What Did Obama Know, And When Did He Know It?

I knew the fix was in when even the ever-vigilant Republican Pit-bull Sean Hannity was willing to give Barack Obama a Hall Pass regarding his involvement – or lack thereof – in the Rod Blagojevich scandal. Blagojevich is, of course, the Democrat governor who attempted to sell the soon-to-be-vacated Senatorial seat of Barack Obama. Blagojevich was caught on tape attempting to peddle the seat to the highest bidder, and also to secure from the Obama administration:

- A Cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

- A seat on the board of some public organization for his wife.

- A minimum yearly income of $350,000.

- A luxury box at the Robert F. Kennedy stadium in Washington D.C. and a boatload of Hookers.

OK, I made that last one up, and you may be asking yourself: why does any of this matter, and what does it have to do with Barack Obama? The short answer is that Obama is up to his chiseled cheekbones in the scandal, and the cover-up is happening before your very eyes.

Consider this sequence of events by the key players:

- David Axelrod – Obama’s top aide - declared on November 23rd that Obama had had extensive conversations with Blagojevich about the possible replacements for his Senate seat.

- Blagojevich (as revealed yesterday by the FBI), unawares and on tape, was telling everybody and anybody for the past month that he intended to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

- Blagojevich, unawares and on tape, was telling everybody and anybody that he intended to extract a plum job for himself – such as a Cabinet post or Ambassadorship – from the Obama administration, and while he was at it, a cushy job for his wife as well.

- Blagojevich, unawares and on tape, was declaring that he intended to get said cabinet post and other goodies from Obama, or he would simply take the Senate seat for himself.

- Blagojevich, unawares and on tape, cursing Obama out days later for not giving him any of those goodies.

- Obama on Dec. 9th – the day the scandal broke – claiming he had never spoken to Blagojevich about his replacement.

- Finally, Obama’s spokesman claimed hours later – when Axelrod’s statements came to light – that Axelrod “misspoke” about Obama having spoken to Blagojevich.

Tell me folks, if Axelrod “misspoke” about Obama having spoken to Blagojevich, how could Blagojevich – unawares and on tape – have made statements weeks prior that contradicted Obama’s denial? The short answer: Obama is lying and did speak directly to Blagojevich about filling his seat. After all, why would Axelrod make such a story up?

The long answer:

- Blagojevich was negotiating with Obama’s staff - as well as sundry other operatives in the Democratic party - for his Goodies bag. This is SOP in national politics up until the point that the demands become blatantly illegal.

- Obama and his staff were going through the motions of “Chicago politics as usual” in negotiating a payoff with Blagojevich. After all, some consideration was due the man with the power to make the appointment. After all, they are all descendents of the Daley Machine, and it is not in their political DNA to do otherwise.

- Obama knew about it, but kept himself at arm’s length from the transaction, as he prudently would so as to sustain his public claims that he never had any direct dealings with Blagojevich.

Either way, Obama knew about it. Think about it this way: Which of his aides would dare to keep such a conversation from the new President Elect, fraught as it was with political and possibly legal consequences? Think about it another way: Haven’t we seen these implausible denials from Obama before? I’m speaking of course, of his denial of anything other than the most casual of relationships with the radical preacher Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the domestic terrorist William Ayres and, what the hell, let’s throw in the mobster Tony Rezco for good measure, ironically the man who has bankrolled both Obama and Blagojevich.

I know, I know, I’m being mean-spirited and crudely partisan for connecting the dots in this fashion, what with President Elect Obama not even having taken office and all. Sorry, folks. To accept this surrealistic concoction, I’d have to shave about 100 points of IQ, and I’m going to need every resource at my disposal just to survive his presidency. Plus, the stink of “Chicago-as-usual” politics is all over this scandal, just as there has been a persistent whiff of that same stink over Obama for most of his political career.

It's enough to make one throw the back of one's hand dramatically to one's forehand and declare that some hero should come to save us. Where is the ever-vigilant Patrick Fitzgerald when you need him? Oh joy, he’s actually on the case! Having himself avoided incarceration for his fraudulent prosecution of Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson non-scandal, Fitzgerald is the prosecutor for Blagojevich. There’s got to be some Karmic conflict in this one, because it was solely on the basis of Libby’s simple denial of involvement in the Plame affair that Fitzgerald embarked on his witch hunt of Libby, Rove, Cheney GW et al. By comparison, the facts available right now virtually scream of Obama’s involvement as nothing less than an unindicted co-conspirator, and it will be interesting to see if Fitzgerald pursues this as enthusiastically as he did GW Bush and his minions.

Speaking of which, the rank hypocrisy of the Media in their initial attempts to whitewash this one is a sight to behold, as they offered no challenges to any of Obama's statements on the matter. I'll bet GW would have killed for even a small dose of that suspension of disbelief when he was under the Media microscope.

And don’t even get me started on the gutless Republicans for mostly looking the other way. Bill O’Reilly declared last night that he will harass any Conservative commentator who dares to declare that Obama was involved in this scandal; Sean Hannity – after his initial muckraking - apparently got the memo, and is now falling all over himself to declare Obama innocent.

But, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I will grant one scenario that will absolve Obama. If it turns out that he or his aides ratted Blagojevich out to the Feds when he first approached them weeks ago, Obama is off the hook. Either way, I expect Obama and/or his aides to be part of the court proceedings, either as witnesses or co-conspirators.

Either way, it’s going to be fun to watch this one unfold.