Union leader: Blagojevich brought up Cabinet post

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MIKE ROBINSON and MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) -- Rod Blagojevich brought up the possibility of a Cabinet post for himself after a union leader with close ties to Barack Obama urged the Illinois governor to appoint a friend of the president-elect to the U.S. Senate, the union official testified Tuesday.

Tom Balanoff, an official with the Service Employees International Union, said he told Blagojevich after the November 2008 election that he had spoken with Obama and the president-elect believed Valerie Jarrett had the qualifications he was looking for in a senator.

Balanoff said Obama told him in an election eve phone call he was taking no position on who should get the Senate seat he was leaving to become president and that he would prefer to have Jarrett as a White House adviser - but that she wanted to be a senator. Balanoff testified that he told Obama he would contact Blagojevich on behalf of Jarrett.

But when he mentioned the possible Jarrett appointment, Blagojevich immediately brought up his interest in becoming secretary of health and human services in Obama's Cabinet, Balanoff said.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BLAGOJEVICH_TRIAL?SITE=MOJOP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[earcandle]

1. Well, I can see Blagojevich being influenced by the role modeling......

But I don't see this as a bribe of any sort.  Just an internal
conversation that might have gone like this:

"Obama wants to influence who I select for Senate, how
about if I try to do some influencing? One turn deserves
another, doesn't it?"  

How does this translate into a crime, is beyond me.  For any
of the players.  This is done all the time.