Sunday Roundup
It's been amusing watching the media try to turn a scandal affecting the governor of Illinois into a scandal affecting the president-elect. Every detail was milked for maximum ominousness: a recent handshake between Obama and Blagojevich, a list of favored replacement candidates delivered by Rahm Emanuel, Rahm's "beet-red" face, David Axelrod's work for Blago in the 90s. All inflated to fill a sparse news cycle. But wouldn't it have been weird if Obama hadn't shaken Blago's hand, and weirder still if he'd shown no interest in who his successor would be? Trying to turn any of this into a suspicion of pay-to-play carries about as much weight as the Obama citizenship case. Sorry, guys, but Blagojevich said it all: the Obama people were "not willing to give me anything except appreciation."
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
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Holy Crap! I thought I was the only one thinking this... I kept watching the coverage and thinking "why are they trying to connect this to Obama so hard?" Thank you AH for pointing out the Emperor Still has no pants on...
-ere'bodee's favorite mega
Arianna is saying exactly what most rational people are thinking anyway. This is the worst case of spin and churn we've heard yet from the MSM. It's like they've all lost their marbles in Fox News land somehow and can't find their way back to reality. Too bad they weren't as skeptical and probing over "weapons of mass destruction." I can't wait until Robert Gibb is finally turned loose on them. And to be honest, I think Obama is handling it correctly. Why should he pander to the moronic media and keep professing his innocence for something he didn't do anyway---just because the talking heads insist something is there when it isn't? Let them keep talking to each other--the longer they talk, the more goofy they sound.
Who is Robert Gibb???
don't you just hate it when the MSM turns its unbiased eye on you..??
This isn't a trumped up Republican charge anyway you try to spin it. All I want to know is why the sting was ended early? Many more facts are going to be uncovered before this one is over. Deepthroat anyone?
agreed....there's more to be found...
Quick. Name last year's winner of the media's dubious award for the Most Politically Corrupt State. How about the year before or the year before that?
Strange how all of a sudden so many have an opinion on what state is the most corrupt. The last time I remember all these people declaring what state is the most politically corrupt, it was way back in 1992 when it was deemed that Arkansas was deserving of the award.
Hmmm...what a coincidence.
illinois and Blago.....LA and "freezer money" Jefferson....NY and spitzer.....
Where was the media for the last 8 years when we had a corrupt Adm? Were they on hiatus?
"If its not on t.v., it didn't happen"
the pope
you see what they want you to see
This kind of journalism is the reason I get so little of my news from the 'talking heads'. It's all show business and little content. I especially hate it when the 'reporters' interview each other...as if one talking head has any more information/insight than the other. It's their job to report news, not make it up.
Welcome to the total lack of journalistic ethics that have cursed this country for the last 4 years....
Mighty funny that when the MSM goes after your guy, they lack ethics....when they go after
repubs they're just doing their job...how just it feel to have your ox gored..??
You are not such a simpleton as to be suggesting that journalists have been going after republicans. Or that this particular feeding frenzy is actually based on anything other than breathless manufacturing of a non-story. So, that leaves only one other choice, you're dishonest.
Last four?
I stopped watching the MSM for news back in the early 90s when it was already apparent that entertainment was going to replace standards and ethics.
the reason the MSM is all over this story is because they are beginning to see that there fawning over Obama during the election left them with no credibility with the public, they are embarassed and are now overreacting.
No, it is because no blonde girl has gone missing lately.
It's like Spitzer living in the same State as Schumer
Thank you Arianna for your great good sense. We have been brought to stomach-turning terror so often by our politicians that the prospect of some impropriety by the Obama staff raises hives on my skin. Panic can subside as I realize that Blago himself was taped howling that the Obama camp wouldn't play ball in his pay-to-play ballpark.
It's this kind of guilt by association nuttiness that stalls any progress in government. For God's sake, the man has yet to even take office.
Is the next 4 yrs going to be fun or what...
I'm getting confused - are you innocent before being proved guilty? Or, guilty before being proved innocent ??? (tongue in cheeck)
In Chicago you're always innocent...
Ariana, I totally agree w/ your excellent post... actually it is amusing and nauseating watching the media trying to create a scandal where there is none.
And Obama’s “first” scandal is based on what?
That he and Blagojevich breath the same air? That they both live in Chicago?
First of all, it’s out of character for Obama to behave in the manner Blagojevich has behaved. If Obama is corrupt he would have more sense. He would be choosy about who he picked to be a coconspirator. He wouldn’t pick a clown, a guy so over the top a lot of people are wondering about his sanity.
But considering the eagerness many Republicans have shown to jump onto Obama they naturally would never think of any of that. Nor do I suspect they have the inner stuff or class to discern this fundamental gulf between Blagojevich and Obama. After all, the prize for Obama in such an alliance would be miniscule compared to the one he truly wants, which is to be a great president.
So often the rightwing projects, you know? Believing everyone else behaves the way they do. And let’s not forget that ever since Nixon many have been seeking “payback.”
Yes, it’s party time for the “gotcha” crowd. Where there’s smoke there’s hope: even if there is no real fire inside. Obama’s “first” scandal, indeed!
I is public knowledge that Chicago politics are SO corrupt - it goes way deeper than just breathing the same air !!!
America, please don't be or act native. Hell, there are corrupt politicians everywhere, they are not limited to Chicago, some get caught, many don't.
No matter how crazy Blago may be, a politician who wants to go places, has to Play in their sandbox. . . . It seems that if your an honest politician - you don't play in the Chicago sandbox, period. . . . . . .
So Chicago should have no government at all...
Nonsense. Corrupt politicians come from anywhere. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld...
a few Alaska politicians... examples are everywhere. You could say same way (keeping your spelling):
"It seems that if your an honest politician - you don't play in the GOP sandbox..." - but I'm sure there are non-corrupt GOP politicians. (At least not directly corrupt.)
Perhaps that is why Obama was instumental is passing ethics laws on both the state and national level. That's a fact that people on the right forget. There is no indication that Obama had anything to do with this, yet some are insisting that he is once again guilty by association. My question to those of you who want to hang this on Obama simply because he is from Chicago is don't you think there's a bit of hypocrisy when Bush and Cheney were actually corrupt and yet I don't see anyone asking for their heads.
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