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

[eden4barack08]

In Seannity graduated from that, to questioning the meaning of "contact" today. He dug up a photo of the Dec 2 governor's meeting with Obama/Biden, where he's going around shaking all 41 Governor's hands, among them of course: Blago. So now he's questioning Obama saying he had "no contact" with Blago regarding the Senate seat, by showing that super public handshake, which is clearly "contact".

Can you believe it? My opinion of Inseannity has changed. I used to think he was a hate monger, but after this, it's clear he's a sick, insane, desperate mental case.

[karinova]

Is anybody buying this?

I find it hard to believe that the highly disciplined 48-year-long vast international multi-agency co.ns.pir.acy to fraudulently insert some half-black newborn from an unknown family into the Presidency would screw it all up with something like this Blagojevich thing.

I mean, come on. It all just seems so unlikely.

[eden4barack08]

Nobody's buying this, but they sure are trying their darndest. They'll be embarrassed in the end when all the facts come out, and they'll have to swallow their tongue. O wait.., Republicans never admit mistakes anyway.

[whatsthatsound]

That's what they WANT you to think!

[Smurfysax]

I just don't get some of you naysayers writing comments and speculating about things you simply haven't a clue about. Don't you think if Obama had been involved in dirty politics, they would have brought it out already. Most Repubs and racist and conservatives and any other group (they're about all the same anyway) that didn't want to see him become president should have found something before now.

You best believe people in high power DID NOT want to see Barrack in the white house and I'm sure they pulled every string you could think of to prevent it. Guess what, even the one they pull out of their @$$ Didn't work so drop it.

He's been vetted through and through.

[tm68]

I agree- it doesn't seem too many crooked people are getting away with it these days. Obama is clean with this Blago guy. He sounds like a whack-job. Boy, do I have a girl for HIM to meet!

[bluedov69]

I Agree if there was any association to the President- Elect they would have brought it out by now. The conservatives and their nutty right counter parts were looking to discredit before and are looking to discredit him even now. His opponents are also in his own party.

[tomas0808]

Put a cork in it you sad faced goof

[Barbara2423]

Hannity & Governor Blodg look like brothers.

[Winthorpe]

I was thinking that they look like lovers, but that too.

Hannity tonight: "Look at this picture -- Obama and the governor touched hands!" Keep your fantasies to yourself, Sean.

[eden4barack08]

Wow, now that you mention it, they actually look alike! Sean is kind of a "cleaner" version, but they both have that live stuff on their head, those bidy eyes, not to mention the pompous, arrogant, "you can't touch me" attitude. It's uncanny, we found Sean's twin.

[bluedov69]

I never noticed it before but they do . lol Maybe it is his long lost brother. This guy is going to try to implicate Obama in someway, he is not going to go away quietly . It is not going to stick though

[VikingQuest]

I still find it very interesting that people on this board believe that Fox News tells lies and MSNBC tells the truth. You are just as dumb as the people that believe the reverse, MSNBC & Fox News are the same exact model with the same exact opinion shows.

[american2008]

Oh really? Show me anyone on Fox thats the equivalent of Morning Joe and David Gregory and Pat Buchanon! So, please cut the crapolla with MSNBC is the same as Fox nonsense.

[jrddpp]

It is a known fact that Fox continues to crush MSNBC in the ratings, year in and year out. I don't like it. I don't know why, but it is the case. Avid MSNBC viewer.

[jrddpp]

Except for that Fox has many more dedicated viewers and continues to crush all of the others when it comes to ratings. I wonder why that is the case? Seriously. Avid MSNBC viewer.

[November2008]

one reason why fox has more viewers is because it if offered in more areas than msnbc. some cable stations thru out the country do no have msnbc on their stations.

you didn't know that did you. it is not i every market as fox

[jonnai]

Before yoy begin to write. You should think before you do anything. I live in chicago and Ch-town have not been the same. Since the feds went after AL Capone. Now if they would just go and get. Mayor Richard Daley and Lisa Manogan and the Corinthian colleges. We might just have a merry christmas.

[tomas0808]

It's true, they both tell lies. Fox tells bigger lies, and that's why their ratings are better. Seriously, this is why. People need to turn to multiple web sources for news instead of just lazily accepting the talking points of some idiot as having anything to do with truth

[bluedov69]

I do not say that Msnbc is the truth teller nor do I believe that Fox news gets it wrong all the time. However, what I do say is that Fox news has a way of hyping things so they appear to be the facts. Msnbc does that to a certain extent but Fox has been known to be notoriously inaccurate in the ways in which they present certain facts to the public. My solution: I watch Public television because they show the public different aspects of an issue without courting to one side or the other.

[jrddpp]

Okay, Hannity can be somewhat over the top and redundant sometimes but here is the point. I don't understand why you refuse to see it. It's not about whether President Elect Obama had any direct involvement with this one incident, forget it about it. It is the association with all of these characters in and around Chicago politics. He has grown up with them, each one scratching each others back along the way. The list and cloud that hangs over his head is just too much to ignore. I think we may have put the wrong candidate up for the nomination which saddens me deeply. We will never know the truth and who cares anyways. Obama is the Messiah. As far as I am concerned he can do anything he wants at this point. I hope and think he will pardon Gov. Blogajevich in the end. That would be so aprapo and a fitting end to his otherwise tainted credibilty.

[gocougs]

Seriously people.... we are already talking pardons.
Blago is not a liked man... in chicago ... in illinois..­.. he has very very few friends...­. so I ask... WHY would Obama risk any credibility to support a man that nobody in illinois or chicago respects (and this isn't just a recent realizatio­n... we haven't like him for a while now)

[jrddpp]

Nobody liked Marc Rich either, except for Bill Clinton, obviously and possibly Eric Holder.

[Turtleposer]

For Chicago politics, Obama's a newcomer. He's hardly someone who "grew up" on the South Side, even if he likes to say he's a skinny kid from Chicago. You can be in around & even have coffee with a crook, & not be a crook. I went to high school with an embezzler & a child molest -- I'm neither. Obama was an outsider & still is considered an outsider by most . Only now he's Chicago's favorite son because he's the President Elect.

Per Blagojevich's own words, the only thing Obama would give Blago in considering Obama's recommendation for his Senate seat was his "appreciation" which lead to Blago saying about Obama, "Fu** him. For nothing? Fu** him."

Nuff said.

[Geranium]

He cut his teeth in Chicago - "Community Organizing", remember? He went there at 22 and is now 47 -Twenty-five years (minus the 3 years at Harvard) is hardly a newcomer. He learned fast, too; he knocked out all the other contenders and ran for the Senate unopposed. Even Bill Clinton called him a Chicago thug.

[bluedov69]

Hey Sean is that you? lol

[jrddpp]

LOL - Thank you for the smile. Look at this pinhead BillMelater. He is a flame thrower. Reminds me of me.

[BillMelater]

stuck on stupid

[harriettubman]

You knew it would be a matter of time for Hannity to go after anything in Chicago that he believed he could connect to Obama. NOT. If Sean wasn't on Fox please tell me what other media would hire him? No one.

[lafrance]

That is what I've been seeing today. CNN and MSNBC trying to smear Obama with this. It's really annoying and I know they are getting it from rightwing talking points since they sound so much like what the republicans are saying.

[vernonbc]

It is frustrating, isn't it? Even pundits I respected, like David Gergen, are all spouting the same nonsense.

[stella801]

I've said it before and I'll say it forever...­.Hannity is such a phony loser! My 2 brothers listen to his radio show and are totally in the tank for him. I just can't understand how any rational person could listen to his ish and not be outraged. He is an ignorant, fear mongering, whining liar. Ok...I feel better. Thanks for letting me vent.

Hopefully Hannity and all his "conservatives in exile" will just quietly shut up and realize how foolish they all are. Probably not, though.

[nodakjob]

Ditto your comments as regards Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer, RAchel Maddow, Campbell Brown, et al. Gonna sell my TV, throw my radio in the trash, cancel my newspaper subscription and forget about all the "news", because it's nothing but corrupted reporting anyhow!

[grata2ude]

I'm not and never have been a violent person, but I'd pay big money to watch someone take a two by four and smack that smug S O B Hannity right across his whiny sissy mouth.

[Janney]

I can't believe the "obsession" Hannity has with Obama. It's like he eats, sleeps, works, thinks, Obama 24/7. What is wrong with him? I guess he needs someone to smack him with a 2x4 to knock some sense into him. Hannity is disgusting!

[grata2ude]

I love how Keith Olberman can do his cartoonish voice. He had the same obsession with Clinton too. I'd really pay to see someone bust him a good one.

[karinova]

Whoa, I just said practically the same exact sentence to someone earlier today. My HannityRage is completely uncharacteristic-- BillO makes me mad, but he doesn't cause The Red Curtain of Rage descend across my vision. I seriously wouldn't trust myself in the same room with Hannity; I might wake up with my hands around his neck. There's something about his face...

And I know what it is. It's the way he lifts his eyebrows in the center. Seriously, watch him. He'll say something that is just patently outrageous, and then do this eyebrow lift that says, all fake innocence, "What? What did *I* do?"

I think some part of my lizard brain dimly remembers getting screwed by that look some time in the depths of childhood; perhaps your does too. When some kid provoked you into a fight in grade school, that's the look he used to suck up, get out of trouble, and shift all the blame to you. When some mean girl gave you a "compliment" that was actually a total insult, that's the look she put on while you stood there mortified and fuming.

It's the kind of expression that will one day, inevitably, lead to a temporary insanity defense for somebody.

[JSiobhan]

When the litany of scandals in the Bush administration requires a multi-part series for weeks on news program, Hannity needs to clean his own party's house before poking around the Dems and Obama for dirt.

[stella801]

LOL! He never goes "there" when it involves the reps. He claims he does, but he really doesn't. He only concentrates on demonizing the liberals and fabricating lies about them. Case in example...­the Fairness Doctrine mantra he keeps screaming about. Obama is not for it, nor or any other notable Dem, but he keeps pounding it into his followers that it is coming. Interesting that he can't name a name other than Pelosi on that one. Ugggghhhhh!

[Geranium]

Notable Dems Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi are all for it.

[Mikeeee]

I thought hannity was described accurately in the title of the article.
"Failed" Covers everything about him as a "journalist" (apologies in advance to all worthy journalists) and as a "human being" (apologies to all homo sapiens).

[Turtleposer]

Any arguments that Obama was connected in any way to the "pay for play" with Blagojevich hinges on which person has more political power. Obviously, Obama does. Thus, why would he want to give Blagojevich anything? There's no evidence the two of them were close. Now that Obama has considerably more power than Blagojevich, how would it serve him to do anything for Blagojevich?

Obama has plenty of high-powered jobs to give to legitimate candidates, he doesn't need to stoop to dishing out favors to get one of his people the Senator's seat. It just doesn't make any sense on the face of it. You'd have to live under a rock not to know Obama, whereas maybe now people are pronouncing Blagojevich's name right. The contrast in power is too startling to believe that Blago's career problems even bother Obama.

It's obvious that Blagojevich's is doing this simply because he can't assure himself a job in the future the normal way - by being a credibile, honest person.

[neesy08]

I wonder if Hannity is in love with Obama? He sure does talk about and obsesses a lot about him.

[newhouse1]

Well I'll be! You may be on to something with that one! Manatee's endless rants about Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and Michelle Obama wern't politically motivated! That was the jealous rage from a spurned lover!! So how many boiled rabbits do you thing the Obama's found on their stove?

As Bugs used to say, "What a ma'roone."