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* Yet another ethical cloud over the governor…
Besides the multiple federal investigations he’s facing, Gov. Blagojevich has 65,000 other reasons he might have trouble persuading state lawmakers this week to “follow my lead” on ethics reform.
The governor has kept $65,000 in campaign contributions from one of his administration’s former top employees, Ali D. Ata, even though Ata pleaded guilty to felony charges earlier this year.
After cutting a deal with federal prosecutors in April, Ata testified against former top Blagojevich adviser and fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals.
After a Sun-Times reporter asked about the Ata contributions, Blagojevich campaign spokesman Doug Scofield said Sunday he was not aware of Ata’s money being dumped.
* Despite his own, very real problems, Gov. Blagojevich had the temerity to call out Rep. John Fritchey by name during his press conference last week…
Blagojevich is proposing a more comprehensive ethics plan that would… require lawmakers who lobby on behalf of corporate clients to disclose the clients and the fees. That’s a direct slap at Speaker Michael Madigan and state Rep. John Fritchey. The speaker’s law firm handles corporate property tax appeals, and the governor says Fritchey did legal work for pay day loan clients.
“Across the board ethics reform so that the taxpayers can have a better bang for their buck,” the governor said.
However, Fritchey was infuriated by the allegations. He says he never lobbied for pay day loan companies and that Blagojevich knows it.
“The governor has resorted to an all-new low, even for him. His allegations are pathetic and border on pathological,” Fritchey said. [emphasis added]
* Fritchey later had some regrets…
Now the point of this post isn’t to retract my statements. I stand by everything that I said. But that being said, I sincerely think that it is unfortunate that the situation has devolved to the point where our state’s Governor is routinely vocally derided by people from across the political and geographical divides of our state. […]
I want to publicly say that if my comments somehow are taken to be disrespectful to our state, they are intended to be anything but. I believe in our state, and I believe that we deserve better. I want to believe that the public knows the passion that underlies my statements, but I feel better making sure that there is no doubt.
Heh.
* As you already know, Gov. Blagojevich last week claimed that the Republicans had set a “trap” for presidential candidate Barack Obama…
Approving a long-awaited Illinois ethics bill could give political ammunition to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, according statements Gov. Rod Blagojevich made on Friday.
With two proposals on the table in Springfield this week, Blagojevich said voting for the one the governor opposes could make Barack Obama look soft on ethics.
“What I’m afraid of is that this is a Republican trap and they’re setting Barack Obama up by using this ethics issue in Illinois,” Blagojevich said in Chicago on Friday.
“Sometime in October in those battleground states, you’ll be seeing TV ads that … will start accusing Sen. Obama of coming back to Illinois to help his old friends in the Illinois General Assembly.”
* Well, McCain does have a new TV ad, but it’s not quite what the governor predicted…
Text…
ANNCR: Barack Obama. Born of the corrupt Chicago political machine.
BARACK OBAMA: In terms of my toughness, look, first of all, I come from Chicago.
ANNCR: His economic adviser, William Daley. Lobbyist. Mayor’s brother.
His money man, Tony Rezko. Client. Patron. Convicted Felon.
His “political godfather.” Emil Jones. Under ethical cloud.
His governor, Rod Blagojevich. A legacy of federal and state investigations.
With friends like that, Obama is not ready to lead.
* And if you think Fritchey was harsh, check out the goo-goo…
Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, called Blagojevich’s comments “delusional” and “loony.
Her group opposed the governor’s changes and asked Obama to speak with Jones.
“He doesn’t care about his political party or the course of this nation,” Canary said of the governor.Obama’s campaign declined to comment on Blagojevich’s remarks. But Sen. Terry Link of Waukegan, a close Obama friend and former state legislative colleague, said the governor was attempting to kill the original ethics measure.
* Related…
* State Capitol Notebook: “I think the governor will do whatever it takes,” spokesman Lucio Guerrero said Friday, when asked about the possibility of keeping lawmakers in town until they approve his “real” ethics reform ideas.
* Blagojevich says he’s ‘followed every rule that exists’: “You’re missing the heart of it and missing the truth of it. The reality is I’ve followed every rule that exists and no one has said otherwise,” Blagojevich said.
* Gov: Obama Will Regret Supporting Ethics Reform
* Lawmakers to attend special session
* Ill. lawmakers consider ethics bill
* Back in Springfield to hash budget, ethics plans out
* Ethics, spending beckon lawmakers
* Governor Says Obama Falling into Republicans’ “Trap”
* Rezko lawyers want conviction tossed, slam Levine testimony
* Blagojevich says Rezko was ’sucked’ in
* Quinn: Governor wrong to close parks
* Rally held to save state park
* SJ-R Opinion: Blagojevich’s style hard on state workers
* Dr. Blago’s botched surgery
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 8:36 am
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Previous Post: Poll: Voters blame Blagojevich far more than Madigan
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I thought the most interesting comments were the governor’s characterization of Rezko as a victim of the system. It’s not just the surreal disingenuousness; could it be the soothing words of sympathy for Tony are calculated to encourage him to keep his mouth shut?
I’m sure the Obama people are happy that Blago has their backs in Springfield on the whole ethics front. I suspect every time Rod mentions his name, Barack feel’s a sharp pain in his neck, like a voodoo doll.
Great spot by McCain. Simple, hits all the major nerves for suburban and rural America. I was a little surprised at first by the inclusion of Bill Daley, but I guess for the rest of the country, reference to the “Daley” machine is needed as context.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 9:12 am
The voting public is not buying these negative ads this time. The country is in crisis while McCain makes one blunder after another and Sarah refuses to deviate from her Rovian script.
First, McCain says the economy is strong while Wall Street crumbles. Then he tries to paint himself as a regulator which is a complete lie based on his voting record. Then he gets caught lying about Obama’s tax policies. Palin makes a fool of herself on ABC while her state legislature is investigating her unethical conduct. To top it all off they don’t have much money to spend.
With the little money they do have left, they should probably try to tout McCain’s economic program. Oh, that’s right, he thinks everything is fine and doesn’t have one.
They can continue to talk about Rezkco and Daley. No one cares. They will probably bring back Rev. Jerry Wright next. Same old, same old.
Has anyone figured how to keep old John awake during the debate yet?
Comment by Bill Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 9:27 am
$65,000: Can’t he apply the $65,000 towards his legal defense from any charges that come from Ata flipping? Full circle thinking.
Comment by North of I-80 Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 9:31 am
Quite an honor for the governor to be the climax of the negative ad. It must be a wonderful world where our governor lives: the Cubs in the playoffs, hours of Hannah Montana on Tivo, occasional helicopter rides around your neighborhood, being lookout for your buddy the next president (who will certainly reward your loyalty with a key cabinet appointment if need be), cruising to a third term because the people love you and you’re doing great work, helping cure crime in Chicago, showing that pesky legislature just who knows how to ‘rock the system,’ shutting down the state parks so rednecks who go to them will get better jobs, as a ’student of history’ serving as the unofficial chair of Lincoln’s bicentennial, ahhhh… life is sweet!
Comment by Vote Quimby! Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 9:39 am
Bill, thanks for the red herring. You failed to mount any sort of defense or justification for the governor, instead using the ol’ misdirection ploy and attempting to make it a referendum on McCain. You’ve targeted the wrong audience here.
As the polling numbers clearly indicate, very few are buying into Blagojevich’s rhetoric. It’s well past time to scrap the playbook.
Comment by The Doc Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 9:45 am
Good to know, Bill, that we can look to a legislature’s inquiries to determine a governor’s ethics.
Comment by Greg Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 10:11 am
Let’s remember that we WANT our Blago to get an Obama cabinet appointment. It will get him out of Illinois. With both Blago and Emil out of the way…well, things can always get unpredictably worse…but maybe they wouldn’t, and we’d have a chance. And by a chance I don’t mean higher state taxes and even more pigs at the state trough, by the way.
Given the cost of the financial markets bailout combined with the cost of the Iraq, each heading for a trillion or more, whoever the President is will have little room to maneuver, much less implement all these pie in the sky programs that each is talking up at the moment. They will be caretaker presidents, no more, because they won’t be able to afford more.
We have a better chance of getting local and state
governments to actually do something productive for citizens, so better focus on the fast upcoming Dem primary, when the next Illinois guv will be
picked. And at the moment our Blago is running hard for a third term.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 10:17 am
Cassie,
If you are against higher taxes you should want the Governor to reman governor. He is the only one preventing a dramatic sales and income tax increase. You know Mike and Emil would have raised both of those by now if it wasn’t for Rod. I’m not saying I agree with him but that is one promise he kept.
Comment by Bill Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 10:23 am
Bill — and by keeping that promise, he has made a mess of our infrastructure and delayed meaningful tax reform, such as the cruel absurdity of a $2,000 personal allowance that has never been indexed to inflation since it was created and the blatant unfairness of sales-taxing goods at up to 10.25% while not sales-taxing services at all.
It about says it all when the last die-hard fans of the governor point to this as a crowning achievement.
As for McCain’s latest ad, it is beyond high-time for the Obama campaign to hog-tie McCain to Charles Keating. McCain is one of the political centerpieces of the casino culture that has so damaged our financial system.
Comment by Angry Chicagoan Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 10:47 am
I’ve been wondering when the McCain people would finally connect the dots with Blago, Jones, and Obama. I don’t know that the ad will be effective anywhere except Illinois but we’ll see.
Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 11:08 am
Bill, the voting public loves negative ads. Always have.
And remember, you’re playing between the 40 yard lines now. The ads aren’t for the converted or the unconvertible, but the undecideds and wobblies.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 11:12 am
Bill is right and I have always give the guv credit for not raising income taxes, a burden which would fall almost exclusively on the middle class under the present Illinois flat tax structure. I also supported his plan for universal health care and his consumption tax proposal, which would have made taxes far simpler and easier to collect, meaning probably more taxes collected. And it looks like, praise be, his administration is finally closing the infamous Howe Developmental Center.
Unfortunately, many important aspects of Illinois state government appear to be stuck–ethics reform and the capital bill being among the more dramatic examples. If he gets a broader ethics reform bill passed, I’m wrong, on that count anyway. But surely the Dems (and it will be a Dem) can find another governor candidate who won’t be hot to raise taxes but can move other issues along to resolution. Not Bill Daley, though….middle class tax increases will be the first thing on his mind.
Maybe Alexi.
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 11:26 am
What’s this I see about Blago calling yet another special session on insurance coverage for autism? I thought we already dealt with that issue.
Is Blago just trying to drive the House Clerk and Senate Secretary insane from having to read off, call and adjourn every one of these specials (where are we now, #26?) before any business can be done?
Comment by Secret Square Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 11:29 am
McCain should have mentioned Stroger and the Cook County Sales Tax.
Comment by Bill Baar Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 11:50 am
Wordslinger,
I truly believe that the American people are sick and tired of the old politics of McCain, Bush, Rollins, and Rove. One of the reasons Obama got the nomination in the first place was his promise of hope and change. He has refuted the politics of the past. He should and does refute the lies and half truths spouted by McCain and his cronies but I think that the public expects more of him than to crawl into the gutter and throw back the mud.
The Clintons tried that Rezko stuff and it didn’t work for them. It won’t work for McCain either.
Hey Baar,
What, exactly, does Barack have to do with the sales tax in Cook County? Should he not have endorsed the Dem candidate? Should he have endorsed the other candidate who proved himself to be mentally unbalanced by his disgraceful conduct with the drunken mob on election night?
This stuff might appeal to Republicans here in Illinois where they have no chance to win any significant election but I don’t think the voters in the rest of the nation know or care who Stroger, Blagojevich, et al are.
Comment by Bill Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 12:08 pm
There is a great tie-in between the current market break-down and the old savings and loan debacle, which, hey, included the Keating scandal. Great fodder for ads we can only hope someone will put into play.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 12:29 pm
Bill, again, the voting public loves negative ads. Study after study show they’re the most effective. That’s why McCain runs them, and that’s why Obama runs them. You can seem them all on youtube.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 12:48 pm
Bill,
Obama had better hope the rest of the nation doesnt find out who Stroger Emil Jones Beavers Blago Daley madigan are. This state is controlled by the Dem Crook Co. Machine of which Obama is a made member and this state is a laughingstock. Highest sales tax in the nation terrible schools, terrible mass, transit terrible roads and bridges.
Comment by fed up Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 1:04 pm
That’s not a very effective negative ad to run outside of Illinois. Too quick, too little info. Either pile more on there quickly, or spend more time giving a bit more information. What does “under an ethical cloud” mean,” anyway?
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 1:08 pm
Bill said: “They can continue to talk about Rezkco and Daley. No one cares. They will probably bring back Rev. Jerry Wright next. Same old, same old. Has anyone figured how to keep old John awake during the debate yet? ”
To tell you the truther, if they had put Ayers and Wright into the commercial and made them the SIX amigoes, it would’ve been a pretty powerful ad. That campaign staff doesn’t have too much time left to get its act together.
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 1:11 pm
Blago has already promised Ata’s $65K to Winston & Strawn. He can’t afford to give it back.
Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 1:30 pm
I just can’t understand how people as involved and informed as most posters on here are can continue to spout the “Dems are bad, Reps are good” or vice-versa crap, or the “conservatives are good, liberals are bad” or vice-versa stuff. It’s shallow, and should be beneath us.
I’m a Republican. I’ll vote for a good Republican over a good Dem, or a bad Republican over a bad Dem. But I’m not stupid There are good Ds and bad Rs, and when the twain meet. I won’t be a Kamikaze Republican. Governance is too important.
Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 2:20 pm
Characterizing Tony Rezco as an innocent victim of the system suggests to me that Governor Pinnochio also sees himself as an innocent victim rather than a corrupt, incompetent chief executive with a relatively low IQ. Frankly, I think Sara Palin, blank slate that she is in terms of her public policy knowledge and experience, is sharper and smarter than Pinnochio.
It seems remarkable to me how many responsible public figures from across the political spectrum are so willing to openly characterize the Governor’s assorted behaviors, remarks,and political tactics as cuckoo,sociopathological, loony, and delusional. It suggests to me that we really do nave an irrational socipathic madman with a Napoleonic complex as our Governor.
Somehow my wildest imagaintion pictures Governor Pinnochio as going out in a blaze of tragic glory like James Cagney screaming pitiful,but raging defiance,(”You dirty rats”) before the executioner pulls the lever on the electric chair.
Let me be clear here, I am not wishing for a tragic ending, which involves physical harm to the Governor. But I would not be surprised if such a scenarior eventually unfolds, when the inevitable indictments and eventual convictions occur. The Governor’s grip on reality seems to be to be tenuous at best. I am honestly not sure that the Governor will be able to cope with the reality of a an ignominious end to his political career whenever it occurs.
Comment by Captain America Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 2:40 pm
Don’t fret anymore all you posters. We’ll soon be changing our designation from “Unindicted Official A” to “Federal Prisoner XXXXXX.” While the General Assembly is again in Springfield at A-Rod’s behest, maybe they might think about beginning impeachment proceedings. That would save me the trouble.
Comment by If it Fitz Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 3:00 pm
I imagine it will be more like the famous “Last Great Act of Defiance” cartoon that depicts a mouse giving the finger to the eagle swooping down on him…
Comment by Secret Square Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 3:02 pm
Ditto on what Steve Schnorf just posted!!!
Comment by Captain America Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 3:23 pm
It sounds like Schnorf just endorsed Barack!
Comment by Bill Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 3:26 pm
I think it has reached the point of diminishing returns for Blago to even pretend to care about ethics. He needs the 65 g for attorney costs and the legislature is set to dry up the cash cow so he might as well keep it.
Comment by Pond Scum Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 4:11 pm
HB 824, ethics bill, AV overrideen, 55-0!!
Comment by Secret Square Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 4:29 pm
Bill,
You said, “I truly believe that the American people are sick and tired of the old politics of McCain, Bush, Rollins, and Rove. One of the reasons Obama got the nomination in the first place was his promise of hope and change.”
Hope? Change? Obama presented himself as a new politician who would run a positive campaign. He was supposed to be “different”. He is running the same old negative campaign and telling lies and half-truths in his adds and speeches. Just look at what he has said about McCain’s position on social security - total BS. In addition, sending an army of lawyers to Alaska doesn’t sound like “change” to me. Exactly what is this “hope” and “change” anyway, besides a catchy campaign slogan that looks good on a sign?
Comment by Holdingontomywallet Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 4:36 pm
Bill, a candidate of hope and change would also not have Dave Axelrod running the show. Geez, if the guy washed his hair, the price of gas would drop a quarter a gallon.
Aren’t those same people here in Illinois also sick of the dysfunction in Springfield? Who was it who ran for office on a “change” platform?
Little did we know that “change” meant Chris and Tony scooping up campaign “change” in the left pocket and some “change” for themselves in the right pocket and the decomposition of State Government to the point where agencies are looking for “change” in the underside of office chairs to pay the bills.
I know it’s lonely out there, Bill. AA supported Nixon quite a while. (Of course, I was only 14.)
Comment by Arthur Andersen Monday, Sep 22, 08 @ 6:46 pm