Emanuel May Be On Tape With Blagojevich

Rahm Emanuel may have had discussions with Gov. Blagojevich and the FBI may have the tape according to Chicago news sources. This, despite denials by Emanuel and president-elect Obama. Emanuel has been dodging reporters and has not made any statement about the report as of this post.



More from the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Two Faces of Patty

Michelle Malkin had this today about the wife of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. On wiretap tapes the First Lady is heard pronouncing some very un-classy expletives.

Above left is the photo of the First Lady found on he website and in many MSM articles. It seems to have been chosen to portray a certain image of a demure young mother who can best be pictured serving chocolate chip cookies to the kids when they burst through the door after school.

In other news photos she is still an attractive woman but has a look of business and determination. Here, on the right, she can easily be imagined taking on the “good ol’ boys” in the boardroom and driving home that big real estate deal for a six-figure commission. You can decide which of the two is likely heard on the tapes screaming obscenities.

Yesterday, I noted Illinois First Lady Patty Blagojevich’s rather unladylike mouth, as detailed in the criminal complaint against her crooked hubby.
Chicago reader and columnist Meg Kreikemeier e-mails:

Welcome to the Chicago Way. This is what America voted for in 2008 — albeit with a lot of perfume applied to it by the media to hide the stink.

The lovely Patty Blagojevich is the daughter of Chicago alderman Richard Mell. I’m sure that’s where she learned her flowery language and shake-down techniques.
You want an expose, look into the links between the banks owned by Amrish Mahajan (Mutual Bank) and the Giannoulias family (Broadway Bank) and all the state business and real estate deals (including Obama’s) and that ran through those banks. Alexi Giannoulias is the Illinois State Treasurer, who, you might recall, came out of nowhere when he was endorsed by Obama.

Conveniently, Patty Blagojevich is a realtor who has made thousands of dollars in commissions from Hot Rod’s cronies. The Chicago Tribune has detailed the commissions-as-politcal-donations policy of the Blagojevich’s many times.

Basically, the only way to make it big in Chicago politics is to pay to play, and this is an environment in which Obama not only existed but thrived.

To say that corruption in Chicago and Cook County is pervasive would be an understatement. Unfortunately America will now have to live with the decision of chosing a Chicago politician as president and what that means for the nation as favors are repaid over the next four years (and how Chicago will be saddled with debt when it’s inevitably chosen as host for the 2016 Olympics now that America is back in favor with the world).

And let me tell you, Blagojevich isn’t an outlier. Chicago also has the corrupting influences of the Daleys, Jacksons, Strogers, Mells and, of course, Tony Rezko. And they’re just the tip of this nasty, growing iceberg — a city and county that sucks its residents dry via its high property taxes, gas taxes, 10% sales tax, nannyism and myriad of incompetent political hires. I’m feeling all hope and changey.

Blagojevich and "Change to Win"

The Smoking Gun has the criminal complaint filed against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

On page 68, paragraph 107, reproduced here, it is reported that an advisor to the governor, “Advisor B,” told the Governor that the “president-elect” would prefer the “Change to Win” option because there would be “fewer fingerprints on it” to which Obama might later be linked. Advisor B is reported to be a “Washington, DC-based consultant” who had had discussions with a representative from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Change to Win is a coalition of American labor unions originally formed in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO. Of several union affiliates, the SEIU and the Teamsters are the most prominent.

It seems that Gov. Blagojevich, his chief-of-staff John Harris, Advisor B and a high-ranking SEIU representative all considered the appointment of Blagojevich to head Change to Win a conceivable pay-back from Obama for appointing the president-elect’s first choice to his vacated senate seat.

This arrangement was seen as a win-win for all. Blago gets a cushy union job, Obama gets support from Change to Win for his political initiatives as well as a Senator that he hand-picks for the job. And, there would be little if any paper trail to implicate the new president in the deal.

My question, is how did these very powerful, politically astute people get so far in this scheme and make the assumptions about Obama that they did without some communication with either Obama directly or, at least, someone very close to him? The discussions in the FBI tapes give one the impression that this has all been hashed out at the highest levels and all that remains is to seal the deal.

Rahm Emanuel, a long-time Illinois politico and former Blago campaign strategist, was identified as the likely tipster that informed the feds about Blago's attempts to profit from the senate appointment. If true, that could help negate any suggestion that Obama was directly involved, but alas, a source close to Emanuel refutes the story.