At Memeorandum, the following sensational headlines:
Analysis: Scandal threatens to dog Obama
Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why these are all threats to Obama, especially since Fitzgerald said Obama had nothing to do with it in the first place:
Fitzgerald said there was “no reference in the complaint’ to the president-elect and cautioned the press to “not cast aspersions on people” for being mentioned in the government’s filing if they were not indicted.
So I decided to check. Here is the .pdf of the indictment. I did a search of the document in Adobe Acrobat, then converted it to .txt just in case Adobe screwed up, and checked in Open Office. To be safe, I performed the search three times in each case. Each time I performed the search for the word “Obama” in the 76 page, 20 thousand+ word indictment, I came up empty. It just wasn’t there. Funny, what with all the questions about his alleged involvement, because not only was he not indicted, he was not even mentioned.
I suppose it is too early to write the post-mortem on the scandal-plagued failure that was the Obama administration. The media will just have to find something else to do for the time being.
More here.
taylormattd
They all learned to write stories and headlines from Jeff Gerth apparently.
Shinobi
Ann Althouse says:
Because, of course, there MUST be a connection, even though there is no evidence for one.
Just Some Fuckhead
All morning on MSNBC: graphics screaming "What Did Obama Know?"
Looks like the fourth estate is back in business after an eight year vacation.
No wait, Bush is still in office isn’t he? And still no piercing investigatory journalism about the failures and excesses of the Bush administration.
Ok, now I’m just confused.
Damned at Random
search on Presedent-elect. There are several references, but they amout to squat IMO
Napoleon
I read the whole indictment (which is a complaint that primarily consist of the supporting affidavit) and there was no mention of Obama, but the they to mention in a few areas things like "Senate seat vacated by the President-Elect" and things like that. They use no names for anyone except the indicted, including Sam Zell, Valarie Jarrett or Jesse Jackson Jr, but refer to all of them in round about ways. Regardless, none of the references in any way can be read as negative for Obama. They simply can not. Instead the press has to make up a controversy.
Zifnab
Yeah, and Hans Blix said he couldn’t find any WMDs. But we all know better. Nigerian Yellowcake, John. We all know Obama’s guilty. They just hid all the evidence in Syria.
dan
Lets see, there is a D afters Obama’s name. A Democratic president will NEVER be legitemate.
Still with the economy going down the tubes, and the Republicans reduced to feces hurling monkeys at the zoo, I thought we won’t see any "Bill made me sit at the back of the plane", or "Nancy was mean to us" tantrums, in the first month or so. No luck, the only way they will stop is when they are literally reduced to complete financial ruin and bankruptcy, these people are NOT like us, they live in a bubble and have complete and open contempt for the "commoners".
gwangung
Let’s see….President-elect and former Senator of a state and the Governor of that state.
What kind of morons would think there’s WOULDN’T be ANY connections at all?
(No, don’t answer that. Those morons are in charge of our media).
dbrown
I think bushwhack knows the truth about Blagojevich and should be water boarded until he either talks or admits water boarding is torture; then cheney needs the same treatment and then send them both to the World Court for crimes against humanity; then to Iraq to be tried for war crimes. The Iraqi’s can then either keep them or send them to Syria for rendition review.
libarbarian
Fitzgerald got Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate from Blagojevich and is just waiting to drop da bomb!!!!!
Cyrus
Yeah, it refers to the President-Elect several times. Most of those references are to hopes or requests for what Obama could do for Blagojevich, but some aren’t. Page 63:
Page 66:
Oh yeah. Feel the collusion.
DougJ
I wouldn’t be so sure. They started writing them about the Clinton administration during his first year in office.
Comrade Stuck
In the Wingnut World, if a liberal calls another liberal a "motherfucker" like Blago did of Obama, then there must be some kind of close relationship present. It’s the reverse Tin Foil Hat Feedback Loopety Loop Theory and only makes sense if you believe Obama was born in Ooooga Boooga Boo, Africa and is not a US citizen. Direct correlation, but don’t ask why.
Emma Anne
DougJ, I remember it being much sooner in Clinton’s case. This all seems sickeningly familiar in fact.
Laura W
Cantor would like to expeditiously see this process move forward.
Clearly a graduate of Palin ESL-U
DougJ
DougJ, I remember it being much sooner in Clinton’s case. This all seems sickeningly familiar in fact.
Call me an optimist, but I think that the fact we’re in the worst recession since WWII may distract the media from focusing all of its energy on nonexistent scandals involving Obama. I think Cokie et al. may be so busy cheering on the death of the UAW and its "73-dollar-an-hour" parasites that they don’t have time to concoct fictions about Obama’s nefarious past.
John Cole
What is mind-numbing about everything is how random the nonsense is and how incoherent it has become. None of it ties together- at least with Clinton you could legitimately form a coherent narrative about his womanizing.
With Obama, it just lurches from one attack to another- he has no experience except for his years of experience as a corrupt Chicago pol and he is not American but really knows how to navigate the corrupt American political system as exemplified by his Chicago roots and he is a radical lefty who hangs out with terrorists but is a character straight out of the Chicago ESTABLISHMENT.
And on and on and on. There are no two bullshit allegations that even make sense in conjunction with each other.
shirt
HA! Obama has been indicted by ommision. Where is Ken Starr when they need him?
DougJ
You could have formed a coherent narrative in theory. But they didn’t. The narrative they formed was all about moving Vince Foster’s body, 50+ "murders", MENA, and other craziness.
But the bottom line is that Bill Clinton came in and trashed the place. And it wasn’t his place. I guess you could call that a coherent claim.
DougJ
It will be interesting to see how hard Kristol, Brooks, Krauthammer, and Gerson jump on this one. If we’re lucky, we’ll see something to rival Safire’s classic piece on Vince Foster.
Laura W
@John Cole: I’m pretty sure Tweety is going to wrap it all up in a big, shimmering bow of clarity when he talks over Bill Ayers in a few.
John Moltz
Ah, but see, it’s the *appearance* of blahbby blah blah bladdity goo blah blah Al Gore is fat.
Tsulagi
That Obama is not mentioned is solid proof of his active involvement in concealing his culpability. No doubt aided by the secretly burgeoning Obama Death List.
Comrade Stuck
Well, Just watched Amy Rohrbach ask wingnut wizard Eric Cantor What exactly should happen now, and you could have cut and pasted his answer straight from the Clinton/Monica era. A jumble of sly non accusation accusation and blather about restoring honorable government, his and his parties proven expertise/snark. Amy looked dumbfounded at the Deja Vu.
libarbarian
Call me an optimist, but I think that the fact we’re in the worst recession since WWII may distract the media from focusing all of its energy on nonexistent scandals involving Obama.
This may be true, but on the other hand there will be plenty of unemployed dudes with lots of time to blog about stupid things.
DougJ
Indeed, the *complete* lack of any mention of him is suspicious in and of itself. It’s like that entire book written without the letter "e" — it seems like some kind of stunt.
Could be Fitz is keeping his powder dry, though, and that he’s going to show that the whole thing was a ruse to hide the fact that Obama was the second gunman on the grassy knoll. (I’ve always thought it was suspicious that his birth coincides so closely with the date of the Kennedy assassination.)
lilly Von Schtupp
The corporate media exists to entertain, not inform.
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
(I’ve always thought is was suspicious that his birth coincides so closely with the date of the Kennedy assassination.)Laura W
@Comrade Stuck: I believe his parting words were: "Be about the peoples’ business. Expeditiously. Too. Also."
jenniebee
"73-dollar-an-hour"
but but but… wasn’t the Joe the Plumber message that any skilled tradesman who worked hard could have a reasonable shot at $125/hr?
Seriously, didn’t we just go through a month of wankery insisting that if we raise the marginal tax rate on income over $250K/yr that we’re taking the American Dream away from the common man?
I could never be a Republican. My sense of reality isn’t malleable enough.
DougJ
Sure, but those were *independent* contractors, not lazy unionized socialists.
28 Percent
@John Cole: Hey, that’s my schtick!
cleek
it’s not about making sense or winning a logical argument.
for the MSM, it’s about titillation. for the wingnut media, it’s about titillation and keeping the rubes in a lather. none of that has anything to do with reality – it’s all about eyeballs and the pocketbooks they’re associated with.
you know this.
DougJ
Not true. The wingnut media really believes this stuff.
Comrade Stuck
@Laura W:
LOL Cantor is a master at making non-sense
Snarki, child of Loki
You have to read between the lines of the indictment….
..no, wait, you have to check the FONTS in the indictment. The kerning proves conclusively that Obama is involved. If you squint just right, and mentally picture Blago’s countertops.
Splitting Image
John, you’re completely overlooking Obama’s complete and total responsibility for this whole disaster.
Did he or did he not get elected President and precipitate this whole mess? If he had waited his turn like he was asked, Blagojevich could have been defeated in the meantime and this business would never have happened. If this is not deliberate corruption on Obama’s part, it is certainly criminally negligent of him and a bad harbinger for his administration.
DougJ
This makes you wonder about all those trips to Hawaii Obama took. Was he a bagman for Blago? Was the whole story about the sick grandmother just a cover story?
jake 4 that 1
Look, we all know that Democrat Polititians are connected via the great Satanic Atheist Baby Killing Ghey Marriage Hive Mind. Of course Obama is involved. If a Democrat cuts you off in traffic, it’s Obama’s fault. In fact, Blaggy is white and Obama is a scary brown dude so Obama must have made him do it.
DougJ
That’s not quite right. I think he did it so that Obama would think he was cool. It’s like when white kids listen to rap music and start saying "bitch" and "ho" and smoking eight balls and dropping nines. Or like when Tom Brokaw starting drinking forties after Bryant Gumbel joined the Today show.
The Other Steve
Don’t worry.
Joe the Plumber will save us.
Zifnab
@DougJ:
Is it irresponsible to put forward a half-assed hypothetical with no proof to back it up? On the contrary, it’s irresponsible not to!
Besides, even if these allegations aren’t true, what does it say about Obama that we would even think they are?
DougJ
Howard Fineman on MSNBC about this just now:
This isn’t about whether or not Obama was involved. This is about a man who promised change being linked — accurately or not — to a scandal that recalls the worst of the past in American politics. It’s like that movie "Out of the Past" where Robert Mitchum hasn’t done anything wrong, but is still destroyed because of his past. That’s who Obama is right now, Chris.
DougJ
(I made that up. Howard Fineman didn’t really say that, but you can imagine him saying it, can’t you? The same way you can imagine Obama being a bagman for Blago.)
taylormattd
@John Cole:
Ah but John, the Whitewater bullshit started in 1993 with Jeff Gerth’s NY Times piece. And it was (1) completely false, and (2) internally incoherent.
The "womanizing" thing might have made some sense, given the 60 minutes admission during the 1992 campaign, but this reminds me of Whitewater in that the evidence literally shows zero wrongdoing, but the press nevertheless writes about "qwestshuns being raised".
passerby
@Cyrus:
Yeah, if anything, it demonstrates integrity on Obama’s part.
That’s a good thing, right?
But, integrity is either over their heads or just plain boring. Their audience suckles on shows like Jerry Springer and Judge Whoozits, etal, where other people behave worse than they do so they can feel superior some how and some way.
Unfortunately, this crowd, far more than the 30%ers, voted Bush for 2 terms and loves them some Sarah "I-believe-she’s-filled- with-the-Holy-Spirit" Palin. So, I’m not the least surprised or indignant that they’re gonna shovel shit on Obama. They need to keep people riled up to keep them (us?) tuned in.
We might as well get used to it. He hasn’t even been inaugurated yet.
Laura W
HEY!
From what I could hear of Pat B. on Shuster’s show with my on-fire head shoved into the freezer, I’m glad I couldn’t hear him.
Which made me realize I’VE NOT HEARD Crazy Uncle Pat on Rachel’s show for a couple of weeks!
Not only did I send her a comment asking her to cut him loose the night her show launched, I also bemoaned his presence on her show on this site a time or three.
(Hi Rachel! SO glad you are feeling better. You look marvelous! Thanks for dumping Pat!)
Edit: If he shows up tonight I’m going to OD on every cold medicine I have in the house, and ALL of my anti-depressants.
Bitty
Obama has had his photo taken with Blago.
Proof positive of his guilt.
Why does he pal around with corrupt politicians?
binzerator
So this is what the fucktard goopers want to go with, eh? Keep insisting there is a there there. Back to the Clinton era.
Maybe that’s why Arlen Specter, the fucktards’ apologist fucktard, is making a big stink about Obama’s AG appointment. Looks like Arlen Specktard got busy with the new GOP ‘strategy’.
They really want to relive the whole Clinton thing again, don’t they?
What the fuck is it with these morons? They had to relive the vietnam war so they brought it back in Iraq. (Where they fucking lost again) And now they want to relive the whole Clinton hate thing. Where they will spit in the milk of public discourse and distract the nation to its tragic detriment. Again.
I know, I know. They’re conservatives. They have a real problem with change and future and facing reality and moving on.
Can’t we classify this as what is really is — a mental illness no less severe than sociopathy or schizophrenia or paranoia? People who manifest sociopathy or schizophrenia can be barred from certain professions or doing certain things because of the great potential for harm to the public. Why shouldn’t these people? They are at least as mentally ill as a sociopath, and have demonstrated their even greater potential for harming and/or killing other people.
donnah
On NBC Evening News just now, the talking head stated what has been said already, that no evidence of a connection between Obama and Blagojevich exists, HOWEVER THERE WILL BE ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS as to his possible involvement.
jeezus.
binzerator
@DougJ:
My neighbor said this to me just last night, almost verbatim.
Amazing. The nation elects a black man as president (a man who ran a largely positive campaign, no less) and that historic first doesn’t get more in-your-face change than that. But no. The fools will think this somehow is proof it was all a lie.
Why are so many people in this nation so goddamned stupid?
Chris Andersen
I agree this is the beginning of the Clintonization of Obama, but having lived through that time period I think we have one distinct advantage this time around: when they went after Clinton there was no media infrastructure to push a counter-narrative. Back then we had Gene Lyons screaming in the wind. Today we have hundreds of blogs and several mainstream media voices who are willing to let counter arguments be aired.
There is still cause for concern, but I feel optimistic.
sparky
@binzerator: it’s an inability to read the instructions in the condom box.
Laura W
@binzerator:
So many ignorant people breed without constraint.
IMHO.
Laura W
@sparky: woops. You said it funnier.
Comrade Stuck
@Laura W:
Fluoride Comrade, but we do have the whitest teeth.
TenguPhule
The sign at the library said "Books Left" so they went home.
DougJ
That’s more or less how I feel. But I’m a little less optimistic. I think we may very well be hopelessly fucked.
I think of all the civilizations that perished before us as a result of sheer stupidity and I think that we’re dumb in much the same way. This will probably be a third-world country in another 100 years.
Comrade Stuck
@DougJ:
then we’ll just have to pack our bags and boat off too Africa and see if they need any day labor around the Crocodile Farm. You never know, it could work out well.
Cain
Obviously, cuz Obama is from Illinois it makes the whole thing suspicious. There are questions. Hell, the entire state of Illinois and the people within need to be put on trial. SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG IN ILLINOIS!
cain
DougJ
Politico jumps the shark first with SEVEN BLAGO QUESTIONS FOR OBAMA.
Somebody fucking shoot me.
Take all your money out of the bank and put it yuan. ASAP.
The party’s over.
Comrade Stuck
They forgot number 8
When did you start being an Islamosocialist Jihadi Terror Boyu, born in Mooslim, Africa. and was that before or after you stopped boffing Blago’s wife.
Lately, The Politico has become the shark and chief wingnut shit slinger/
Stuck in the Funhouse
The moderation Gods are once again angry.
DougJ
This is solid — Ben Smith writes about the SCANDAL of how Obama supporters are editing out the questions about Blowdriedovich at change.gov and the first comment is:
rachel
@DougJ: I will love Obama forever if he answers with: "Get a life, you potatoheads."
Paragon Park
Not to change the topic, but I think people are leaping to the conclusion that the case against Blagojevich is a total slam dunk. The tapes are certainly incriminating, but it appears that Fitzgerald made a decision to seek the complaint and shut down the undercover investigation prior to consumation because in his estimation it was more important to prevent a tainted appointment to the Senate.
Conspiracy llaw permits conviction not only where the object of the conspiracy is not achieved but where the ultimate criminal act is not even "attempted" so long as there is an "agreement" between two or more to violate the law and and at least one "overt act" in furtherance of the conspiracy, but by arresting at a stage where all the evidence is basically just talk about extortion, whom to extort from and what to extort from them, there is some wiggle room for Blagojevich’s lawyers down the road.