Obama is as close to Blago as he was to Ayers.

Even if Obama was not close to Blago, he did kill Vincent Foster.

If this "story" is so ridiculous, why do you write about it at all? The bloggers and the media are both guilty of beating this dead horse ad nauseum. Stop already!

I feel sorry for the poor Republicans.

They've been rejected at the polls. They're about to incur the hatred of the nation by sinking Detroit and further deep-sixing the economy. They're PO-ing the unions something fierce. They're still cheering Sarah Shootamoose.

And the only negative thing they have to latch on to concerning the President elect is a nonspecific, if not nonexistent relationship with Blago, consisting largely if the fact that they were in the same state at the same time?

I plan to weep for them while watching all the Republicans drown.

Yours crankily,
The New York Crank

He was palling around with an unrepentant corrupt governor! Oh noez!

Oh, here is something else. Take Blago and change the L into an M, and change the G into an A. Then rearrange the letters and it spells Obama.

Huh? Huh?

Plus Blago and Obama have 5 letters each. Add 1 to each 5 and you have 66. Then add another 6, and you get 666. So Obama is the Anti-Christ.

It's all out there in plain sight. Why can't people see what is going on? It must be the liberal media.

(You know, being a wingnut is kinda fun.)

If this "story" is so ridiculous, why do you write about it at all? The bloggers and the media are both guilty of beating this dead horse ad nauseum. Stop already!

Because if people don't write the debunking, all you're left with is bunk?

As long as people are putting the bunk out there, the debunkings need to be written. Otherwise you end up ceding the story to the right-wing noise machine who will beat the press into reporting it their way. I watched it happen in the Clinton years and in the early Bush years and the fact that there is now a force of debunkers on the left side of the aisle gives me a bit of hope that perhaps things are changing.

But stories like this don't go away if you ignore them. We tried that, and it didn't work.

is the real story about how Blago stepped on B of A's toes now this stuff comes out? is there not voice machines that could make someone sound like him?

I plan to weep for them while watching all the Republicans drown.

I plan to hand them an anvil. And hope that a sane right-leaning party can pick up the pieces and form a decent opposition party. But I'm not going to shed any tears for the vicious, nasty, disgusting cesspool of a party the GOP has become.

(As an ex-Republican, my only wish is that their demise could happen quickly so that a new opposition party not built on hate and ignorance could take their place.)

"Obama saw this coming, and he was very cautious about not having dealings with the governor for quite some time. The governor was perhaps the only American public officeholder who didn't speak at the convention, and that wasn't by accident. He's politically poisonous. You don't get through Chicago like Barack Obama did unless you know how to avoid people like that."

Compare and contrast Obama with Jesse Jackson Jr. Jackson's people were quite willing to fundraise and campaign with and for Blagojevich in recent months, according to today's story in the Chicago Tribune. Now, I am not, by any means, accusing Jackson of corruption. But had his ambition been reined in a bit by some wisdom, he would have gathered his supporters and told them "Look, the governor is radioactive; you don't fundraise with him, campaign with him, endorse him, don't do anything with him. I may have to be seen with him, but that's the price of politics. No one else is to be seen with him, lest people think the taint is on us."

Yeah, this whole attempt to somehow implicate Obama is a joke--so pathetic.

I caught that one and thought Tamron Hall did a great job--she told him it was "unfair" to characterize the relationship as "close" friends.

He also insisted they lived in the same neighborhood and she challenged that: "No, they actually lived in different neighborhoods".

I just chuckled. Reminded me of the whole Palin "Palling around with Terrorists" infamous comment-- and the assertions Obama was good friends with Ayers.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And another republican (some young idiot talking head) who came on later)when they were complaining that Obama hasn't been 'transparent' enough also kept insisting that Obama is not happy with this issue in the slightest--and the anchor at the time had the presence of mind to say "Uh, yeah, of course not--but that's not the issue". The issue was so idiotic--it was as though he was trying to argue that because Obama is upset about this corruption issue, that this itself is cause to believe that Obama is somehow guilty or associated with it?

Of course Obama is upset with this whole thing.
It would be odd if he weren't! It's a travesty of justice, it's a pain in the neck distraction for him as he is trying to put together a team and ready himself for assuming office-- and it's demoralizing for all of us.

In other words, he was trying to argue that Obama's visible discomfort with the issue makes for good cause that he is somehow culpable of... being evasive and perhaps even hiding something.

It won't be that simple to diffuse the smear attack.

Hall's challenge to the term "good friend" was a nice effort, but not strong enough. After reading the transcript, it seems she never really disarmed Heye. He stuck to his talking points and retracted nothing.

Compare and contrast Obama with Jesse Jackson Jr. Jackson's people

Not surprising when you consider that the (allegedly) Reverend Jesse Jackson apparently said "Politics is a contact sport. Only those on the sidelines have clean uniforms."

When even the clergy buy into the notion that the only way to be relevant is to play dirty, we have a long long road ahead trying to clean things up. The way in which Obama conducted his campaign was a good start - an example to latch onto where being above board actually worked. But it is only a start.

If the trajectory of the story follows with consistency from the start, we will have before us media personalities who were far too willing to apply their anti-Obama sentiments to the facts of the story before it fully developed. Kind of like the Downing St. Memo and the coverage of the pre-war intelligence.

I call my self conservative. I call the likes of anyone who proffers untruths criminal. Here's to the talking heads who are damning the facts, to date, of this story to bring us their own unperceived prejudices! -Kevo

This is just getting pathetic. Anyone who follows Illinois politics at all knows that Obama and Blago were not close in the slightest because NO ONE is close to Blago in the state Democratic party. He's as pure a politica leper as you can imagine and his support is pretty much limited to a small inner circle that is like a more sycophantic version of Bush's crew (if you can imagine that).

But not that the GOP cares. I agree, they don't have anything else, but sheesh. This is like Vince Foster 2.0.

I have it on very good authority that Obama is best friends with any Democrat around which a scandal unfolds in the future.

Kinda OT, but I heard IL Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn say a couple of pretty surprising things in an interview on NPR that bolster the idea that the political world was divided on Blago: First, he said that he had not spoken to Blago in nearly a year, and the second was that he said he was not surprised at all by the charges against him. This is the Democratic lieutenant governor, speaking on the record!

So, not a surprise that Obama was also not close to him.

Lots of mutual coincidences, however. Both Blago and Obama very, very, very close to the Syrian political fixer, Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Blago's wife in real estate with Rezko. Obama's wife in real estate deal with Rezko to obtain family mansion.

Just coincidences, of course, if you're a true believer.

"Republican talking points generally include a lot of inane arguments, but insisting that Blagojevich and Obama were close buddies is utterly ridiculous."
Of course, but dittoheads couldn't care less how ridiculous a point is, what matters to them is whether it's got "scent" on it - they are like beasts, the very fact that it's an aggressive dig is what matters, not reality.

Both Blago and Obama very, very, very close to the Syrian political fixer, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Rezko raised $3.8 million for George W. Bush in 2004 in a single evening. That's leaving aside his personal donations to the Bush campaign.

One of Rezko's lieutenants testified under oath that Rezko told him that Karl Rove and Dennis Hastert promised to get prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald fired so Rezko wouldn't go to jail. Fitzgerald was one of the US attorneys who was targeted in the firing scandal, but he managed to escape, possibly because even Rove realized that firing the prosecutor for a multi-million Bush fundraiser might look a little suspicious.

There's a reason McCain rarely brought up Rezko during the election: he knows that the Republicans are in deep with the guy.

But, please, continue complaining about Obama's relatively distant ties with Rezko while ignoring Rezko's well-documented close ties with national Republicans. That way, we can all know immediately that you're a partisan hack who never bothered to investigate any of this beyond what Rush and Sean told you.

Oh, and Luther, if you're interested in some actual facts as opposed to the fairy tales you get from the teevee, you can read Obama's interview with the Chicago Sun-Times about his Rezko ties and his house.

I won't hold my breath, though. I know facts will only frighten and confuse you.

Mnemosyne, stop wasting your time on Luther. He is an idiot and not gonna learn anytime soon.

Posted by: Luther on December 12, 2008 at 1:02 PM

People aren't "close" just because you put their names in a sentence together, although that's probably the extent of your thought and logic.

My fantasy is to have a very high concrete wall (complete with barbed wire at the top, of course) built around Texas, and put all the republicans inside. Maybe we could contract the Israelis to build it and call it the freedom fence. Oh and the wall should not allow any kind of radio or television waves to pass, or any sound, for that matter.

Mnemosyne, stop wasting your time on Luther. He is an idiot and not gonna learn anytime soon.

Oh, I know. I just worry about the lurkers who read stuff like that and think, "Yeah, hey, what about Rezko?" Luther may not be reachable, but some of them might be.

I guess you are right. We shouldn't give up on all Lutherans or should that be Lutherites...lol

Republican talking points generally include a lot of inane arguments, but insisting that Blagojevich and Obama were close buddies is utterly ridiculous.

And yet Doug Heye will continue to get a paycheck from The Hill and invited back to opine on MSNBC and any other cable channel that asks.

When will we demand that the corporations stewarding our air waves deliver more intelligent and legitimate content?