Byron York notes the sorry tale:
…hroughout the criminal complaint filed against Blagojevich, there are references to unnamed individuals who play important roles in the scandal — and who know a lot about what went on and who was involved. None of those intermediaries is more intriguing than the person referred to as “Advisor B.”
We first learn about Advisor B in the complaint’s description of a November 7 three-way telephone call between Blagojevich, his chief of staff John Harris, and “Advisor B, a Washington D.C.-based consultant.” It was during this call that the participants talked about a “three-way deal for the open Senate seat,” involving the Service Employees International Union and its affiliated group “Change to Win.” The idea was that Blagojevich would appoint Obama favorite Valerie Jarrett to the seat, and in return, SEIU would make Blagojevich head of “Change to Win,” and then Obama would perform some unspecified act to help “Change to Win.” Harris said such a deal would give Obama a “buffer so there is no obvious quid pro quo for [Senate Candidate One],” according to the complaint. (“Senate Candidate One,” we now know, refers to Jarrett.) “Advisor B said that he liked the idea of the three-way deal,” the complaint says. “Advisor B said they should leverage the president-elect’s desire to have [Jarrett] appointed to the Senate seat in order to get a head position with Change to Win and a salary.”
Do read the whole thing, if you can stomach it. This is change we can believe in? I guess no one in Chicago or Team Obama figured that what the people of Illinois need is someone who will ably represent their interests in the United States Senate…someone, that is, who is pretty much unlike Obama who spent most of the last two years advancing himself while Illinois was left to shift for itself. Do keep in mind that Obama had no legal part to play here – he has resigned his Senate seat and bears no legal authority in the matter of who will be appointed to fill his place. But there go Obama advisers – and perhaps Obama, himself – cutting deals as if a US Senate seat is a mere political plaything.
This, liberals, is what you backed – what you said would change America; what you said would be far better than President Bush; what you said was the historic birth of a new era in America and the world. Too bad your standard bearer is a substandard, Chicago political hack who looks good and can give a good speech…this is just the foretaste of what we’re in for over the next four to eight years.
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