Okay, so I've finished reading the section of the complaint on the selling of Obama's Senate seat. Blagojevich is presumed innocent of course. But he is a madman. This is just so staggeringly grubby, so old-time machiney, so Third-World-Mugabe-ish in its banality and avarice that it's almost hard to believe these things were said in this day and age. You really have to read it, starting on page 54, to believe it.
But who cares about Blago? He's a governor, they come and they go. The question is whether any of this singes Obama. And here's the story on that front.
The complaint lists a series of conversations Blago had with aides trying to figure out how he could benefit – politically or financially or both – from having the power to make this appointment. He understands the Senate seat has market value; it's "a fucking valuable thing, you don't just give it away for nothing." Political benefit: He says at one point that he'd stand a better chance of fighting indictment as senator than as governor (he's been under investigation for years). Financial benefit: He wanted more money.
So for page after page, Blago and his aides are seen trying to figure out how to do either, mostly make money. Some of these plots involve an approach to Obama, some do not. But even those that involve the idea of an approach to Obama don't involve any actual contact with Obama that we know of, as Patrick Fitzgerald made clear.
So for example: Blago and aides are hoping to set up a nonprofit group that he could head at a nice salary ($250,000 to $300,000). They come up with the idea that maybe they could ask Obama to help them set it up. Maybe the president-elect, they reckon, would call his rich buddies like Gates and Buffett and ask them to put $10 - $20 million into this thing. They wouldn't tell Obama about the ulterior motive that Blago would make a lot of money, just the superior motive that he wanted to run a nonprofit about health care and other issues.
There's no evidence presented in here, and Fitzgerald was careful to say he knows of no evidence, suggesting that Blago et al. did anything about this beyond talking about it; no evidence that they reached out to Obama or anyone around him; and, obviously, no evidence that Obama or anyone around him did anything to facilitate this plan.
At several points, Blago speaks words indicating that he didn't think Obama was the ball-playing type. The key passages here appear on pages 63-66. On page 63, we have this:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him." ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will put "[Senate Candidate 4]" in the Senate "before I just give fucking [Senate Candidate 1] a fucking Senate seat and I don't get anything."
Probable translation: the advisers are saying something like, "Obama just won a big victory, he wants Valerie Jarrett (Senate Candidate 1) to be named, so just do that, and wait two years and ride it out and you can cash in big then." And Blago is saying no, Obama expects me to name Jarrett "for nothing," and I won't do it.
From page 65:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will appoint "[Senate Candidate 1] . . . but if they feel like they can do this and not fucking give me anything . . . then I'll fucking go [Senate Candidate 5]."
"They" means Obama and his people.
Finally, from page 66:
Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he knows that the President-elect wants Senate Candidate 1 for the Senate seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them."
It's pretty obvious from these statements that Blago and his people hadn't yet contacted Obama or his people, and that they didn't expect them to horse-trade. These quotes, especially being called a "motherfucker" by this corrupt fool, are pretty helpful to Obama's case.
But as Fitzgerald (appropriately) said, there are still things to find out here. Is it possible that Obama got on the phone with Blago at some point in the last three weeks? And if he did, is it possible that Blago floated the 501c4 idea, without mentioning any of its darker aspects, and Obama said something like, "that sounds like a fine idea, governor"? I guess it's possible. And so something that's basically innocent could be made to look quasi-bad.
Assuming Obama did nothing wrong here, it's still a hook for his political opponents, some of whom lie with impunity for political advantage, and they can probably inveigh about this in vague, invidious ways for a week or two and knock Obama's approval rating down a few points.
Which gets us to the point of how Obama handles this. Again, assuming nothing to hide, he should speak fairly soon, offer his full support to the consummately professional Fitzgerald, probably call on Blago to resign immediately so the state can have an untainted senator, and take whatever other steps are needed to push Blago as far away as possible.
