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December 15, 2008
Exclusive: Obama Discussed Senate Vacancy with Indicted Governor? Say it Ain’t So!
Judicial Watch is performing its own investigation into the Illinois political scandal involving the state's governor and his connection to President-Elect Barack Obama.
While the mainstream news media are busy conducting their phony investigation – designed to subdue any negative effects on Obama – groups such as Judicial Watch are actually doing what the U.S. government should be doing: preventing or exposing dishonesty by our elected officials.
Obama denies having contact with the indicted Illinois governor who tried to sell his old Senate seat yet the president elect’s top advisor revealed last month that the men, longtime political pals, had in fact spoken about a replacement.
When a massive federal indictment charging Rod Blagojevich with multiple corruption counts was made public yesterday, Camp Obama suddenly diagnosed the second-term Democrat governor with political plague. The nation’s soon-to-be commander-in-chief claimed to barely know his close political ally.
After all, who wants to be connected to a notoriously crooked politician who just got arrested and charged with selling the influence of his office, lucrative state jobs and contracts to the highest bidders?
Prosecutors say Blagojevich also tried getting a cabinet-level position in Obama’s new administration in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate to replace him in the Senate.
Blagojevich and Obama go back years and Obama not only endorsed both of Blagojevich’s gubernatorial campaigns, but he also served as a top advisor in the first one in 2002. A couple of years later Blagojevich enthusiastically endorsed Obama for the U.S. Senate and Obama returned the favor by ardently supporting Blagojevich’s 2006 reelection bid, even though federal prosecutors were building a strong case against the Blagojevich administration’s illegal hiring practices.
Obama and Blagojevich also shared a major campaign donor, a shady Syrian businessman (Antoin Rezko) recently convicted of 16 counts of bribery, mail fraud and money laundering. Rezko raised about a quarter of a million dollars for Obama’s various political campaigns and poured $1.6 million into Blagojevich’s coffers.
It’s not surprising then, that the longtime political allies discussed a crucial legislative issue that affected them both. Their conversations about filling the newly vacant Senate seat was actually revealed by Obama’s senior advisor, David Axelrod, in a television news show broadcast in late November.
A huge indictment later, Axelrod issued a statement saying that he was mistaken when he told an interviewer last month that his boss spoke directly to Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. “They did not then or at any time discuss the subject,” Axelrod sternly states in his written statement.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement today in response to the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:
"There has been an air of lawlessness around Governor Blagojevich for some time and Judicial Watch applauds US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for his actions.
"Blagojevich's corruption is no surprise, but its breadth and depravity is shocking. The alleged efforts to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama are outrageous, but also seem to implicate many other powerful politicians and political players. Especially disturbing are the questions the scandal raises about Barack Obama and his close associates.
"This is a burgeoning crisis for Obama that should shake his presidency to its core.
"The criminal complaint filed today indicates that Obama and his team knew about Blagojevich's efforts to sell Obama's Senate seat. ("Tony" Rezko, Obama friend, fundraiser and real estate partner, is once again implicated in the corrupt activities exposed today.)
"Did Obama report Blagojevich to investigators about any efforts to sell his Senate seat?"
Judicial Watch has been investigating Rod Blagojevich for over two years and has ongoing open records litigation concerning the sale of government jobs for which he was arrested today. Blagojevich has stonewalled and refused to turn over documents to Judicial Watch that could have alerted the American people to his corruption.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Jim Kouri, CPP is currently vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and a staff writer for the New Media Alliance . Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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