We're going over to Ken Lewis's office later to read the 70-page criminal complaint against Illinois Governor Blagojevich aloud with snacks, but while we wait, let's sneak some peeks. This is fun:
As detailed below, in early October 2008, the government obtained information that ROD BLAGOJEVICH was accelerating his corrupt fund raising activities to accumulate as much money as possible before the implementation of ethics legislation on January 1, 2009, that would severely curtail ROD BLAGOJEVICH's ability to raise money from individuals and entities conducting business with the State of Illinois. Based in part on the recently obtained information, and as part of the investigation into ROD BLAGOJEVICH's corrupt fund raising efforts, in October 2008 the government obtained court approval to intercept oral communications in certain locations in the offices of Friends of Blagojevich. In addition, as part of its investigation, the government obtained court approval to intercept wire communications on the home phone of ROD BLAGOJEVICH.
Blagojevich Complaint [PDF via NYT]
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 10:54AM
it's a "peek", not a peak
sneak a peek
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:08AM
this is very bad for obama. looks like he was involved, offering up the secretary of health and human services for his choice to be the new senator...can we have a do-over on the election? or do we have to go through with the swearing in before he's impeached?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:11AM
We must sentence him to death. The bill for his hair-care in prison will finish bankrupting the state of Illinois.
I was at the dealership having my car serviced this morning and there was a cop there waiting for something. You should have heard him laugh when it came over CNN that The Coif had been arrested by the FBI. It was a beautiful thing.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:11AM
@2 - oh my god, you are such an idiot.
Posted by IA , Dec 09, 2008 11:12AM
@2: idiot
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 11:17AM
isn't Illinois' last governor in jail in wisconsin? This is getting ridiculous. Obama is gonna have to do a Huey Long and run Illinois from the white house.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:20AM
"Candidate #5" offered $500k to Blagojevich for the U.S. Senate seat. Who is candidate #5?
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 09, 2008 11:21AM
@7:
Clearly its elliot spitzer.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:23AM
7: I'm hoping it's that fuckhead Jim Oberweiss. Him and his overpriced ice cream can go plumb straight to Hell, with a stopover in Federal Max.
This is unlikely, since it would probably take five hundred MILLION dollars to get Blago and Oberweiss in the same ROOM together, let alone Oberweiss in the Senate, but a man can dream. My next favorite is Jesse Jackson Jr., but he's too smart for that.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:23AM
@7 - weirdly enough, Candidate #5 is Eliot Spitzer.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:26AM
no, no, you have it all wrong...
eliot spitzer is candidate 9, NINE!
~theunrepentantgunner
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:27AM
CNBC actually working through the pricing for "selling" a US Senate seat? Juvenile journalism is fine on certain channels, but this illustrates a clear lack of respect for serious issues and how those issues should be reported. Is CNBC trying to compete with the Daily Show?
But, it's CNBC we're discussing here. Serious, thoughtful journalism left the room years ago and clown commentators filled the void.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:42AM
Obama isn't involved. Blago said he wanted to get something from Obama; Obama never offered anything.
Obama and Daley don't even get along with Blago anymore.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:46AM
Don't mean to defend Blago, but if you read the press release, a lot of this shit sounds like it probably happens every day in every state capital on the country. I mean, elected officials personally directing government projects to big donors....Its almost as if there is an entire industry in D.C. based on this very premise.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:50AM
Also there is this gem. He wanted to appoint himself senator because of "a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor;"
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 11:51AM
13: Obama isn't involved with Blago ANYMORE. That doesn't mean that he didn't have previous dealings, especially during Obama's rapid ascent through the Illinois political machine. I wonder what previous dealings Blagojevich might remember, when prompted by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald....
Remember that Patrick Fitzgerald was a Clinton appointee. He's also the one prosecuting Tony Rezko. I bet Rezko and Blago sing a nice duet.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 12:37PM
I like the shakedown on Zell. He should have learned from his earlier experience with Kanter. His tax mitigation skills with the governor over the years will allow a nice deal to get cut. Zell should worry Kanter is back from the dead and he wants some dough
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 12:38PM
Blago is cut from the same Corrupt polictical cloth as all other Illinois politicians. Matter of time before Obama is in the same boat. 3 to 1 odd over the next 4 years. Any takers?
Posted by Falcon , Dec 09, 2008 12:42PM
Is a vacant U.S. Senate seat considered a Level 3 asset?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 12:51PM
So happy to see Blago go down. I initially read the comments questioning Obama's involvement with skepticism, but after reading the actual FBI transcript I'm convinced our president elect had some involvement here. Just read the docs. Things could get really interesting...
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 12:52PM
@18.. he was already in the same boat, he just jumped overboard into something more "affirmative".
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 12:54PM
@19 with the appearance of mulitple market quotes it is certainly a level 2 and may be on the edge of Level 1.
Posted by Falcon , Dec 09, 2008 1:08PM
@22, thanks for the clarification. I have not finished the Chartered Financial Banalyst exam yet. After this arrest quotes may dry up. Therefore I may have to move this depreciating asset to held to maturity.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:26PM
Fitzgerald just inadvertently revealed that Candidate #5 is female. Probably a female Representative.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:31PM
@24 Tammy Duckworth?
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:35PM
@25 I doubt Duckworth has a half-mil to give him. Fitzgerald was a little iffy on that whole thing - at the PC, he wasn't clear about whether C5 actively offered the bribe or was just solicited, or planned to be solicited. C5 "removed herself from the running" before the bribe plog could move forward. Whether that was because she couldn't afford the ticket or because she didn't want to go to the dance wasn't stated.
Boy, Daley looked like warmed-over shit this morning. My day is getting better and better.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:37PM
Blago should have put the Senate seat on eBay.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 1:53PM
Read the indictment.
1. Candidate 5 didn't offer anything. Blago was just saying he wanted something more than a pat on the back to pick Candidate 5.
2. Obama comes off clean. It sounds like his transition team, if they had any contact with Blago's people, basically told them to fuck off. Blago is quoted calling him a "motherfucker" and "fuck him". Those two don't actually get along at all.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 2:50PM
28: It's not an indictment. :)
But yeah, that's the impression I got from Fitzgerald. Media reports made C5 sound a little more active than the complaint alleges she was.
Incidentally, whatever you think of Fitzgerald, that man can manage a press conference. Impressive.
Posted by NotNasser , Dec 09, 2008 3:10PM
#16, aka genius. I know someone is huffing and puffy to hide his mental nullity when I find him writing about how someone's in trouble because the absence of evidence "doesn't mean he didn't" do something or other unspecified wrong somewhere and somehow.
No, the absence of evidence of any wrongdoing doesn't mean evidence of the absense of any wrongdoing. It just means ... the absense of evidence. Any. At all.
"I wonder what previous dealings Blagojevich might remember, when prompted by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald...."
You know what might be more interesting than news of what you "wonder"?
Facts.
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 5:29PM
This part is great:
"In addition, in the course of the conversations over the last month, ROD BLAGOJEVICH has spent significant time eighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat, and has expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including frustration at being “stuck” as governor, a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor, and a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016, avoid impeachment by the Illinois legislature, make corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office, facilitate his wife’s employment as a lobbyist, and assist in generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office."
Posted by guest , Dec 09, 2008 10:40PM
#30 aka NotNasser:
Facts don't matter here. I'm just enjoying a little Fitzmas magic from old Patrick Fitzgerald.
You do remember Fitzmas, don't you? The Libs had a fascination with the indictments forthcoming from the Plame idiocy. In the end they got nothing. But it was enough to cause the Bush admin players to nearly go personally bankrupt with legal bills. It bolloxed up the works so nothing got done by the Administration.
I'm just enjoying Fitzmas early. I bet we can start bolloxing up Obama's little helpers before inaugoration. The fuckers will be bankrupt before 2010.
Posted by NotNasser , Dec 12, 2008 11:02AM
"Facts don't matter here."
If "here" means, "politics in general," truer words were never spoken, nor a better case for anarchy ever made.