AMERICAblog: NYT: Obama supported an ethics law, so that makes him unethical
leo
· 11 months ago
That caught my eye as well. Weird logic.
elizabethcostello
· 11 months ago
I guess I read it differently. Like, Obama as an Illinois Democrat is linked to all the other Illinois Democrats, including the sleazy ones just through general association, but supported this good government ethics law, which was a direct challenge to the usual Illinois ptp system, and this upset Blago. His pal Emil Jones went for it, and the entire Senate went for it, and Blago had to sign it, but he was pissed. But it had the ironic effect of setting a deadline which Blago was determined to beat, thus his hardcore hunt for ptp favors for the Senate seat and other issue he had power over. It actually makes Obama look good, though the article does also try to show that nevertheless, he emerged from this web of poiltics and politicians, some of whom like Blago are extremely sleazy. Negative capability, no?
middlegirl
· 11 months ago
Your headline is misleading, John. My reading of this article was that it was a vindication for Obama. Other sites, like Huffpo and the Daily Beast, are running headlines regarding this pieces that Obama indirectly led to Blago's downfall by using his influence to get an ethics bill passed in Il.
naschkatzehussein
· 11 months ago
This woman agrees with these two other women. It is in Obama's favor that the ethics bill he pushed flushed out Blagoyevich. Unfortunately Illinois will have to call a special election to fill Obama's seat which a Republican might win, but anyone accepting the seat from the hands of Blagoyevich would be dog meat and would probably not be seated by the US Senate.
So, sounds more like they're trying to connect Obama more to Emil Jones ("#5" ?) than to Blago himself, who roundly cursed Obama in a phone conversation, although that accusation may come later.
Even though Obama endorsed Blago, did that mean he knew all about his activities? Knowledge shouldn't necessarily imply culpability, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Rethugs will try to make the case.
By that logic, though, no one in the WH, except Scooter Libby, has been convicted of anything and he was an actor, not just a keeper of knowledge.
Surely we expect the Rethugs to do no less than to try to sabotage Obama's presidency by any means necessary.
emma g. richmond
· 11 months ago
What I see is a witch hunt the Republicans are doing everything they can to stop President Elect-Obama from being sworn in, In January 20, 2009. First they tried to say he's not a citizen and took that to count, now they trying to connect him to the Governor, If Mr. Obama was a Sen. sure he would have dealing with the Governor, Harry Reid said he had spoke with this Governor, other Sens. Hospital and the New Paper why they are not talking them, It's just Mr. Obama they focused on. The News Media is the throwing all these ideas out there for a Rating, CNN played a tape when Mr. Obama was campaigning people was saying he was too easy and said don't let little man fool you I'm from Chicago, what he was saying that he is strong, we all come from States like that. I came from a State that made me strong a Bias State that mean you can deal with the impossible. I notice the Republicans and Democrats have been "Abusing " him every since have been campaigning, he will over by the Grace of God.
Older_Wiser
· 11 months ago
Just watching the Fitzgerald presser from yesterday...and, someone should remind the NYT that he also said (to paraphrase) that people named or mentioned in the complaint, but not Blago or Harris, should not have aspersions cast on them, which is correct, since no charges have been brought against anyone except Blago/Harris.
He also said Obama was in no way implicated in the Blago/Harris schemes.
Everything else is pure speculation at this point. If the FBI is investigating further, and I believe they are, the evidence will be there as to whether any of the Blago/Harris schemes were carried out on the other side.
Note: Fitzgerald made it also clear that this is a "complaint" as opposed to an "indictment."
Smith
· 11 months ago
Fitz can go on every TV show, primetime, press conferences galore and swear up and down that Obama is in the clear and has nothing to do with this, but I'm already hearing wingnuts salivating that this is going to bring Obama down and that they want a special prosecutor to be named as soon as Obama takes office, then they want him impeached.
I'm serious - these people are unhinged and unfortunately more irresponsible members of the media are doing everything possible to link the names "Obama" and "Blago" together.
Most of the public is stupid and when they hear Obama's name being mentioned they will think that he is a member of the guilty party. Once people get something in their mind it is hard to dissuade them otherwise.
bluestockton
· 11 months ago
Obama should not have chosen to settle in Illinois if he wanted to enter politics. He should have moved someplace where he would never have to deal with unethical politicians. Mars, maybe.
kh7463
· 11 months ago
lol
Indigo
· 11 months ago
One of the Bronze Age volcano gods tried that. He issued a set of principles, one of them being "Thou shalt not kill." His followers are dancing around that one to this day, ever explaining how it's alright to execute criminals and to shoot intruders and to kill the enemy in wartime and all. It's impressive what people can come up with when evading an ethics ruling.
ChrisS
· 11 months ago
I didn't read it this way at all. I read it as Obama supporting an ethics reform bill, urging that a state legislative leader pass it over the Governor's objections, and thereby created a situation where the Governor would get caught.
Note that the headline says Obama's action led, indirectly, to the case against the Governor -- not that Obama's actions led to the Governor's corruption.
lewis_stoole
· 11 months ago
i don't know why readers here at americablog see this as a negative article. the title says "Obama’s Effort on Ethics Bill Had Role in Governor’s Fall" which is a positive. maybe if it was worded "obama championed an ethics bill, home state governor gets ensnared" it would not be as problematic.
on a different note, even without the bill, the governor was busted. and what's with the wiretaps?
kh7463
· 11 months ago
They've been bugging and following for a while now. It started at least a year ago with the Rezko thing.
vkobaya
· 11 months ago
It was predictable that the Republicans would try to find some way to smear Obama with Blagojevich. I expected it. When this doesn't work they will go on to something else. As a measure of his stature as a Supreme Court Justice, Scalia will try to prove Obama is not a citizen. They are desperate. AP headline says that Blago could dog Obama. They don't know how or why but they want to tar Obama with Blago. Hell, wait a few years and they will find a way to blame Obama for starting the Iraqi War, the Vietnam War, Would War II, World War I, the Civil War, and Christ's crucifixion ... probably Original Sin since he was the Snake in the Garden. Republicans also blame Obama for your pimples and boogers.
Older_Wiser
· 11 months ago
The wingnuts are flooding CSPAN, and the first name they mention is "Obama" as though he's the one who was charged...
MoonDragon
· 11 months ago
Is it just me, or does Gov. B look like a freaky cross between Herb Tarlick and George Stephanopolis?
vkobaya
· 11 months ago
I was thinking he was more like a cross between Elmer Fudd and Wiley E. Coyote. <g> Pathetically, cartoonishly villainous and monomaniacally stupid.
lewis_stoole
· 11 months ago
yep!
Snarki, child of Loki
· 11 months ago
And if there were no Geneva Conventions, Bush wouldn't be a War Criminal.
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
good one! The screenname is also good.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 11 months ago
an example of news written to fit the narrative (obama entangled in murky chgo politics, alliances of convenience rather than principle). some of the Times writers are just wannabe crime novelists. thanks for the morning chuckle.
vkobaya
· 11 months ago
morning chuckle.
Trouble is they will be screaming to impeach Obama within 6 months, a year at the most. So, while it seems funny now, the right wing is intent on being as obstructionist as possible. That is, if they don't start on January 21, 2009.
The charge that Obama is not an American citizen is ridiculous, would be absurdly funny, but Scalia intends to try to make it stick. Where Scalia goes, Uncle Thomas isn't far behind and I doubt that they don't have Roberts and Alito backing them up. I would not have imagined any Supreme Court Justice could stoop this pathetically low, but that is giving the Republicans far too much credit. Yeah, morning chuckle except that the Republican think tanks are probably burning out their brains trying to smear Obama with Blagojevich. That would also be funny except they are dead serious.
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
What does any American citizen expect? The Supreme Court decided they were "King makers" back in 2000. Now they can't believe they don't get to pick the new President this time around... In their minds, they picked George W. Bush in 2000 so why can't they pick McThesuleh in 2008? Besides, Scalia knows best! Screw the will of The People!
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
and the whole Georgia Senate election to re-elect Sax-o-shit Chambliss was to ensure Republicans could effectively STOP anything Obama and the Democrats try to do in order to save the nation from the past eight years!
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
Number one story on Yahoo:
"Scandal could dog Obama"
Obama has repeatedly been cleared by the investigation, but it could "Dog Obama." Oh really? How so? Oh, I get it, FOX NEWS will continue to claim Obama had something to do with it until the idiots who watch FOX believe it, right? Is that it?!!?
except that's not Yahoo, it's AP. and the writer is our very own favorite "sprinkles" sidoti. she is a complete tool. she is incapable of writing a straight news story. it's all spin all the time. what a tiresome, painful person.
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
Yea, I realize its "AP" but they have it as their Numero Uno story on their home page.
and Sidoti is STILL trying to serve donuts to McThesuleh.
Steve_in_CNJ
· 11 months ago
is it possible that people like sidoti are making themselves irrelevant with these ludicrous articles? i mean, the election is over. her donut man was soundly defeated. obama has 80% approval. that's like bush after 9/11. is this really a good time to be writing nonsensical hit pieces against the one guy that people have trusted to reverse the bush disaster?
kh7463
· 11 months ago
They'll never be irrelevant to the masses, because the masses don't want to hear truth.
vkobaya
· 11 months ago
Learned all about this stuff in my 9th grade social studies class back in 1961. Its called the repeated lie technique, another of the tactics that goes along with the big lie. They are despotic propaganda techniques that Hitler originated in his Mein Kampf.
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
Agreed, and FOX NEWS has used this technique successfully the entire time they've been on-air!
cowboyneok
· 11 months ago
I get it! Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanual blew the whistle on this crime so that somehow makes Obama involved? Is that it? When one of your staff calls the police it makes you the criminal? Hmmmm? I having a problem reconciling this... Help me, FOX NEWS...
Smith
· 11 months ago
The media is absolutely loving this scandal - it's their chance to take Obama down. Even though Fitz has cleared Obama, that is not going to stop the righty blogs and the "liberal" MSM from ominously claiming that Obama is involved somehow.
They are going to do everything possible to make this stick to Obama like they did the Clintons and Whitewater.
OneManCommotion
· 11 months ago
That's why I don't read that "Rag". They were done when they held back the Valarie Plame story.
BooksAlive
· 11 months ago
Elizabeth Costello and Chris S share my read on that story: Obama is proud of his record in the Illinois Senate and US Senate for spearheading "reforms in ethics" bills. So this fall, BEFORE the general election, he contacted Emil Jones and said the proposed new ethics bill should pass, which it did.
Blago saw that he had to rake in all that he could before the new law took effect on Jan 1, 2009. This increased, frenetic activity is what the Feds have been taping and tracking.
I'd like all cable news talking heads to know that our Nov 4 ballot contained a proposal to allow a quicker form of impeachment of the sitting governor (that's the intent as I recall). They could also give some airtime to explaining the new law that put restrictions on political contributions resulting in monetary benefits to the donor.
teresaInPa
· 11 months ago
the most interesting thing I remember about that ethics legislation is that it contained just exactly the right size and shape of holes Obama needed to gain a lot of anonymous online donations during his campaigns....meaning that certain people could donate millions if they so chose.
What happened to campaign finance reform? I thought we were all in favor of it? As for this story...utter rot of course
Shanon
· 11 months ago
Please go into detail about these "holes" if you have any.
mousegirl
· 11 months ago
The one question we need to ask the conservative media is why they prefer to make up bad news instead of reporting factual good news. I believe the answer to that question is that the media thinks good news doesn't sell. The only problem is, that mindset is no longer true. In these troubling times people need and want to hear good news. The media's attempt at scandal making is just not going to work this time, thank goodness.
1000turtles
· 11 months ago
I don't know. I disagree with your take on the article; it doesn't at all seem to be accusing Obama of being *responsible* for Blago's corruption. While it does suggest that Illinois politics tend toward corruption, and that Obama had to navigate his way through all of it (and still has to), the bias I get in this article deals more with suspicion that Obama has been making legislative decisions for self-serving ends (with his eye on the presidency). But blaming Obama for Blag's downfall ...I guess I don't see it.
cwzilla
· 11 months ago
the reich wing is all a titter about fitzgerald now that he's goin after blogo but I seem to remember the same ppl getting out their long knives to go after him for goin after rove and libby it seems to the rethugs if a rethug does it its not against the law and they are gettin picked on by a vast left wing conspiricy
EmGD
· 11 months ago
Obama supports ethics reform, ethics reform catches crooked governor, tape of crooked governor shows how infuriated by Obama's refusal not to play crooked game. Seems pretty straightforward to me: Obama had a small role in a good law that helped take down a cretin. Apparently I was wrong, if you surround all those facts with the repeated use of the phrase "murky, Chicago-style politics" you apparently can get smoke from a non-existent fire.
Another half-way decent person (I haven't followed his politics at all) is Jesse Jackson Jr. A lot of us from this region automatically go against Jr. because of his father's weirdness. And that shouldn't be.
kh7463
· 11 months ago
A personal blog I read (non-political) is trying to say that because Blogo is corrupt so is Obama because he came from IL. I told him the two could not be more different in my eyes, and considering he's from NJ and had probably never heard of Blogo before yesterday (and forget about pronouncing his name or spelling it lol), I told him he has no clue what he's talking about.
All Comments
Even though Obama endorsed Blago, did that mean he knew all about his activities? Knowledge shouldn't necessarily imply culpability, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Rethugs will try to make the case.
By that logic, though, no one in the WH, except Scooter Libby, has been convicted of anything and he was an actor, not just a keeper of knowledge.
Surely we expect the Rethugs to do no less than to try to sabotage Obama's presidency by any means necessary.
He also said Obama was in no way implicated in the Blago/Harris schemes.
Everything else is pure speculation at this point. If the FBI is investigating further, and I believe they are, the evidence will be there as to whether any of the Blago/Harris schemes were carried out on the other side.
Note: Fitzgerald made it also clear that this is a "complaint" as opposed to an "indictment."
I'm serious - these people are unhinged and unfortunately more irresponsible members of the media are doing everything possible to link the names "Obama" and "Blago" together.
Most of the public is stupid and when they hear Obama's name being mentioned they will think that he is a member of the guilty party. Once people get something in their mind it is hard to dissuade them otherwise.
Note that the headline says Obama's action led, indirectly, to the case against the Governor -- not that Obama's actions led to the Governor's corruption.
on a different note, even without the bill, the governor was busted. and what's with the wiretaps?
Trouble is they will be screaming to impeach Obama within 6 months, a year at the most. So, while it seems funny now, the right wing is intent on being as obstructionist as possible. That is, if they don't start on January 21, 2009.
The charge that Obama is not an American citizen is ridiculous, would be absurdly funny, but Scalia intends to try to make it stick. Where Scalia goes, Uncle Thomas isn't far behind and I doubt that they don't have Roberts and Alito backing them up. I would not have imagined any Supreme Court Justice could stoop this pathetically low, but that is giving the Republicans far too much credit. Yeah, morning chuckle except that the Republican think tanks are probably burning out their brains trying to smear Obama with Blagojevich. That would also be funny except they are dead serious.
"Scandal could dog Obama"
Obama has repeatedly been cleared by the investigation, but it could "Dog Obama." Oh really? How so? Oh, I get it, FOX NEWS will continue to claim Obama had something to do with it until the idiots who watch FOX believe it, right? Is that it?!!?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081210/ap_on_go_pr...
and Sidoti is STILL trying to serve donuts to McThesuleh.
They are going to do everything possible to make this stick to Obama like they did the Clintons and Whitewater.
Blago saw that he had to rake in all that he could before the new law took effect on Jan 1, 2009. This increased, frenetic activity is what the Feds have been taping and tracking.
I'd like all cable news talking heads to know that our Nov 4 ballot contained a proposal to allow a quicker form of impeachment of the sitting governor (that's the intent as I recall). They could also give some airtime to explaining the new law that put restrictions on political contributions resulting in monetary benefits to the donor.
What happened to campaign finance reform? I thought we were all in favor of it?
As for this story...utter rot of course
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
BREAKING NEWS ALERT
Report: Jesse Jackson Jr. is 'Senate Candidate 5'