This is one of those little things that make me wish that I wasn’t on holiday hiatus.
President-Elect Barack Obama finally addressed his transition team’s connection to disgraced and corrupt Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and the governor’s desire to whore out Obama’s senate seat to the best deal that he can get out of it. They released a report on December 23rd that pointed out all of the times that Obama or his people, including his intended Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, met with Blago and his people, and then concluded that the transition people did “nothing wrong” because Emanuel and group had “no idea” that Blago would be demanding anything in return for fulfilling his constitutional requirement.
See? That’s it! There is no “there” there! Show’s over, guys! Pack it in and have a Merry Christmas!
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it.
Yes, that’s right, cons and neo-cons, I said that I DO NOT BUY the report!
It’s not that I question the information they provide in that report, or that I disagree with the conclusion they provide.
I question the source. I question the supplier of this report.
Who came out with this report that exonerates the Obama transition team? THE OBAMA TRANSITION TEAM!
This did not come from the federal prosecutors investigating Blagojovich, mostly because chief inquisitor himself, Patrick Fitzgerald, has already cleared the Obama people of any wrongdoing. But it also didn’t come from any independent investigation of the situation. This came from the Obama people.
Is any of this sinking in? The people accused of wrongdoing are judging themselves to be innocent and we are simply expected to BUY that!
Sound familiar? Absolutely!
It was just two months ago when Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin, already in the throws of her GOP running-mate bliss, was hit with a scathing investigative report concerning the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan for his refusal to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law following a nasty divorce and custody battle. The report concluded that Governor Palin violated the state’s ethics law by using her office for personal gain, even though it was not the sole reason for Monegan’s termination.
Prior to that report, though, Palin’s people released their own version of the investigation, which completely exonerated her, and told reporters that they didn’t have to pay any attention on this issue because it’s already done and she’s innocent and we can go back to the presidential election.
I didn’t buy into that report, so why should I buy the one coming from the Obama people?
In fact I believe that this is a trend that really needs to be given its long overdue Bernard Goetz treatment.
One of the surest ways to make government corrupt is when it is allowed to serve as its own judge and jury, to say that NOBODY can judge them, except themselves. It’s bad enough that we have religious leaders that proclaim that they answer to nobody but THEIR interpretations of God. They don’t have guns! (That’s why they latch on to government.) But when you have political officials… people WITH guns… that essentially declare the same thing… then we got a problem.
This is something that local governments do quite often. Atlanta’s former thug-mayor Bill Campbell was notorious for his abuses of power, and he was able to get away with them time and time again. Do you know why? Because all complaints went through the city’s Ethics Committee… which are all HAND-PICKED by the mayor.
In other words, the mayor declared himself, through his cronies, to be the judge of his own actions. Every time someone filed an ethics charge, the evidence would be dismissed, the mayor would be vindicated by his cronies, and then he would gloat about how “honest” and how “ethical” he really is.
So why did Campbell end up going to prison anyway? Because he was prosecuted and convicted in FEDERAL court. He was judged in a system that he could not control! And THAT made all the difference.
THIS is the world that Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich come from! They came up from this kind of arrogance and pompous self-righteousness. An environment that suggests that they are answerable to NOBODY except for the voters, and those “poor saps” are more malleable than Play-D’oh!
This is why America’s founding fathers set up things such as separation of powers and checks-and-balances in the federal government! It wasn’t to make life difficult for those in power. It was to make sure that they be held ACCOUNTABLE for their actions!
This is why I’m a supporter of a Special Investigator looking into White House activities. I’m also very critical of watching members of Congress judge themselves. Members of the House and Senate should not be judging themselves. They sit in judgment of the White House and the Judiciary. They should NOT be judging themselves.
It is THIS kind of impropriety that Obama and his people have to kill. I mean, did Emanuel and Obama and company REALLY think that issuing THEIR OWN REPORT THAT EXONERATES THEMSELVES would put this issue to an end? Did they REALLY think that the conservatives and neo-conservatives and their trained parrots in talk radio would simply back off once this report came out? HELL NO! They still don’t believe that Obama is a US Citizen; or even a Christian; much less that he won the 2008 Election fair and square!
No, this will HANG on Obamamania. This will HANG on Obamamania like Vince Foster clinged to the neck of the Bill and Hillary Clinton. You remember Hillary, right? She whose aspirations you trounced and who is now going to be your Secretary of State? This is something that conservatives and neo-conservatives are the masters of… transforming moronic single-mindedness into a colossal white elephant conspiracy.
If Obama and company want to PROVE that they are different from the abuses of power that so characterize the Bush Imperium, then they have to DEMONSTRATE it. And that means not doing ANYTHING that even remotely suggests that they are above reproach or above accountability.
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