San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Felix: Illinois should adopt a new state motto when it comes to politics: "Hey, at least we're not as bad as Louisiana!".

I found it interesting to watch Obama try to explain the Rezko real estate deal during an interview. Both Obama and his wife Michelle were involved in the deal and both of them are lawyers and yet Obama seemed extremely hard pressed to explain what, by his own admission, was a "simple" deal between he and Rezko.

My dad and my uncle both hail from Chicago and I heard plenty of stories when I was a kid about how "things got done" there.

Obama is already creating plenty of distance between he and Gov. Rod. The "splatter factor" on this one has the potential to do him a lot of damage, especially if Axelrod's comments prove true (and anyone in the MSM is willing to cover the story).

Obviously any Governor and Senator from the same state will have contact with each other, but trying to pin this scandal on Obama is tenuous. It's pretty clear to anyone who has read the transcripts that Blago hated "motherfucker" Obama and was ready to go to war with him.

You couldn't ask for a better script.. this shit is GOLDEN.

The problem for Obama is that Obama and Blago had a very close link in the person of Rezko. He was Obama's next door neighbor!

I don't think this will be swept under the rug again by the media.

Felix: The WSJ is reporting that Blago owes $500k to his law firm, Winston & Strawn, for legal representation during the criminal investigation and that they have stopped representing him as a result.

Blago's financial "hardships" were repeatedly referenced in the criminal complaint, and these hardships were one of the reasons he was attempting to sell the Senator's seat.

It will be interesting to see what he does next. He is under tremendous pressure to resign, the Illinois AG is now threatening to intervene and there are also possible additional criminal complaints being hinted at.

Does Blago roll on Obama? The link to Obama is not "tenuous". It exists, and the David Axelrod remarks of 23Nov are going to assume a great deal more significance in the coming weeks, especially as the heat builds on Gov. Rod.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_o...

Blagojevich on Monday ordered all state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America to pressure the bank into using federal bailout money it received to help the laid-off workers.

I find it a little curious how insistent the media is in stating Obama has absolutely no involvement with this whatsoever pointing out that the DA has gone out of his way to make this clear.

It's a little too insistent IMO, and don't forget Obama is the guy who had his opponents removed from the ballot in the 1996 election race for a Senate seat.

We need more wiretaps for politicians on both sides of the aisle.

I thought the timing of this was very interesting as well

ala Spitzer

Not to say I think Blagojevich is innocent, neither was Spitzer.

I think that type of corruption is pretty common place on that level of politics, listen to how nonchalant he was. He probably ruffled somebody's feathers. ala Cuban as well....

That little scene at the Chicago factory is going to become more and more common place in the very near future. That is a precedence "they" did not want set.

Actually Karl Rove was making it a point to say there was nothing there with Obama as well and when doesn't that guy lie or manipulate?

None of those Fox-news contrived 'relationships' bother me nearly as much as McSame's close relationship with Chimpy:

Chimpy-McSame

Could you imagine four more years of the same douchebag policies we've all had to suffer through over the last 8 years? *Shudder*

Breezy: Are you familiar with the old saw that "consistency is the bugbear of small minds"?

God forbid you intelligently comment on the topic at hand. Nope. Just throw out a "Chimpy" bon mot and call it good.

Reductio ad Hitler writ large, eh?

What Fitzgerald said has been mischaracterized by many in the media and most defenders of Obama.

All involved have been very measured in their words except perhaps Blago himself who at this point isn't talking anymore.

Fitzgerald said he wouldn’t speak to whether the president-elect was aware of anything, but stressed that there are no allegations that he was aware of anything. That is not the same as as saying Obama or his staff are free and clear. Obama himself has only said he did not talk with Blago. That is not the same as saying his proxies did not have any contact with Blago on his behalf.

If some Blago and his staff start talking to the Feds this could get pretty ugly for Obama and his staff.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/ob...

President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Arraya: You know it was Emanuel that "outed" Blago. No two ways about it. Obama is smart enough to recognize the potential for disaster in this mess and is simply getting out in front of it.

Nixon was not undone by the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, he was undone by the ensuring coverup. Emanuel, who was Clinton's attack dog back in the day, will stage manage the flow of information, including which aide will take the bullet for Obama, until the dust settles and the MSM move on to the next story.

The only wild card here is how bad things might get for Blago and what he'd be willing to "trade" in exchange for a lessened sentence.

Allen-You're probably right about Rahm. The funny thing is that the they didn't drop the hammer until Blago started threatening their friends at Bank of America. Poor Rod was just trying to get his piece of the pie from the maggots, like everyone else. Moral of the story, if you're a crooked public servant, never try to do the right thing.

He'll do very little, if any time, a token fine, probation and promises of a fat private sector job for keeping his trap shut.

Arraya: Good point. Keep your corruption, graft and till tapping under control and you won't get into trouble. Let it get out of control, or threaten the wrong people (BofA, Obama) and you're gonna get spanked.

Good article in Time Magazine about Blago and his downfall (http://www.time.com/time/politics/articl...).

ALL public "servants" phone conversations and emails should be publicly accessible.

That might result bring some accountability. If they're always acting on behalf of those they server and represent, what have they to hide?

Blago is going to be just fine. Today he met with black ministers and prayed. They think he needs help right now and should not be left hopeless. I wonder what they prayed for? I'm guessing it wasn't forgiveness.

This is a serious question: Is it out of the ordinary for an outgoing Senator to consult with a Governor who is going to appoint said Senator's vacant seat? If you take all the bribery and corruption out of this equation, is it something that happens often? Is there a legal precedence for it?

Contrived relationships?

You have your head in the sand.

Obama comes out yesterday and says there are two types of pols. The Blago's of the pol world are looking to just make $ and the others, supposedly the Obama's, who are there for public service.

That sure sounds nice but why then would Obama endorse Blago not once but twice? And why then would he not only endorse Blago but be the first to endorse him for Governor?? Blago's rep was no more a secret than Rev. wright's views or Ayers past.

I'll tell you why he would endorse Blago. They both are both from the political tree Rezko's making. Rezko started both these guys as pols who would go along and play the game the way it is played here.

More and more is going to come out. Blago won't go down alone. His type never does. Obama and his Chicago crew are very deep into this mess.

Illinois state AG went before the Illinois Supreme Court and asked to have Blago removed from power. He has also filed a TRO against the governor as well.

This oughta get real interesting now.

Obama is dirty. Always has been. Always will be. The media has gone out of its way to avoid catching a whiff of the foul breeze that blows whenever he steps into a room. Sooner or later, the veneer will be hacked off with a sledgehammer -- but I wouldn't count on that happening until Obama has outlived whatever usefulness he serves for the Powers That Be, i.e. when the populace gets so frustrated, hungry and homeless that they refuse to cling to his *hope and change* pablum.

But it is very amusing to watch the media scurry and run to protect Obama. We are expected to believe that he is the only *clean* and decent pol to ever emerge from the festering swamp of Chiacgo politics. LOL. The only thing dirtier than the Chicago political machine is a sewage treatment plant in rural Shanghai.

Partypup: Now we find out exactly how far The Powers That Be are willing to let this thing spill out of control.

You know as well as I that anyone coming out of Chicago politics (and Illinois politics) is dirty. Since 1971, they've had some 30+ aldermen and three governors go down on corruption charges and the Rezko-Blago and Rezko-Obama connection would be very interesting to investigate. The question now is: Is someone going to actually do it?

Does the Fitzgerald investigation open the door to some enterprising reporter? Or, does a major daily jump in and start seriously delving into this? Given the fact that most of the major dailies are owned by only a few companies, and the Tribune Cos certainly appear tainted, this is going to be fascinating to watch.

hmm. how long until these guys commit suicide. getting busted as dc madams... er, illinois madams has got to hang heavy on their conscious.

Allen: What a piece of work this guy is, I just read that Times piece. A pathological narcissist to the core.

This not stepping down has gotta have the Obama team sweating a little bit. It's like him saying "You wanna play rough, eh. You got dirt, I got dirt, lets roll!" He's negotiating! lol

I see what you are saying now that they had to derail this guy before he did something really stupid and dredged up a whole closets full of skeletons from the bottom of lake michigan that the Chicago crew would prefer remain hidden.

If anything it gives the people a little glimpse into Chicago politics.

Arraya: Yup. And you get the sense that Blago ain't gonna be a good boy and go quietly into that good night.

The whole Rezko connection has never been fully explored or fully explained and now Fitzgerald is getting ready to light up his whole world, the Illinois AG has hit him with a TRO and is asking the state's highest court to remove him. Under that kind of pressure, what do you think Blago is going to do?

I think Obama is sweating just a little right now.

He cleared himself.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/12/24/...

One might think that releasing a report at 4:30 p.m. on the day before Christmas Eve would be a good way to have it avoid notice, but that was never destined to be the case when it came to the Obama transition team's report on contacts with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Personally I have my doubts about the government's claims against Gov. Blagojevich.

I read somewhere that Blago's wife was the real estate agent when Rezko sold the property to Obama lol.

John

Illinois senate voted unanimously for him to resign.

John