Talk me down please about the IL governor affair

[Politics_Guy25]

If DU can spend 2 1/2 weeks in an uproar over the Warren affair and criticize the president-elect pretty severely, hopefully I won't get too flamed fior this thread that is a bit critical. Anyway, you know how some issues can consume the congress and the president? I'm just worried that this Blagoivich affair will end up consuming the Obama presidency. I mean with his actions today, the governor has thrown the democratic senatorial caucus into turmoil trying to find a way to avoid seating Burris. So, that means that when congress convenes next week, the media will have only 1 item on it's agenda. Blagiovich. Blagiovich. Blagiovich. Also, we will have the media incessantly asking the president to call for a special election and to issue the "supporting documents" from the transition report released on Dec. 23. We will also have Fitzgerald presumably calling Emmanuel, Jarrett, Obama himself (?) to the witness stand to testify in the Blagiovich trial. I guess I'm just worried that the Blagiovich affair will consume the Obama presidency? Oh, I forgot about the supremes potentially hearing the case on whether or not a senator can be refused seating.

Sure, the new administration did nothing wrong but the media is going to keep on this 24/7 and it'll make it hard for the agenda of the new president to command attention. Issues have a way of spinning out of control and I just worry that Washington will be set aflame by this. It's already been the focus for 3 1/2 weeks.

So, as Rachel would say, talk me down please. I need it. Also, I guess this might all go away once the governor is impeached. But then we have the trial to get through. I guess one thing that makes me feel better is that this story will lose a lot of energy once Rod is gone.

Anyway, for anyone that wants to, talk me down.....calm me down..

[billyoc]

1. Jump.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Aaaaaaahhhh shaaaaadddupp

It's a fun ride. Enjoy it.

Stop being such a schtootz.

[Politics_Guy25]

3. It's not fun-LOL

I want the Nov 5th-Dec 9th period back:( THAT was fun.

[rwheeler31]

4. Burris has discredited himself by accepting no story.

[snowbear]

5. Our last president lied us into a bogus war and you're worried about an Elvis wannabe?

.
.

You worry too much.


~~~ You down yet?

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. Impeached for what? I'd be very surprised if that mealy mouthed

tom hanks wanna be bastard fitzmas actually does anything to the guy after that half ass guilty verdict he laid on him last month. So far he hasn't come up with shit.

The usual do-gooders in the press jumped all over this thing & they are still rooting for impeachment even though the whole god damn "case" has evaporated.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. There is no case...outside the supposedly media savvy consciousness

of various Fitzmas fanboys and girls. They got took.

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. The idiot savant fitzmas unwittingly wrapped himself up in a Chicago

political struggle & now doesn't know what the fuck to do. Jesse Jackson Jr. took Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for a big fucking fool. The guy is dangerous & needs to be fired.

[ladym55]

7. I don't think I'll be much help

I'm concerned about the same thing. Despite ALL the things that are going on right now that REALLY need our attention (including an explosive situation in Gaza), the media spends all of its time speculating about Blago and Obama's "associations" and what they MIGHT mean.

The media don't want the Obama administration to govern. I got that. And unfortunately national media appear to be a protected species. All the economic woes that are keeping the rest of us up at night don't seem to concern them one bit!! But if Obama MIGHT know someone who knew someone who lived in the same state ... well, that IS cause for round-the-clock coverage on CNN! :sarcasm:

[Canuckistanian]

9. I will if you stop saying "talk me down"

Burris is tainted. Even if he's NOT bought and paid for, the taint will follow him for his career.

And Lord knows what the Corporate media can do with a whiff of scandal.

Odds are, he'll be resigning within 4 months of taking office.

[silverojo]

11. Yeah...it's sickening enough with Rachel uses that term

References to suicidal emotions shouldn't be used as jokes.

Just another example of how "progressives" like her are so insensitive to the mentally ill.

[mucifer]

12. You should write her a letter. She probably will respond.

[frazzled]

13. This is Illinois business

The Governor was despised well before Obama began to run for president. What he is ultilmately impeached for and/or convicted of will have to do with the practice, so common in Illinois--in both Republican and Democratic politics--of patronage hiring, pay-to-play politics, and general corruption. He's a creep, Burris and Quinn are pretty much hacks, and Bobby Rush is as bad as any of them. And this is the way it is here, and Obama's obsession with ethics and changing the way politics is done speaks to his having been privy to this cesspool and understanding how much it needs to be changed.

I've got freaking Danny Davis (who puts crowns on the head of Rev. Moon) as my Congressman, Ricky the Hack Hendon as my state senator. But then there is Dick Durbin, who is wonderful, and others who are truly committed. It's hard for those others to beat the machine: Paul Vallas (who I voted for in the primaries over Blago), Forest Claypool, a clean-government guy who lost out to the Stroger-Daley machine in Cook County.

Talk you down? Part of me wants to say don't be selfish: this is about how the people of Illinois get screwed every day, not about how the press might be mean to Obama. Obama will be fine once in office, and the truly turbulent events of our times will keep the press occupied with other things.

In the meantime, we need to get this embarrassing joker of a governor out of here. These are real problems for our state government and the people here. It's not about ideology, it's about the dirty mechanics of politics. I'm confident Obama can take care of himself. Don't underestimate him.

[TexasObserver]

14. JUMP!

I have a "no talk down" policy.

Why are you surprised that the Bush administration, which has the most politicized Justice and FBI in history, put wire taps all over Democratic pols in Obama's home state the last month of the campaign, and kept them there until they found something scandalous?

Fitz is their useful idiot, and he's giving the lines they expected his dumb ass to give.

The governor may be guilty as sin. He's certainly guilty of stupidity, of arrogant, and of crassness. But the point of this mess should be that the corrupt to the bone Bush Justice and FBI were used to wade through Illinois Democratic politics until they found something they could use to besmirch the incoming president, by proxy.

[Brazenly Liberal]

15. Nah. This barely qualifies as a state crisis and falls far short of a national crisis.

I'm not sure where you got the idea the Senate is in turmoil over this, but it really isn't. It's not consumed by it. Neither is PE Obama, who has only made a few formulaic statements about it - and that only when hounded by the press to say something.

At first, the press seemed bound and determined to report a scandal whether one existed or not, but that has died down considerably with many reporters going to some pains to stress Obama has not been accused of anything and looks pretty clean. More telling, a number of the reports I've seen on Blago don't even mention Obama: It's just too obvious there's no there there.