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Did Obama or his staff offer
a bribe for 'Candidate 1'?
"what did they know and when
did they know it....?" |
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Does a bribe have to be in
'cash' or can the promise of
jobs do?
I have been thinking about this Chicago stuff and whether
it has ties to
President-Elect Obama.
According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary a 'bribe' is
defined as:
bribe
Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, morsel given to a
beggar, bribe, from
Anglo-French, morsel Date:
15th century
1 : money or favor given or promised in order to influence the
judgment or conduct of a
person in a position of
trust
2 : something that serves to induce or influence
The Gov. wasn't mad because
Obama wouldn't offer him a
bribe on those phone calls,
he was mad because the Gov.
wanted cash up front AS WELL
AS the jobs for he and his
wife. In short, Obama's
supposed bribe wasn't enough
for the Gov.
Obama's bribe basically wasn't BIG enough to satisfy the
Gov so the Gov turned to
'candidate 5' (reputed to be
Jesse Jackson, Jr by ABC
News) who increased the bid
to a large amount of cash up
front.
A bribe doesn't have to be
in 'cash' to be breaking the
law. As noted above, a
'bribe' is offering
'something that serves to
induce or influence'.
I think that a reasonable case can be made from the wiretap
summaries in the media that
Obama's staff offered a
bribe to the Gov (jobs
in two years for he and his
wife after the end of the
Gov's term) but the Gov. (on
the tapes) thought that was
not enough so he turned to
candidate 'five' (supposed
to be Jesse Jackson).
The tapes show the Gov.
talking about how Obama
wanted that woman to take
over his seat in exchange
for which Obama agreed to
give the Gov and his wife
certain jobs at the end of
two years.
That is a bribe, just not a 'cash' one. Obama gets a
supporter in a key position
in the US Senate and the Gov
and his wife got various
jobs and Board of Director
assignments.
The catch was that Obama
said that he should finish
out his Gov. term (for two
years) and then Obama would
pay him off with positions
for him and his wife.
A bribe with a delayed fuse
is still a bribe.
The Gov didn't want to wait
two years and didn't like
Obama's bribe offer (not
because Obama didn't bribe)
but because the bride Obama
made was LOW. I suspect that
he also didn't trust Obama
to keep his word and felt
that 'cash in hand' is
better than a 'job in two
years'. Neither of these
however changes that a bribe
was likely offered.
I think that by the time
they pull in Obama's staff
(David Axelrod already
admitted and then recanted
meeting with the Gov and one
news outlet says that Obama
met with the Gov on 11-5
after the election). Is it
really likely that given the
Gov's brazenness that he
would not bring up his bribe
solicitation to Pres-elect?
The wiretaps however indicate that he received the bribe
from Obama's folks and
then rejected it as being
not enough.
Offering someone something
of 'value' in exchange for a
political act is a bribe,
even if Obama wanted to wait
two years to deliver on the
promise.
If true, that just shows that Obama is smart enough to
create some distance between
the offer of the bribe and
the delivery of the
'inducement' but it would
not change the reality, if
true, that he offered it.
That is also why Obama when
asked yesterday by the press
started to say 'We' and
corrected himself by saying
that "I" hadn't talked to
anyone. He knows that his
staff had conversations
about it with the Gov and
his aid.
There is a logical presumption that Obama talked to his
staff about the Gov and then
they talked to the Gov or
the Gov's chief of staff
about the positions that
Obama would get the Gov and
his wife IF the Gov
appointed the woman to the
vacant senate seat.
All of this is going to come
out and leave Obama
tarnished before he even
starts his term (assuming
that the Gov, his chief of
staff, Jesse Jackson Jr, and
the Obama folks that talked
to the Gov don't turn on
Obama under the District
Attorney's investigation).
In that case, Obama could be the one going to jail. If
Obama didn't concur with
offering the Gov the jobs
and didn't know about it,
his staff would be left
violating the law and he
would be forced to fire them
(before he actually gets
them to the White House).
If true, Obama has more in
common with Nixon than
Kennedy. |
AP Article
12-15-2008
Analysis: Scandal threatens to dog
Obama
…
WASHINGTON –
President-elect
Barack
Obama hasn't even stepped
into office and already a scandal —
not of his own making — is
threatening to dog him.
Obama isn't accused of anything. But
the fact that
Illinois
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a
fellow Democrat, has been charged
with trying to sell Obama's
now-vacant Senate post gives
political opponents an opening to
criticize him. A slew of questions
remain. The investigation is still
under way. And the ultimate impact
on Obama is far from certain.
Since Blagojevich's arrest, Obama
has been pointedly distancing
himself from the case and he took
another step back on Wednesday by
joining others calling for the
governor's resignation.
A day earlier, Obama said: "I had no
contact with the governor or his
office, and so I was not aware of
what was happening" concerning any
possible dealing about Blagojevich's
appointment of a successor.
In an interview published in the
Chicago
Tribune and the Los Angeles
Times, Obama reiterated that point
though he wouldn't answer a question
on whether he was aware of any
conversations between the governor
and his top aides, including
incoming
White House chief of staff
Rahm
Emanuel.
"It's an ongoing investigation,"
Obama said. "I think it would be
inappropriate for me to ... remark
on the situation beyond the facts
that I know."
In Chicago
on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney
Patrick
Fitzgerald said prosecutors
were making no allegations that
Obama was aware of any scheming. And
Blagojevich himself, in taped
conversations cited by prosecutors,
suggested Obama wouldn't be helpful
to him. Even if the governor was to
appoint a candidate favored by the
Obama team, Blagojevich said,
"they're not willing to give me
anything except appreciation."
Republicans pounced nonetheless.
"The serious nature of the crimes
listed by federal prosecutors raises
questions about the interaction with
Gov. Blagojevich,
President-elect Obama and
other high ranking officials who
will be working for the future
president," said
Rep. Eric
Cantor of Virginia, the new
GOP
House whip.
Added Robert M. "Mike" Duncan,
chairman of the Republican National
Committee, "President-elect
Barack
Obama's comments on the
matter are insufficient at best."
Robert Gibbs, an Obama spokesman,
said, "We did not know about this
recent part of the investigation
until today."
The two Illinois politicians have
never been close and have largely
operated in different
Democratic
Party camps in the state.
Blagojevich's disdain for Obama was
clear in court documents; he is
quoted as calling the
president-elect a vulgar term in one
phone conversation recorded by the
FBI.
Despite all that, at the very least,
the episode amounts to a distraction
for Obama just six weeks before he's
sworn into office while he works to
set up his new administration and
deal with a national economic
crisis. It also raises the specter
of notorious Chicago politics, an
image Obama has tried to distance
himself from during his career.
In court documents, FBI Special
Agent Daniel Cain detailed several
phone calls between Blagojevich and
his aides that were intercepted on
court-authorized wiretaps over the
past month. Blagojevich is accused
of conspiring to sell or trade the
vacant Senate seat for personal
benefits for himself and his wife,
Patti. Among his alleged desires: a
Cabinet post, placement at a private
foundation in a significant
position, campaign contributions or
an ambassadorship.
There were signs the continuing
investigation could still involve
Obama.
It appears that Obama
friend
Valerie Jarrett, an incoming
senior
White House adviser, is the
person referred to repeatedly in
court documents as "Candidate 1."
That individual is described as a
woman who is "an adviser to the
president-elect" and as the person
Obama wanted appointed to the Senate
seat. Court papers say that
Candidate 1 eventually removed
herself from consideration for the
Senate seat.
Blagojevich talked at length about
Candidate 1 in a Nov. 11 phone
conversation with an aide.
One day later, Jarrett, a Chicago
businesswoman who is one of three
co-chairmen of Obama's transition
team and was a high-level adviser to
his
presidential campaign, made
it known she was not interested in
the seat. On Nov. 15, Obama
announced that Jarrett would be a
senior White House adviser and
assistant for intergovernmental
relations.
Obama's circle of major Illinois
political allies and supporters is
largely separate from Blagojevich's,
with two major exceptions. Both
Obama and Blagojevich got extensive
money and support from Chicago
businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who
is awaiting sentencing after being
convicted in June on charges of
using clout with Blagojevich's
administration to help launch a $7
million kickback scheme. And Obama
is close to
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones,
who has been the governor's
staunchest legislative ally.
At least one top aide to Obama,
Michael Strautmanis, previously
worked for Blagojevich. Obama has
appointed Strautmanis to serve in a
top post in the White House. The
Chicago native was legislative
director and counsel to Blagojevich
when the governor was a
member of
Congress and then helped
Blagojevich win the governorship in
2002. There is no indication
Strautmanis is involved in the case.
More details on the case could be
forthcoming.
Court documents say they don't
include all calls dealing with the
governor's efforts regarding the
Senate appointment. And many people
in the documents are referred to by
aliases; there's little doubt their
identities will eventually surface.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE —
Liz Sidoti
covered the presidential campaign
for The Associated Press and has
covered national politics since
2003.
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