The enemy of my enemy is my friend
Monday, Apr 30, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
For nearly a decade, Rod Blagojevich and his wife have aimed their message at the public, jurors and a collection of federal judges from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
As of this month, they are finally down to an audience of one: President Donald Trump.
But if they want to end the former governor’s 14-year prison sentence early, they’ll have to get Trump’s attention. To do so, Illinois’ former first lady and her husband’s supporters are already beginning to point toward two of Trump’s favorite targets:
Special Counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey.
“This same cast of characters that did this to my family are out there trying to do it to the president,” Patti Blagojevich told the Chicago Sun-Times in a phone interview.
There’s more, including Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Blagojevich and Scooter Libby. Trump recently pardoned Libby.
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:11 pm:
Patty, *you* did this to your family. You and Rod. There’s no one else to blame.
Which is much nicer than what I originally typed here.
- Langhorne - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:11 pm:
Shrewd. A long shot, but not implausible.
- Perrid - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:13 pm:
Well, flattery will get you everywhere with Trump, so I guess it’s worth a shot.
- wordslinger - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:15 pm:
Much stronger and more direct message from Patti B. than she delivered on the Tucker Comedy Hour. Still, she needs to incorporate “witch hunt” and “hoax” into her bit.
I’d add former FISA Judge Zagel to the mix, too, if you’re going the Deep State conspiracy route. The audience-of-one seems to believe in that sort of thing.
If you’re tossing a Hail Mary, you’ve got to let it fly.
- OneMan - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:22 pm:
Actually a very logical play on her part, offer up some ‘Rod has embarrassing stuff on Obama’ (even if he doesn’t), you have a real possibility here.
- Jocko - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:22 pm:
From the article, “[Trump] told my daughters that they should be proud of their father…he’s a good man.”
This contrasts Trumps axiom “I like people that weren’t captured”
- My New Handle - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:22 pm:
The abject desperation and lack of dignity Blagojevich and Patti have displayed since day one of his impeachment has always made me uncomfortable. But they are tenacious (sound familiar), and given the current moral compass direction in the White House, she is making a reasonable move.
- Aldyth - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:23 pm:
My honest response would require the use of language that would get me banned.
- siriusly - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:29 pm:
Good strategy. If I were Patti I would do the exact same thing, any smart strategist would also.
Trump is simple minded and easily manipulated. I see a possibility that this works and Blago will be home soon!
Merits of the case aside, his sentence was excessive.
- Bobby T - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:31 pm:
This actually seems like it’d be pretty straightforward for Patty and Rod. Just get on ‘Fox & Friends’ and flatter Trump and make it look like a pardon is a middle finger to X and Y (whoever X and Y might be) — and Trump would do it.
Trump is pretty easy to read. There’s not much complexity there — if any. Just flatter and flatter and flatter — and promise fealty — and Trump will, literally, do anything for anyone.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:32 pm:
As soon as Comey hired Fitz, I knew this play could work.
Pinning his only hope on Donald Trump seems like such a perfect Blagojevich plot twist. It is so absurd that it will almost certainly succeed.
We are living in strange times.
- blue dog dem - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:34 pm:
Free Blago.
- RNUG - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:37 pm:
I’ll give a Hail Mary pass a greater chance of success … but it is the only play left in the game book.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 1:37 pm:
===“This same cast of characters that did this to my family are out there trying to do it to the president,” Patti Blagojevich told the Chicago Sun-Times in a phone interview.
So she’s saying Trump is corrupt too? Because I’m having a hard time understanding that sentence otherwise.
- Downstate - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:17 pm:
Patty,
Your husband kept a nurse from returning to Illinois, because he didn’t like the state rep. that submitted the request.
Your husband wanted to delay help for a children’s hospital until he got a necessary campaign donation.
Your husband is morally flawed. He’s a bad actor. When he had the chance to show compassion, he was unable to do so. He couldn’t help a nurse. He couldn’t help sick children. There is no disputing those facts.
- bored now - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:32 pm:
rich, when you add a “like” button, you ought to include a “laugh” button for posts like this one…
- Stuntman Bob's Brother - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:35 pm:
Dr. Huxtable is already in the news making a veiled comparison between his own plight and Nelson Mandela’s. So Patti Inc. may as well go down the same road. Too bad Rod’s doing his time in a Colorado country club rather than the Birmingham Jail. Maybe if his band gets better than can do a reboot of Folsum Prison Blues.
IMHO Trump won’t touch this, it would turn off too many of his supporters - I hope his handlers are smart enough to see that.
- JoanP - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 2:41 pm:
=IMHO Trump won’t touch this, it would turn off too many of his supporters - I hope his handlers are smart enough to see that. =
You are assuming, against all evidence, that Trump listens to his handlers.
- Ambrose Chase - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:03 pm:
Don’t go away mad, Patti, just go away.
- Anonymous - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:05 pm:
On a human level, Patty and family are really hurting. Patty is the victim of the hope monster.
It’s not going to happen. I hope the family finds peace.
- a drop in - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:16 pm:
“offer up some ‘Rod has embarrassing stuff on Obama’ ”
Tell that to Jared and DT jr. They seem susceptible to that sort of stuff.
- A guy - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 3:25 pm:
When you’re on this “track”, you take the stations the train proceeds. There is but one more station. He may commute the sentence. A Pardon is unconscionable.
- Pundent - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 5:22 pm:
=IMHO Trump won’t touch this, it would turn off too many of his supporters - I hope his handlers are smart enough to see that.=
I don’t think this would matter much to Trump. He seems to have hit both his floor and ceiling at around 40% approval. Those that are with him at this point are absolutely committed and he doesn’t seem to be picking up any converts. If pardoning Blago helps the narrative around a “corrupt” justice department he just might do it.
- Anonymous - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 6:20 pm:
Another Trump - Blago connection - remember how Blago in his last public appearance in front of his house, went on a long rant about how he had won two gubernatorial elections and all the wonderful stuff he helped implement? totally ignoring the crumbling reality all around him and his personal situation?
When I heard the recent phone-in onto Fox News by our president, his ramblings about his election victory and that the nation loves him echoed much of Blago’s separation from reality and public perceptions of him.
- capitol view - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 6:23 pm:
As I listened to our president in his recent ramble on Fox News, so bad that the Fox gang cut him off, I was reminded of our own Gov. Blago in his last public appearance in front of his home. Blago rambled on about his favorite speaking points, that he was elected governor twice and the people of Illinois still loved him and everything he accomplished in that office.
Trump echoing Blago. Scary.
- "Old Timer Dem" - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 7:56 pm:
Could Trump commute Blago’s sentence? He should not be pardoned but I think he has done enough time.
- Streamwood Retiree - Monday, Apr 30, 18 @ 8:00 pm:
In recent days, a man shot his brother then went on a spree of carjackings and shootings. The TV news says he faces a MAXIMUM sentence of 15 years. Fifteen years. One more than Rod Blagojevich. The out of proportion leaps out. I never saw a smoking gun reported in the papers. I might concede that he was PROBABLY guilty, but certainly there was a reasonable doubt. Yet he gets one year less than a homicidal maniac might get. MIGHT. This tells me that Rod Blagoevich’s real crime was angering the political establishment. He is a political prisoner.