The Blagojevich Shakedown
The IL Legislature has posted transcripts and tapes of the four conversations Fitz released to the Impeachment Committee. (Right now, the tape servers are overwhelmed, but the trasncripts give a glimpse of the sweet guys these are. Update: The Trib has working audio.)
They consist of four conversations: one on November 13, two from December 3 surrounding a visit Lon Monk paid to John Johnston at his track, and one from December 4. All conversations pertain to $100,000 that Monk, Blago, and his brother Rob seem to understand Johnston will pay, though they are concerned about the timing of the donation in relation to Blago’s signing a bill funneling a chunk of profits from casinos to track owners.
The most damning part of this conversation actually comes from Monk, who relates telling Johnston,
And I said, "Look, there’s a concern that there’s gonna be some skittishness if your bill gets signed because of the timeliness of the commitment." He said, "Absolutely not. I mean do you want me to put some into the next quarter." I said. "No. That’s not my point. My point is this has all gotta be in now."
Suggesting that Lon was demanding Johnston’s contribution before Blago signed the bill (which he eventually did sign on December 15), because he otherwise might not get the money.
This is all very thuggish. But particularly since Johnston replied, "I’ve always been there," it’s not at all clear that Blago wouldn’t have signed the bill without getting the money; indeed, it’s not clear whether he got his money or not. Even given the limited transcripts we saw in the complaint, this doesn’t appear to be the most damning of the conversations included in the complaint.
The other thing that’s interesting is the timing of this. The Monk visit to the track took place on December 3, just days before Fitzgerald arrested Blago (and just as Blago was apparently trying to orchestrate $1.5 million out of Jesse Jackson Jr.’s backers for the Senate seat).
It’s not clear that Blago ever got any of his money that first weekend in December. But dang! He had a demand out for it from just about everyone in Illinois.
Thuggish to say the least!
Got to admire the sheer chutzpah of the man. Somewhere, Daley the Elder is saying “You go, son. Somebody will call the courthouse for you. See Suzy, she handles all contributions in excess of $10,000.”
Wonder if Chutzpah is contagious?
Boxturtle (If so, would offer Blago a year off to bite Reid)
I’ve had the trial running in the background since yesterday. Ellis is pretty good. Very low key. Perfect to counter-act the story that Blago is giving on talk-shows.
Ellis is a published novelist.
I’d be betting Fitz definitely doesn’t see this ‘transaction’ as essential to where his investigation is going – yet still seems to carry a certain film noire effect for the legislature’s purposes.
What strikes me is how little there is that Fitz has given up here. I’m not implying the state fought his law and his law won, or anything like that; or even that it’s insufficient: that committee report to the state house suggests the house prosecution team are on top of all the case they need. What I’m saying is that it appears Fitz may well have a near breathtaking embarrassment of riches, with each jewel of roughly equally compelling marketability. There are prosecutors naive to believe that means the case is over, but Fitz clearly is not among those naifs.
It also suggests to me that the case the state house committee legal team has put together may well be largely parallel to and not at all strictly duplicative of the case Fitz is pursuing – tied in sure by it being MacBlago and the way he conducts his biz… office, but otherwise of greater interest to Citizen Fitz and lesser interest to Prosecutor Fitz.
That makes some sense in that Fitz may be after bigger fish than MacBlago – which could serve to explain his ‘abandoned to flounder’ behavior. In case someone imagines by bigger fish I mean Obama, I don’t. My point is that no one right at the top of a long-established money-making government-as-enterprise machine like the one in Chicago is going to have experienced the sort of money and staffing problems MacBlago has obviously been experiencing lately.
And if you know Blago, this should worry you:
Just reading the transcripts, sounds like a bunch of thugs talking. I was waiting for some kind of a threat on Blago’s part about baseball bats to kneecaps if he signed the bill and he wasn’t given the money.
The bill itself sounds mighty questionable. Why would casinos have to share their loot with the horse racing folks.
Dark and murky all around. I smell cigar smoke.
kneecaps ???
you need to study up on your De Niro
the baseball bat is used on the back of the head
but only for the guys who ain’t “Team Players”
btw, my favorite De Niro quote ???
you gotta be pretty extreme to get noticed in Chicago’s corruption hall of fame
His performance in The Untouchables was mesmerizing.
Dang! I liked Chicago when I went for Yearly Kos. Wish I’d gone to the Obama break out now though…
I want to be buried in Chicago so I can stay active in politics
(wink)
What does that cost and does Blago own a cemetary?
Don’t forget, the esteemed governor will be on Rachel tonight.
Fixed it for you!
Boxturtle (Sometimes, these moods come over me….)
so I’m waiting for a ruling here
are we having a fair impeachment
or a lynch mob impeachment
and does anybody still think it matters ???
We’re having a lawful impeachment. How fair it is depends on where you sit.
It really is kabuki, though. The decision was made long ago.
I’m not seeing where Blago is going with this media strategy. A court won’t touch an impeachment and even if he walks in the criminal trial there’s nobody to sue and he has to run for re-election to get his job back.
Boxturtle (Plus, he’s already been found guilty in the court of public opinion)
me thinks he’s trying to taint the jury pool
which causes a couple of interesting questions, can an impeachment be used as cause in a motion for change of venue (they’re Federal charges, so he could be tried anywhere in the US), and can a defendant cite his own media appearances as cause when asking for a change of venue
the first seems reasonable, and the second seems insane, which leads me to think blaggof will do both
Ya think? Diane Sawyer asked him who all he was “thinking of” to appoint to replace Obama, and he replied: Who do you think/what’ve you heard? Sawyer said, as we know, Oprah – but any resident of the state of Illinois apparently eligible to serve on a jury would also have worked.
Just another reason for not playing the Senate seat card quite so early. He could replied: Well, that’s true Diane, Oprah was indeed on my list, because she’s always in my mind, indeed in my heart, which is so very full with each and every one of the 13 millions of other residents of the great state of Illinois, whom I am currently diligently working through, one by one, making sure to miss absolutely no one, at every waking spare moment I can find between attending to my duties as governor, running a string of soup kitchens for the homeless, and donating blood, spinal fluid, bone marrow, vitreous humor, and as many vital organs and other body part to the Red Cross as I can afford while still technically sustaining this life form.
LOL
Can almost insert extraordinarily OT comment on Melbourne weather. Pushing 100 as of 11:30 AM.
It might be critical, or could be just a factor – but I’m thinking it’s risky business trying to decide such questions without considering whether the putative lynch-ee has booked off from actual personal attendances at said lynching, such as for example to conduct a comprehensive tour of low-brow/no-forehead talking heads media outlets.
Now, that just makes sense; but there’s also some pretty clear support in the data. Exhibit A: I’ve never actually watched the show beyond snippets on newsie blogs and late-night tv, but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in suggesting no actual victim of a lynching has ever been positively identified by millions during the course of the festivities as being in a tv studio located several hundreds of miles distant – – fist-bumpin’ wid teh ladies on the VIEW.
But, as with Newton’s laws, Einstein’s formalae and Darwin’s theory, scientific theory stands at the ready in the constant crucible of Missourian Prove-Itism. Perhaps MacBlago might work in a brief attendance between poetry recitals, whereupon the state senate will offer him a necktie as a sort of going away present – but don’t hold your breath that he’ll be holding his.
Is it just me, or does McBlago’s trial strategy bear an uncanny resemblance to the investigative style of neo-legendary fictional private detective Dirk Golightly?
Oops – I meant Dirk Gently. Need me meds: slight case of Freudian cross-identification conversion, doncha know.
to me, it all has a “Johnny Dangerously” quality to it
cept blogoff don’t really look like Michael Keaton
maybe it’s all the James Bond flicks I saw as a child, but I just expected to see a better class of villians when I grew up. blagoff is just a frickin idiot
I’m not sayin that I’ve grown up …
Yes – that’s it in a nutshell: freep – indeed each of us – deserves a better class of corrupt pol.
Yes, but we have to weigh Blago’s greed, against his selfless, Ghandiesque, magnanimity in putting poor, highly-principled, Roland Burris, into the U.S. Senate…..and not asking for anything in return. :o)
Surely, the one cancels out the other…
to the point where the Illinois Senate should stop their witch-hunt of the poor, misunderstood, governor, and allow him to continue to discharge his duties; as he so ably did, when he selected a paragon of virtue like Burris, to take Obama’s old seat.
I have every hope that the Illinois Senate will ignore all these vicious lies and calumnies and permit the Governor to continue with his best entreprenurial instincts, as he goes about the business of finding people who understand the value of a seat in the United States Senate.
Caveat emptor! :o)
All this suggests the need for a new type of wank …think tank: one dedicated to supporting causes not merely unlikely, or plainly hopeless, but rather to enabling the continuing pursuit of publicly espoused consequential goals associated with claims of innocence, regardless of how comic or crazed such goals might appear [short brazen disregard for the laws of nature] made by or on behalf of those charged** with criminal acts – – whether
[a] completed [as with OJ and dedicating the balance of his life to searching for, as OJ put it more than once, the “real killers” of Nichole, and of course of Ron – or, if one were to imagine OJ, difficult as that may be, as somehow being “the killer”, then to him that a-hole who was with Nichole at the time], or
[b] inchoate [as with at least some of the allegations expressed in Fitzie’s Complaint and the committee’s impeachment report to the state House and Senate].
** [Conviction adds comedic effect but remains technically non-essential.]
does norm coleman qualify for this freak show ???
the dude called a witness who subsequently admitted to voter fraud under direct examination, and still wanted the voter’s ballot to count
and this dude has what you’d call “competent council” (his lawyer was awake when this happened)
Everyone who thinks Blaggos the only one playing this game, raise your hand???
No one?
They all are – Class dismissed.
“Conviction adds comedic effect but remains technically non-essential”
:o)
I’m enjoying it hugely. I just want a little icing on the cake; such as….having Burris make his maiden Senate speech on the same day that Blago is tossed. With any luck, we’ll have a shot of Harry Reid giving him a congratulatory handshake. :o)
Who knew? Blago is the anti-Nixon!!!
tricky rick (D Corruption)
ya gotta hand it to him – Rachel Maddow ain’t exactly the ladies of The View…
Rachel thinks she’s got a “woodward & beirnstein” moment
anybody ???
OT, but I know there are literary persons here.
I only just read about John Updike’s death. I admired that man so much, as a writer and as a person, and I hope that lots of people know what a marvellous fellow your culture produced in him.
A wonderful article on him on NPR today. I confess to being a dolt, and hadn’t appreciated him, but the interview tells so much.
Loo Hoo, I was still a doltish undergraduate when someone gave me a copy of Updike’s short-story collection The Music School (1966). Only a story or two in and I started to think, he is trying to teach us how to write. I mean, the stories are gripping or charming or whatever in themselves as stories, but if you’re interested in writing, you begin to pick up on the technical tutorial fairly quickly.
He was a great and generous teacher, and that needs remembering beyond all the silly things that people are going to say about, y’know, the sex parts. Or the suburb parts.
He knew something about the inseparability of language and truth, just as Orwell did, as all great writers do. I try not to be sad when people who have lived great lives die, but I will really miss Updike.
Once sat next to him on a plane. he was reading Plato. Plato on the Boston New York shuttle. The surrounding suits looking at their spread sheets did not have a clue what good company they were keeping.
Never fancied his Rabbits, but loved his interviews, essays and shorter
stories.
Capturing Teddy Ballgame on his final day is a classic.
We bid a fond adieu to the guy from Beverly Farms, Mass.
off-topic, but curiouser and curioser
monday, norm coleman was proud of his witnesses
then tuesday, he moved to strike all his witnesses
is there some way that coleman could keep his senate seat thru an insanity defense ???
cuz short of that, I’m stumped about what norm is up to
why doesn’t he just concede, instead of trying to prove he’s mentally unfit to hold office
w/ regard to John Updike: I wasn’t a fan, but I do remember seeing a film version of “Rabbit Run” with James Caan as “Rabbit”. I found a brief mention at the bottom of this wiki page but nobody else seems to think it’s worthy of mentioning. What’s up with that ???
Maybe too much Angst?
Variety comes through…
http://www.variety.com/article…..8;nid=2563
I didn’t see the movie, but I’ve noticed as well that so much of the commentary today is about the later Rabbit books, which seems very odd to me. Maybe our critics and obit-writers are too young these days? *wink*
Like BSL, I loved Updike more for his essays and criticism, but then I’m C18, and we’re kind of prosaic. It was an important cultural shift, imho, when writers like Updike and Vidal and even Mailer (sorry: personal resentments) recalled us to the art that is in every kind of writing, not just poetry and fiction. There are Brits who did that as well, of course, and earlier, but you had one brilliant generation there of exceptional public voices.
BSRH @ 35, that is such a wonderful story. Did you resist saying anything to him? I never like to intrude on people I meet that way, but sometimes you just want to say something like “Thanks.”
Frack … is it true that Iggy is supporting Harpuh and his NeoCons ?
I called his office and railed against supporting Harper … *sigh* … going to call Rae’s Office.
You must have read a lot of him. Do you find yourself wondering at a lack of a sentimental response to his passing? It’s bothered me since yesterday – because on reflection I realize how much of him I’ve read, year and year, for well over 40 years – like when you consider those boxes on top of boxes in the attic full of canceled checks and booklets of carbonized second page copies.
His latest work always drew attention. From then the question was never ‘if’ you’d read it, but ‘when’ you’d buy – – and thereafter how much of it you’d get through before putting it up on the shelf with the rest of his [prominent, like a framed degree – his occupying the full sprawling range of “U”, unless someone mis-shelved The Name of the Rose].
The lure was usually an extract in the Times, or a lenthy reflection in NYROB or the New Yorker, or the Saturday literary second of the Chronicle or the Trib, and later in the local fishwrap, the last invariably some time after it joined the shelf. It’s always seemed the reviews of his works, the efforts to make sense of what he was on about, connected better – sometimes a little, other times a lot, and often to my dismay. What was wrong with me that I just never got it the way these reviewers did? Nonetheless, I was like Miami Steve in his movie mobster schtick on the Sopranos: whenever I thought I’d finished with his stuff, I’d be dragged back in.
So now I think the muted reaction has to do with this widespread feeling he never actually got to us – or us, society, the broad spectrum of post-WII life, to him – – and maybe the former because the feeling on the later pervaded his work. Sifting through some of his shorter stuff, and parts of his Rabbits and his Witches, reflecting on whatever I’ve retained in the way of memories of those, it seems to me he idled over glasses of water or barefoot through wooded areas with very much the same approach, and the same attention to detail, and the same ‘journalistic’ emotional detachment he applied to a partner’s neurosis or to some part of a lover’s body.
Right now I’m thinking the problem is that it appears he kept feeling drawn to the idea to that it was his job to describe the ‘truth’ in a feeling – and since it was always his feeling, therefore his ‘truth’ [and no one else’s], and moreover because in given circumstances to the same stimuli, far more than not his feelings didn’t come anywhere near my own.
But that’s it, isn’t it? He was always out of place, always off visiting his feelings like a second-hand tourist to his visible, audible, readable self, when it was in New York or New England or [rarely] elsewhere. The more socially communicable variation on that approach, it seems to me, lay with someone like Graham Greene, whose own journalistic detachment was set in exotic scenery, both in locales and plots, and in asserting firm, dismissive judgments as to what was going on in the heads of others [usually a muddle of confusion, or a riotous comedy of misconception] – in contrast with Updike’s, not I think religious, but certainly reverentially disciplined, and whatever was the cause or source, rigid, adherence to the notion that whatever in hell was going on in someone’s else’s mind – even in the same circumstances, even in relation to similar stimuli – was by definition a mystery, not just unknown but unknowable to him.
So, I think [maybe] there’s his ‘truth’, on the shelf, where it’s always been: Here’s what I was feeling when I, and you, and our fellow voyagers and seeming companions through life, were watching and listening and breathing and our hearts were all beating and our brains were all humming as this thing happened – or just to the two of us – or to each of us alone. And if you are unable to tell me what you were feeling, well: I guess you didn’t realize how important it is.
I think I know what norm is up to
something like this, maybe ???
Skdad@34:
Well said.
Did folks see Blago on Rachel last night? If I hear one more time about his “helping the elderly to get free bus rides,” I think I will scream.
I’m wondering what it is about the Norm contest that the GOP considers it worth typing up 100 of their best lawyers over, the actual Florida challenge guys apparently. Something just wildly disproportionate there. What’s the prize? I don’t think either 1 Senate seat or simply resentment of Al is enough to explain it.
FreePatriot; I’ll tell you what’s up with it.
One hell of a lot of americans are basically phillistines.
Whatever one thinks of Updike, he was an authentic person of letters. He wrote to his own standards, not to the pulp-media market. He sometimes wrote freely (and tastefully) about human sexuality, but he was still an ascetic, while he was doing it.
I’ve often thought he might have been happy living some centuries earlier, as a sorta/kinda Benedictine monk…writing…(With a wry eye, and without excessive judging)…as long as his superiors in the monastery didn’t keep TOO tight a leash on him, or punish him for his laughing at the fleshly follies and humanity of his compatriots. :o)
“The Witches of Eastwick” was a good example of what I’m talking about. It was a bright, funny, novel. Much better than the movie. (which, despite Updike’s professed loathing for it, had IT’S moment, too. :o) The scene where Jack Nicholson as Satan is voodooed into the middle of the church service while Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer give him a good rousting, to me, was hilarious…:o) )
Wherever you are, good on you, John.