJ went to the press conf with his deer in the headlights look. The trial likely will clarify that episode. JJJ may not be out of the woods.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:13 am:
Sorry.
I just sensed that when this Jackson campaign first started, it got overlooked when the entire Blagojevich scandal blew up.
We were watching Jackson give an odd song and dance show until the feds busted in and grabbed Blagojevich. After all the excitement died down and Jackson skeedaddled off the stage and hid, we later learned he was involved. So, the explanation of that odd song and dance show becomes clearer.
Jackson took illogical actions that cannot be explained any other way except as some kind of Blagojevich excuse after the deal was done to whitewash the deal. If Blagojevich wasn’t arrested, Jackson could have gotten away with it, with guys like me wondering why he was stupid enough to do his little statewide campaign. Now it appears as a Jackson hoax.
A hoax on us.
Or does anyone else have a better explanation for Jackson’s statewide campaign bus tour for Obama’s seat? I’d like to hear it.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:18 am:
People, tone it down on Jackson, please. You’re getting too far ahead of the game here. Stop it. Thanks.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:42 am:
=== Hmm who do you think the Feds were protecting by stopping the investigation before Blago got the final offers from the interested partys. ===
The feds were protecting their own case, nothing else.
Once the wiretapping became public knowledge, it was clear to them that Rod was trying to use those same wiretaps to set up a sham defense for himself.
The Feds aren’t stupid.
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:43 pm:
How can a federal judge be expected to grant a trial extension for a defendant who claims not enough time to prepare when he is spending so much time out of state doing TV shows, radio shows and public appearances?
Unless the Supreme Court throwing out charges arguement wins out, I don’t think the extension could be granted.
- eager to move on - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:10 pm:
I agree with Phineas–the wheels of justice are moving a bit too slow for my tastes–and I’d hate to think that sweeps week and Joan Rivers have anything to do with delaying this State from putting this deeply humiliatnig episode behind us. Let’s move forward, bury the betrayers, raise the taxes, speak honestly and openly about the future pain and get on with it.