It would be more meaningful to hear the denial from RE than from DtC.
Why should he deny something he’s not accused of?
My guess is that he’s under instructions not to say anything publicly. Anything he said would only fuel more baseless speculation.
When Obama got elected it was obvious that Blago had the power to name the next Illinois senator. So Obamas team would certainly have had to talk to him. What is illegal about that? Is someone is ready to say Rahm was in negotiations to buy the seat for someone, you need more proof .I will wait for more to come out. I will not get it from Fox.
Nothing’s illegal about it, which is why Obama never should have denied that they talked about it.
The Chicago Tribune today says that it has been confirmed the Rahm Emmanuel talked to the Blagojevich camp about the Senate Seat. Here is a link to the story. In it, it says:
Personally, I am pretty well convinced that Obama would not and did not get involved in actually trying to strike some kind of deal for that seat. However, it was stupid of him to make the statement that he was confident that no one on his team had a conversation with Blago on this subject. As I said before, I think it would be weird for them NOT to have a conversation about it, so he should have told the truth…that someone probably DID talk to him about who they were going to select, but that it didn’t involve making any deals.
The other question that comes to my mind is, if Blago tried to make a deal, and the Obama camp wouldn’t play along (as indicated on the tapes), why didn’t the Obama camp report that exchange to the FBI? They must have known Blago was under investigation.
No one had a converstaion with Blago about a deal, so that’s all that matters. Good to know that Rahm is fully vindicated now. He gave a list. So what? The Feds are also comfirming that Emanuel is not a target in the investigation, so that basically proves there’s nothing incriminating on the tapes.
There is no indication on the tapes that Blago tried to make a deal with the Obama camp. He only says that Obama isn’t willing to give him anything. He never says that he actually ASKED for anything.
If There was any request for a deal, then the Feds would not be saying that Emanual is not a target.
How would Blago know that Obama wasn’t willing to give him anything if he never asked?
I don’t necessarily know that they didn’t report it. The rumors about RE being the whistleblower are still out there.
The “Mtherfcker” comment alone makes me think something was floated and swatted down.
You don’t have to ask for anything to not be OFFERED it. He was probably expecting an offer that never came.
Either that or Rahm dimed him out like the rumors suggest.
You’re all aware, I suppose, that Blago’s a former prosecutor. Which when you consider the breathtakingly stupid way he has handled the entire situation, almost convinces me that he’ll plead mental impairment (or however the insanity plea is stated in IL), because that seems to be his only way out.
All things considered, it might work.
“Blagojevich was charged with two counts: conspiracy to commit fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and solicitation to commit bribery, which is punishable by up 10 years. He was released on his own recognizance.”
“Blagojevich, a former congressman, state lawmaker and prosecutor, also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, in an attempt to strong-arm the newspaper into firing editorial writers who had criticized him.”
“In addition, the governor was accused of engaging in pay-to-play politics _ that is, doling out jobs, contracts and appointments in return for campaign contributions.”
Dio you see here you overstep just as much as those making accusations do. It proves that there is nothing incriminating of illegal activity; that is different than saying that there is nothing incriminating. Undisclosed high level contact would be embarrassing. For Obama to “not know” that Emanuel turned info over to the Feds would be hard to believe and if true would be a sign of cluelessness; for him to have played dumb on it would show disingenuousness. OTOH if a solicitation was made and no information passed on would be incriminating as well. None of those would be illegal; none of those would make Emanuel a target. But they’d be incriminating nevertheless.
And before you go off again - yeah, I know there is no reason to believe that any of them are true - but nothing released so far “proves” that they are not true either.
Yes, that’s what it sounds like to me, too.
Exactly. Why bother alerting the FBI? They knew Blago was under investigation. Every pol in Illinois knew. Blago knew, the venal dumbass just couldn’t stop himself.
I would bother because I wouldn’t think it was a good idea for them to hear me (or someone from my team) on the tape without my letting them know that they were going to. In fact, I would have gotten a lawyer to advise me what to do, and I’m guessing they would advise me to let the feds know how the conversation went down.
BTW, did anyone else misread the preposition in the thread title as “on”?
Me neither. Just occurred to me, in fact. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put that image in everybody’s heads. 'Night, all! 
Does anyone think that the Obama gang can wait until late Friday to dump the promised list of contacts with Blago?
Well so far Team Obama’s handling of it is going over acceptably well.
I think the public is entertained somewhat by Governor Goniffevich but only as mindless chaff while waiting anxiously for Team Obama to be get fully in control of the reins of governance. The serious issues that face us all across the country and the world are their real concerns. The Far Right’s attempts to spin this as a means to discredit Team Obama so far are not getting any traction other in those already inclined to believe anything negative about him they hear. And maybe even not too many of them.
So far it sounds like it’s a list of one – Rahm Emanuel – who did nothing but give the Governor’s office a list of names.
You really shouldn’t get your hopes up so high. This isn’t going to touch your President-elect.
No high hopes here…I’ve been literally praying that Obama comes out clean on this. I think it would be very bad for the country if he doesn’t.
I read that as being directed at What Exit…!!!, who seems inordinately eager to see Obama exposed as Blago’s evil twin in disguise.