The Gathering Blago-Messiah Scandal

You have to love what's going on with the continuing investigation into Illinois Governor Blagojevich's pay-to-play scandal.

Our newly-elected First Rookie from Illinois is already swimming in troubled waters of his own making. Far from being forthcoming and transparent about his campaign's involvement with Blago, the President-elect has: incorrectly claimed no contact by his campaign staff with Blago on the issue; promised information that didn't materialize; stonewalled a reporter's question; and embarrassedly watched as his chief of staff has had many more contacts with Blago than the New Messiah's campaign initially admitted.

Now, he and two aides are being deposed by the Federal prosecutor.

Nobody is alleging that the First Rookie has involved himself in paying to have his favorite, Valerie Jarrett, appointed to his Senate seat. But it is clear that he has already lost control of both his staff's activities, and then the information being disseminated about his staff's involvement in the scandal.

Plus, no reasonable person can understand how the New Messiah's campaign staff could have possibly not understood what Blago was doing. The Governor spoke with Jarrett and Emanuel. We have heard the Federal prosecutor repeat Blago's comments after talking to, presumably, the chief of staff, saying he wasn't satisfied with just appreciation. Does anyone believe that Emanuel was not asked to cough up something more than thanks?

It's hard to believe that someone on that campaign staff wasn't aware or highly suspicious of Blago's game. Yet none of them, from the President-elect down to the his favored replacement, kept quiet.

It makes you wonder....are they all complicit in having covered up the scheme, or just too stupid to realize what was happening.

Either way, who would want this team of amateurs heading to Washington to repeat their ineptitude for four years with the Federal budget and other important matters?

A Hopeful Thought From The Clinton Years

While the impeachment of Bubba Clinton did not take place until 1998, his first sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky occurred as early as 1995. The timeline from the Wikipedia page asserts the following dates:

"Monica Lewinsky alleged nine sexual encounters with Bill Clinton:
November 15, 1995, in the private study of the Oval office
November 17, 1995, while Bill Clinton was on the phone with a member of Congress
December 31, 1995, in a White House study
January 7, 1996, in the Oval Office
January 21, 1996, in the hallway by the private study next to the Oval Office
February 4, 1996, while Clinton was meeting in Oval Office
March 31, 1996
February 28, 1997, near the Oval Office; this is when the blue dress stains were created
March 29, 1997 (Clinton denied that this day's encounter actually happened)"

While, in talking with friends, I mistakenly placed the impeachment in his first term, I'm gratified to see the inappropriate actions took place then.

That's because I believe the First Rookie's administration will similarly be plagued by scandal by the third year of his term. I don't necessarily believe the incoming President will knowingly behave in a scandalous manner, and certainly not like Clinton.

I do, however, think that his total lack of any meaningful life experience, including running anything even as minor as a lemonade stand, suggests that his underlings are going to run rampant in the Federal government.

Coming, as he does, from the corruption of the Chicago Machine, the Rookie is used to looking the other way, while his minions are used to, well, being corrupt.

What makes you think they will all suddenly change their stripes in Washington? Jimmy Carter's aides certainly couldn't behave properly.

So I think conservatives will have the satisfaction of seeing a major seam burst in the incoming administration well before the term is up. Imagine the mess he'll have when the Illinois Rookie has to manage damage control on the corruption of some of his chosen underlings, while simultaneously trying to convince American voters that he has wrought positive change, and cleaned up the Federal government.

Bush Disappoints

Well, I was wrong. This recent post was prematurely optimistic.

According to Bush's remarks at 9am on Friday, he was influenced by his own advisers, who felt that GM CEO Rick Wagoner would spitefully push his own company into Chapter 7 liquidation, rather than Chapter 11 reorganization, if he was not lent the billions he wanted.

Bush blinked. There's not way around it. Between his honest desire not to hand his successor an in-liquidation auto sector, and his desire to foster a better legacy, he let his advisers talk him off of his innate conservative principles.

To me, this simply illustrates even more clearly what a contemptuous person Rick Wagoner is. His threat to destroy his own company, in order to cover up his mismanagement, is too egregious to describe.

But, that said, George Bush faltered and took the threat seriously. Sure, he limited the amount of the loan, and made it clear that he would leave any further assistance to the next president.

However, he missed the chance to force GM and Chrysler into a merger via Chapter 11, of their own volition.

The good news, though, is that Senate Republicans hung tough, and will be able to continue burnishing their conservative credentials in the months ahead.