Obama Blagojevich Connection Attempted And Failed On "Hannity And Colmes"

Media Matters' Jamison Foser makes note of an emerging press conceit to be on the lookout for -- Blagojevich stories that seem to raise the specter of President-Elect Barack Obama being "implicated in the scandal, followed by concessions that he, you know...isn't."*

Ironically, on last night's Hannity & Colmes, the opposite occurred. On four separate occasions, it was mentioned that the raft of legal documents contained material that was "exculpatory" to Obama. Sean Hannity made mention of it, early in the show:

HANNITY: But for all of the Obama supporters out there that say Sean Hannity never gives the President-elect a break, there is exculpatory information in here that I think helps Barack Obama a ton. And let me tell you what it is. When the Governor Blagojevich says they're not willing to give me, and he was talking specifically about Obama, anything except appreciation [for giving his preferred Senate candidate the vacated seat], I would think that that works very favorably for the President-elect. The thing that works against him is what Blagojevich said the day before where, quote, "he would work with the Service Employees International Union," they'd work out a deal that would benefit Blagojevich, and that, quote, something favorable would go to the union from the President-elect in the future.

Now, of course, Hannity's second point depends on a Barack Obama who, having spurned a shady quid pro quo in the first place, would be willing to keep a shady promise to someone else at a later date. This does not seem like plausible human behavior to me, but hey, it's not like the White House has been some Temple to Plausible Human Behavior lately. The salient point is this: as far as any ongoing corruption is concerned, what Fitzgerald has put out there more or less indicates that Obama wasn't willing to participate in anything out of bounds.

Like I said, the exculpatory nature of the taped conversations came up numerous times throughout the show. Like, say, during a conversation with Mike Huckabee.

HANNITY: Obama had "Candidate 1" that he wanted, and if anything, the Governor's frustration was that Obama wouldn't give him anything. I think that's fairly exculpatory for him. On the other hand what I was talking about with Karl was that there would be favors in the future by the President-elect. So there's a lot of unanswered questions in my mind.

HUCKABEE: I think the greater issue is that the corruptible person is the Governor, I do not see that Barack Obama would be stupid enough to even worry with it.

You see how "favors" that haven't transpired yet have suddenly become done deals? And how even Mike Huckabee is feeling me, where "plausible human behavior" is concerned? Well, this must have really agitated the poisonous egg yolk inside Hannity's skull, because after a brief fusillade of complaining about Bill Ayers, Hannity returned to the topic at hand with this bit of nonsense:

HANNITY: I wonder if we're starting to see what we suspected of Barack Obama. I think the Tony Rezko issue is going to be a big problem for him. Especially since he's all over this document. The word President-elect is mentioned 44 times.

OH NOES! The word "President-elect" is in the documentation how many times? Well, that's certain damnation, isn't it? My God! What role did VERBS play in this corruption? Precisely how many definite and indefinite articles were involved? Tune in tonight, when Hannity & Colmes hashes it all out with the Fox News Forensic Grammarian!

*This is something many might say I'm guilty of myself, after yesterday's post in which I mused that the rumors that Obama and his transition team may have been aware of the ongoing investigation before his appearance on "Meet the Press" turned a throwaway line during that interview into a moment of added heat. Many of you felt I was taking a step too far and implying something beyond. I wasn't, 'twas just a musing on that interview moment, but I can see why I left that impression and regret that I was insufficiently clear.

Comments

[meinokea]

It is nice to know where the new munchkins live.

[applescruff]

I love to see the hypocrits who claim they love thier country and want what is best for it go on and continually wish the worst for President Elect Obama. I think that says alot for where people's true loyalties lie. They'd rather see this country go down the drain then have a black man save them from what thier idea of good leadership has done to this poor country. Pathetic by any measure.
These people should explain to us all what good will come out of another failed presidency for them and thier family's future.

[ryk2506]

Right, Obama couldn't be connected with this crook, or Rezko, or Rev. Wright, or Ayers, or anything that could actually besmirch his character, because he looks so cool and gives such great speeches, except for the eh and uh and eh and uh when he isn't reading it off a screen. I've had it with this all this. I'm won't enjoy the meltdown of the Dems and their lunacy the next four years, but I will go after them with the same energy as they have gone against conservatives the last few years.....America has become an alternate universe, traditional values are ridiculed, the media invents messiahs, people like me who have worked all their lives, raised families, believed in God, we are the outcasts...I am so fed up with it all. I can't wait to vote this clown and all of the Dem whackos out of office four years from now........if we still have a country.

[Oonagh]

Doing a check right now.... Bush came into office with a surplus.... On his watch we were attacked...9/11..he took us to war in the wrong country and today our economy is cratering and we have a deficit of unspeakable numbers...we are basically owned by China ... and you are wishing a continuation of this type of administra­tion......­....Hello, are you for real????????

[Oonagh]

Very sour grapes

[pir anha]

i'm just surprised hannity watchers know what "exculpatory" means.

[1ChicagoDave]

The media's grasping at straws to make controversy. One MSNBC anchor's argument for Obama hiding something could have been an argument against him hiding anything if spoken with a slightly different tonality! This passes for "news"??!!?

More thoughts on that here:
http://chicagodavesvoice.blogspot.com/2008/12/barrack-obama-denies-involvement-with.html

-Thanks,
Chicago Dave

[rasit]

I wonder why Allan Colmes is leaving? Any ideas?

[teasley]

"Wow! It didn't take FAUX news long to go full racist" What did I miss? Hannity is a partisan hack who gets paid to bad the mouth the other side. Just as Al Franken did on Air America. Please don't bring race into it. It makes you look like a racist. Hannity would say the same thing about President Elect Al Gore or Hillary Clinton or John Kerry. Thats what his sponsors pay him to do.

[Suzanne525]

I have never actually heard Hannity, as I've never listened to his show. Feel like I'm missing out!

But take comfort in knowing that the majority of the electorate did NOT believe the lies that were spewed before the election, so why would any of those voters start believing him now?

[OneTruePatriot]

Wow, didn't take long for Faux News to go full racist! There still scratching their collective heads over how a black man got elected in Hannity's America!

[leatherneck1971]

Anyone noted Oreilly did not try to play the connection game? It puzzled me till today, on 104.1 FM out of Tucson, where Neal Boortz one of Oreilly's fellows on 104.1 FM which is out of Atlanta but syndicated nation wide, denigrated Oreilly, which puzzled me till one reads Oreilly is leaving talk radio, guess the fact he and his cohorts on "cry baby right wing radio" got blamed for the republican parties loss in 2008, has had a effect, but if one tunes into 104.1 FM Laura Ingraham, Jon Justice, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, Hannity all members of the cry baby radio network on 104.1 FM, are crying the right wing blues, trying their best to connect Obama to this scandal! I got a new nick name for these icons of public airwaves, radio welfare queens, since they benefit from this public handout as they cry about welfare, socialism, etc, not surprising they have been radio welfare queens for many years now!

[FirstShirt]

I am a republican and I don't think there was any connection between Obama and the Governor in terms of corruption. I truly believe Obama is an honest and ethical man who had to do business in a sleazy city.

Obama is more like Jimmy Carter than Lyndon Johnson or Kennedy. His problems will come from Hillary. Just watch. She will have legislative credentials and now diplomatic credentials. Obama has a job no President can possibly do in 4 years. If he fails [and he already has this Governor scandal dogging him] Hillary will run against him like Teddy did against Jimmy.

[MCpiano]

Already lowering expectations on Obama, now that he is elected.

[rasit]

There is no need to lower expectations, just like he created history by his election, he will create history AGAIN, by being one of our GREATEST Presidents!!!

[enh8g2]

He strikes me as a Jimmy Carter too. It's fitting too because Carter's election marked the end of a corrupt administration. Just hope that he is over all more successful then Carter.

[camper65]

They were probably premature.

[karinova]

Someone made the point that Obama has been in Chicago politics for his entire adult life (minus college), and that he even has a somwhat "thuggish" political reputation there. I would like to point out that from what I understand, he got his "thuggish" reputation in large part because of an incident wherein he refused to play nice with some of Chicago's establishment.

He got there; he organized; he made friends with political connections. He got a mentor. She vacated her seat and he decided to run for it; he was doing well. Then she changed her mind and asked him to back out of the race so she could take her seat back. He refused-- why should he back out when he's doing so well? They couldn't believe it-- who does this upstart think he IS? They decided to play hardball. And what did he do?

He blew their minds by DESTROYING their campaign-- not with dirty politics, but by-- wait for it-- diligently checking public records. Oops! Turns out his supremely confident opponent had never actually bothered to get the number of signatures legally required to even BE on the ballot!

THAT'S how much eff the Chicago Establishment.

Bottom line: right at the START of his Chicago career, he came to a fork in the road. Not only did he take the correct path, but he burned the bridge leading to the other path in such a way that I doubt he could EVER get to it.

[JudgeMoonbox]

Imagine that Ted Stevens had become Governor of Alaska, and that Sarah Palin was elected to his Senate seat.

Next, imagine that the McCain/Palin ticket had won, and that Gov. Stevens tried to auction off the now-vacant Senate seat. Would the Hannitys be trying so desperately to connect Palin to Stevens's wheeling dealing?

Quite the opposite. They'd be whining that the media was doing less than a Republican Pravda would to beat down the rumors.

[wmfor]

He would call any critics of Sarah "sexists".

[GoogleMaster]

Has this morphed into a FOX vs MSNBC game? If so I'd like to call your Hannitys and Olbermanns and raise you a CNN Morning Express with Robin Meade.