Rahm and Jesse - O U T ?

A few words about the developing Blagojevich Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) hatefest:

Pressure grew on two of President-Elect Barack Obama's closest political aides today as new details emerged of the "pay-for-play" allegations against the governor of his home-state. Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama's new chief of staff, and Jesse Jackson Jr, the co-chairman of his presidential campaign, both faced new revelations about their possible involvement in the scandal.

Why have the media gone haywire over Blagojevich (granted, a slimy politician-guy). How has his corruption factor exceeded what happened as a matter of policy during the eight years of Cheney/Bush? I didn't notice the FCM even sneezing at most of that. I guess the selling of a Senate seat (which used to be accepted SOP in politics (re: the Rethugli-Con Murkowskis in Alaska and dozens of others if not more prolly)) is of much more significance than murder and the traitorous selling of wars and the destruction of entire countries done at the whim of our leaders at the top to great applause. I'm not going to mention my detestation of legally unauthorized wiretaps again (and, yes, these undoubtedly were authorized), but if they were, how did politically-connected people like dear Rahmbo and Jesse get caught? Or did they? After all, the first news comes from Faux Noise and perhaps they are just having some fun. Jest sayin' (but it has an odd smell about it). And doesn't this timing seem, well, a little bit suspicious? (Never mind.)

Mr Jackson Jr met Gov Blagojevich at 4pm on Monday to discuss his interest in the Senate seat. Mr Blagojevich was arrested at his home at 6am on Tuesday morning by prosecutors who said they were trying to thwart a "political crime spree".

I also thought it interesting that we are offered a precious glance at the ethnic connections of money (a word to Charlie Rose - the next time you bring in an Indian who captured millions of U.S. jobs for his shoestring enterprise, ask him whom he had to pay off; now there's a story). As if that mattered anyway - it's just about money, Suzan, pay attention. And if you thought all our high tech industry went to India without the "proper" payoffs to those benefitting stateside, you'll be interested in this Blagoevich/Emanuel/Jackson nugget. (I'd love to hear Dennis the K chime in on this soon.)

A group of ethnic Indian businessmen with ties to Mr Jackson and Gov Blagojevich reportedly held a lunch on October 31 and discussed raising $1 million for the governor's campaign to encourage him to pick Mr Jackson as Senator, the Chicago Tribune said. Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich donor who also has ties to the Jackson family, then co-sponsored a fundraiser for the governor attended by Gov Blagojevich and Jesse Jackson Jr's brother Jonathan, the newspaper said. Mr Nayak, a leader of Chicago's Indian community, owns a string of surgery clinics and was once involved in a land deal with Jonathan Jackson.

I've thought Jesse Jr. a good kid in the past, but now that he's all growed up I wonder about this word parsing:

"People know me. They know who I am. I'm confident that no one on my behalf made a single offer to anybody for anything. I would not accept the position if it were offered under those circumstances," he said.

And if I could write like the insuperably talented Driftglass, I'd say even more.

Among his catalog of sins, Rod Blagojevich tried to turn Barack Obama’s Senate seat into a 401K, and shake down a children’s hospital for 50 grand. And for this he richly deserves and will do time in the House of Many Doors. Among their catalog of sins, our Wall Street overlords have nearly destroyed the global economy. And for this, the sun is being blotted out the sheer number and size of their Platinum Parachutes as they float away from the scene of their crime on a gentle breeze of taxpayer dollars. Among his vast catalog of sins, George W. Bush lied us into a war that got hundreds of thousands of people killed and pissed away trillions of your dollars into the sands of Iraq and the pockets of his cronies. And for this he will get a Presidential library and a retirement plan that will make the most lavish UAW pension look like a rounding error. We are a nation which, for some congenitally fucked-up reason, cannot seem to grasp that modern Big Dollar government – at all levels – is barely more than “…the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex” (h/t Frank Zappa).

Don't miss the Rude One on this subject either! (Maybe we can get everyone in blogtopia to write on this most important news item ever!) Suzan