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Audacity of Truth
Team Barry begins to throw the Chicago machine under the bus
And in the process, they contradict themselves … twice. Jake Tapper reports:
“Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney’s office today,” said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption. “But as this is a ongoing investigation involving the governor I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time.”
Asked what contact he’d had with the governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”
But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.
While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a “kingmaker,” Axelrod said, “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”
Here’s the video:
In an update, Tapper writes:
An Obama Transition Team aide says that Axelrod misspoke on Fox News Chicago.
Translation: He said something he shouldn’t have.
More, from the Tapper piece:
And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house.
In the Democratic gubernatorial primary that year, then-state sen. Obama endorsed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. But after Blagojevich won, Obama came around enthusiastically. At the same time, meanwhile, Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client.
According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama’s incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich’s campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm, were the top strategists of Blagojevich’s 2002 gubernatorial victory.
Emanuel told the New Yorker earlier this year that he and Obama “participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two.”
Wilhelm said that Emanuel had overstated Obama’s role. “There was an advisory council that was inclusive of Rahm and Barack but not limited to them,” Wilhelm said, and he disputed the notion that Obama was “an architect or one of the principal strategists.”
(An Obama Transition Team aide emails to note that Emanuel later changed his recollection of this story to Rich Miller’s “CAPITOL FAX,” saying, “David [Wilhelm] and I have worked together on campaigns for decades. Like always, he’s right and I’m wrong.”)
LOL. This isn’t the first time the Obama camp has contradicted itself. See here and here for two other examples of bigtime contradictions during the general election campaign. Clearly, the incoming Obama admin is going to have to work a lot better at being “in sync” and unified with each other on what message they want to present to the public. Perhaps he should get some advice from his pick for Sec. of State on “message control.”
Interestingly enough, rumor has it that it may have been Obama’s COS and fellow a Chic-town politico machinist Rahm Emanuel who tried to help the feds by giving them info on Blago’s “pay to play” scheme. It wouldn’t be surprising if he had a hand in it – after all, the pattern is with Barack Obama to throw anyone under the bus once their usefulness runs its course. Emanuel’s denying the reports, of course, presumably because Obama wants people to think that neither he nor anyone on his staff spoke with Blago even innocently about the issue, so we’ll probably never know who the tipster was. But on the off chance that we do, rest assured that the media will try and portray Emanuel as the “hero” who brought down a Chicago corruptocrat, in spite of the fact that Emanuel (and Obama) both were long part of and beneficiaries of that same machine.
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I suppose Obama getting in trouble over this mess is too much to hope for, huh?
Isn’t that the same thing that Kennedy did?? The Mob got him elected and to thank them he sicked Bobby on them. Well we all know how that situation ended. Same scenario is in play here. The Chicago machine got Barack his start, and now to toss them under the bus….
Let’s just hope he doesn’t find no turkey heads in his bed…. I mean horses. 
– Lorica
Camojack, I think it is fair to say, that I “hope” that there is a “change” in the status of the President “Elect”
– Lorica Just crackin myself up. 
He can’t toss the Chicago Machine under the bus. The Chicago Machine IS the bus.
Just ask Otto Kerner and Dan Walker.
New to your blog, but love teh direction. The bus on the other hand, oh yea, he is ready to open that back door and push all out.
Who is Client #5? Ralm..not sure yet are we. Hell, I think it’s hillary, just my clintonian thesis working over time again. Regardless, seems old King BO has a long four years, we, maybe two to get this fixed .
Because guess who is right down the hall> Sec.Hillary Rodham Clinton – and we already know all her skeletons. I smell a Clinton masterplan in the works..
Who thought December would be a quiet month!
/
Nothing will happen to President-Elect Obama on this. With the egomaniacal Blagojevich basically flipping Obama the bird consistently with numerous F-bombs, Obama is cast in a more sympathetic light. Apparently Blagojevich was angry that Obama didn’t “play ball”.
To me this is way more about Blagojevich than Obama. But I know it throws the Right a bone and adds to the Right’s talking points. But I’m not judging the Right on this one because the Left would do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed. And looking at some of the despicable behavior displayed by the Left during Bush’s tenure, they would have probably went farther if thrown the bone. We on the realist left know that for a fact.
Absolutely right T-Steel. I heard Chuck Todd this morning on the Today show talk about how there was absolutely NO communication between Blago, and Barack regarding this decision. Which sort of contradicted what we already know, that Barack was hoping Blago would fill the position with candidate #1. At least we have that to rely on…the fact that the MSM will do whatever it takes to ensure that Barack is cast in the very best light, no matter the situation. – Lorica
Well of course Emmanuel’s the one who ratted out Blago. Poor guy. Rod carried a knife, alright, but Emmanuel was the one with the gun.
And note that the tapes show Rod’s frustration with the Obamanians for not doing more than thanking him. Has Rahm thrown Rod under the proverbial bus? Of course! Has there ever been anyone more deserving of being tossed? I doubt it.
And to think there are still a few holdouts who think the Clintons are going to be able to manipulate Obama. Good luck with that! She-eesh! Even the Kos-sadsacks are beginning to see what whatever the president-elect is, he surely isn’t “the one.” In fact, he strikes me more as “the new number 2.” And I’m still number 6.
The fact that Little Dickie Dirtbin is calling for a special election shows exactly how high Blagojevich’s standing with the Illinois Democratic Party and the Chicago Machine is these days. Believe me, they’re not going to suffer for this. And Obama still knows who his friends are.
They’ve been looking to cut Blagojevich loose for a while. The Illinois Legislature has been discussing impeachment for some time; the prosecutors just beat them to it.