*** IMPORTANT UPDATE *** As I said twice below, don’t jump to too many conclusions here. I just spent some time on the phone with someone close to Joe Cari, and this AP story may seem groundbreaking at first, but maybe it ain’t.

Remember, Cari has already pled guilty and he’ll be testifying for the feds in Tony Rezko’s trial under oath. So, when I hear that there was nothing untowards about that meeting with Blagojevich (although there was, indeed, plenty that seems untowards about the alleged stuff that the governor and his pals did), then we should probably walk this AP story back a bit.

“Joe does not have a memory of whether he set the meting up. He thinks one of his law partners set it up. The meeting had to do with hospitals in Illinois. One of his partners represented a number of hospitals across the state, and he represented a handful of hospitals. The meeting was related to hospitals in the state. It had nothing to do with anything.”

I may have more in a bit. Just take a deep breath and watch the show as it plays out.

*** ANOTHER IMPORTANT UPDATE *** This is from Joe Cari’s spokesman. It’s quite the quote…

“There was a heavy interest in a period of time by the Blagojevich people to get Joe on the team to raise money. That recruitment effort - late 2003 and 2004 - was led by Tony Rezko, Chris Kelly, Stu Levine and Gov. Blagojevich. Joe politely declined every request, saying he had retired from politics.”

Interesting.

Although he is a Democrat, Cari had helped Jim Ryan’s 2002 campaign against Blagojevich. Levine, a close Jim Ryan pal, was probably instrumental in pointing Cari out as someone the Blagojevich crowd should bring into the fold.

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*** 12:27 pm *** Obviously, this doesn’t look good, but let’s not jump to too many conclusions today…

Records show a Democratic fundraiser who pleaded guilty in a state pension scandal met with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich just weeks before he attempted to shake down a firm seeking state business.

Blagojevich’s appointment calendar was reviewed by The Associated Press. It shows Joseph Cari met with the governor at his state office in Chicago on March 16th, 2004.

Cari admitted he attempted to pressure a firm in May of 2004 to pay a sham consulting fee before it could get state pension business. It was part of a scheme to raise campaign cash for a high-level officeholder.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Here’s some background on what this could mean…

Fifty-two-year-old Joe Cari was a behind-the-scenes political player who raised big bucks for democrats.

In a seventeen-page plea agreement, Cari admitted telling an investment firm that it had to hire a politically-connected consultant or else it would not get a multi-million dollar deal with the State Teachers Retirement System.

Cari told the feds he did that for his law firm’s client, the now-disgraced Stuart Levine. Then a pension board member, Levine’s now facing trial on two separate indictments, allegedly having stolen millions of dollars.

Cari said Levine told him: “A high-ranking Illinois public official/Public Official A” acting through two close associates was selecting consultants for the investment firms that appeared before the Teachers Pension Fund. Levine said this was part of a fundraising strategy by Public Official A and that Public Official A and his associates were going to pick law firms, investment banking firms, and consultants that would help Public Official A with campaign contributions.

Sources tell CBS 2 News they believe Public Official A is Governor Rod Blagojevich and the two associates are Blagojevich fundraisers Chris Kelly and Antoin Tony Rezko.

Right after the governor’s election, he assigned Kelly and Rezko to recruit and screen candidates for his cabinet, as well as hundreds of policy-making positions.

*** UPDATE 2 *** More background on Cari’s connections to Stu Levine, Chris Kelly and Rod Blagojevich from a column I wrote a while back…

Blagojevich’s role in all of these allegations - and they are still allegations - is still not totally clear. We do know that Levine paid to fly Blagojevich and his top people out to New York on two separate occasions for fundraising events. Also on the trip were admitted felon Joe Cari and Chris Kelly, who flatly denies he has ever done anything wrong, as has Cellini, as has Rezko.

The governor raised about $120,000 in campaign contributions on the first trip and a few weeks later the contributors got some big state contracts. The governor says this was all a coincidence.

There are a lot of coincidences in this administration. For instance, the governor initially claimed it was just a coincidence that two friends of Tony Rezko each ponied up $25,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign fund right around the time the governor appointed them to a state board that governs hospitals. Turns out, that board was more crooked than anything George Ryan was ever accused of. Stu Levine was reappointed to the board by the governor and then proceeded to cut all sorts of corrupt deals. Tony Rezko was also allegedly in on the scam at that board.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Also, you may recall, the alleged pension fund scheme wasn’t the only shadey bidness in which Cari claims he was involved with Blagojevich. Here’s another one of my newspaper columns…

Cari told prosecutors and Firm 4 that he had been through this sort of thing before with Public Official A [whom sources say is Blagojevich].

“Cari said that his private equity firm had agreed to hire a consultant in order to get funding from another State board.”

*** UPDATE 4 *** Cari was also an issue in a California campaign involving Democratic Comptroller Steve Westly. Here’s part of a script from a TV ad run by Westley’s opponent last year…

“This is Joe Cari,” the narrator intones. “He’s a corrupt Chicago businessman who gave Steve Westly thousands in campaign contributions.”

Westly’s picture appears, and the narrator continues: “Westly then steered public pension funds to Joe Cari’s investment company….

UPDATE - One of Cari’s advisors just told me that Westley’s opponent was eventually embarrassed by the ads because it turned out that he, himself, had hounded Cari for contributions and fundraising help for months.

Obviously, having a record of a meeting with this figure is not something that seems all that favorable to Gov. Blagojevich. But, again, let’s not jump to too many conclusions today. Thanks.

*** UPDATE 5 *** One other thing to remember here. Cari has promised to cooperate with the feds, so it’s highly likely that he’ll be testifying in Tony Rezko’s upcoming federal trial. We could find out a lot more then about what went on in that alleged meeting with Blagojevich. [See the update at the top for more on this point.]