Will Having the Name “Jesse Jackson” Associated with Blagojevich…
… further inflame those nutters trying to tie Obama to Blago, or will it give them a favorite lefty dynasty to devour and in so doing stave their hunger for a scandal larger than it is?
Because Jesse Jackson Jr. sure looks like he’s the Candidate 5 whom Blago claimed was trying to bribe him for a half million dollars (h/t Prof Foland and twolf).
Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous "Senate Candidate No. 5" whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
According to the FBI affidavit in the case, Blagojevich "stated he might be able to cut a deal with Senate Candidate 5 that provided Rod Blagojevich" with something "tangible up front."
Jackson said this morning he was contacted Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Chicago whom he said "asked me to come in and share with them my insights and thoughts about the selection process."
Jackson said, "I don’t know" when asked whether he was Candidate No. 5, but said he was told "I am not a target of this investigation."
Jackson said he agreed to talk with federal investigators "as quickly as possible" after he consulted with a lawyer.
Um, Jesse? After receiving that invitation to come and chat, you were really supposed to call them, not wait for them to call you…
One more point: assuming Jackson is Candidate 5, Blago badly implicated him. But thus far, that’s based on representations from Blago, who is clearly delirious. As always, Jackson (and Blago himself) are assumed to be innocent. Jackson denies that he offereda quid pro quo, and it’s not clear he had the half million to a million that Blago was asking for.
I am not a Target – Karl Rove
Maybe Rove will lend JJJ his old button.
Blago wanted money up front. According to Blogo, Candidate 5 had a history of “not keeping his word”. Blago needed a bag o’ money up front.
I can make the monthy payments. I just don’t have the down payment. – A Poor Fellow
Or hire the same Rove and Libby attorney’s?
Yeah, we got to that “I am not a target” conversation pretty quickly, didn’t we?
“Delirious.”
That’s the word.
“clearly delirious”
I still do not get how these people could be so “bleeping” stupid? Or is this business as usual and they just thought this kind of activity could fly?
Blago seems to feel that it is biz as usual. Duke Cunningham, Uncle Ted Stevens, Tom Delay, Sarah with Todd Palin, John McCain, Wm Jefferson – all business as usual.
They get their money for nothing.
Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Elliot Spitzer
They get their chicks for free.
I want my
MCourtTV!How many Americans have any faith in our elected officials? 10%?
Kinda makes all the screaming and bitching about Caroline seem pretty stupid.
Not for those of us who can do more than one thing at a time.
Damn, I wish I had the tremendous abilities that you seem to think you have.
Rememer that movie the “blob”? The mass of goo that kept rolling gathering up screaming folks in it’s way. The blob is rolling
Damn there are a lot of criminals in our government
Steve McQueen
Now wait just a darn minute! Spitzer and Vitter did not get their chicks for free. That’s what did them in. As to Foley and Craig, their problem was that it wasn’t chicks. All this makes John Edwards an anomaly. Oh, nevermind.
Edwards didn’t get his chick for free either, he put her on the payroll.
Edwards was willing to screw all of us. If Edwards had gotten the nomination and then the affair had come out, we’d all be saying Pres. Elect McCain today. Edwards needs to slither off where he can be with the one he cherishes most, himself.
Ah, but if the press had done their jobs and reported everything that they knew about John McCain, Edwards would have won in a walk, affair and all. (Let’s just say that McCain has Edwards beat in that department.)
OT – House Democrat urges Obama to keep Bush’s intelligence chiefs:
Do you hear a loud scream in the distance? It’s me!
My response was the loud growl.
No kidding. Reyes is such a tool.
this recomendation will go over really big here @ the lake.
Reyes is definitely part of the problem not the solution. Obama needs to can Hayden immediately. Any General Officer that continues to wear his uniform (with those glittering four stars) in a civilian job has got some hangups that we don’t need in the person running the CIA. McConnell seems like an ass kisser to me.
i don’t see how anyone can give blago the “presumption of innocence” after reading the quotes from the tapes .. it’d be one thing if this we an accusation of sorts .. but it isn’t .. it’s a damnation delivered by blagos own words writ large ..
while i fully understand the functioning of the courts in terms of “innocent until proven guilty” .. i cant see any way to grant it in reality in this particular case ..
blagojevitz is the abramoff for the republicans, he will bring down some democrats for the next election, and rightfully so
I don’t care who it is involved with this mans pay to play, time to get rid of him and everyone who played along
The Illinois General Assembly will begin a special session on Monday to consider legislation that would create a special election to fill Obama’s seat until 2010.
Since we are presuming Jackson innocent until proven guilty, can we assume there is still some doubt about him being candidate #5? Why are we ruling other candidates out? Because the FBI invited Jackson for an interview? There are other possible reasons for the invitation. For all we know, there may be other invitations in preparation.
Jackson had a public scheduled interview with Blagojevich on Monday. Has anyone else had a similar interview with the governor?
MrWhy @ 17
It wasn’t Schakowsky, who wasn’t even important enough to ask.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/…..agojevich/
I should have paid closer attention:
Is “federal law enforcement sources” short for “unimpeachable FBI source not for attribution”?
ProPublica has an article mentioning U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) as well… interesting that his birthdate is today, which is the same as Rod Blagojevich.. the astro on gutierrez isn’t much better then jackson at this point either, so both these 2 are strong contenders for candidate 5..
Prosecutions are discretionary and therefore (?) political more than they are about justice. After the 06 turnabout, but just before John Conyers would be the House Judiciary chairman, the FBI advised him of his wrongdoing with respect to his using his staff for laundry errands, probably showing him the Federal indictment against Allegheny County (PA) coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht from the previous January for similar staff laundry errands. Did Conyers agree to something in exchange for something hmm? Tell the truth: if you saw Fitz’s press conference, did you think of Andy Kaufman lip-synching Mighty Mouse’s “Here I come to save the day”?
I like the idea that the IL Atty General is working on (think I read it in this morning’s ChiTrib): she’s found a old statute that says that the IL supremes can basically toss Blago if they agree he’s not fit for office. The special election idea is nice, but given IL’s budget woes, very expensive.
It would be better if the Lt Gov could identify a very legit, thoughtful person (a Dem, but non “politician”, thus not-tainted) and appoint him/her for the remainder of Obama’s 2 year term. This person is going to be at the bottom of the Senate totem pole anyway, so all we need is his/her vote on the key issues.
My 2 cents from frozen cheeseland.
Maybe the IL Attny Gen ?
^_^
The plot thickens.
Blago would be wise to not implicate alleged co-conspirators unless doing so helps him suppress evidence, and how could that be? Doubt Fitz is looking to shorten Blago’s sentence when he’s still investigating and making his case.
Careful. We have a very different situation with Jesse Jackson, Jr. than with Blago.
Blago’s on tape making extremely incriminating statements, repeatedly. Looks like a slam-dunk case. But the only thing we’ve seen so far implicating “candidate #5″ are Blago’s own statements; we don’t know if Fitzgerald has any direct evidence that Jackson himself did anything or said anything, or even that his representatives did.
So Jackson is much more entitled to a presumption of innocence than Blago.
Agree, that’s why I said this:
Blago is nuts at this point, and all we have is Blago’s view, some of which was just open brainstorming.
I’d want to know whether JJJ’s rep did approach Blago before going too far. But the allegations are pretty incendiary.
…it’s not clear he had the half million to a million that Blago was asking for.
Hmmm, the transcript has Blago saying Candidate 5 would raise a million dollars for him, not that he had it to hand over. That doesn’t seem implausible for such a famous name (if it’s him.)
Not true because people who voted for McCain would vote for him even if he ate babies with GW on the White House lawn, while the people who would have voted for Edwards would have been sickened.