Jane Harman and Rod Blogojevich

[laststeamtrain]

Jane Harman and Rod Blogojevich

Life is just not fair. Rod Blagojevich was impeached for corruption, is under massive indictment for the same and was pilloried for seeking to bargain with people (various) over President Obama's vacated senate seat.

Jane Harman (according to CQ and Jeff Stein) bargained with a suspected foreign espionage and covert action agent (Israeli) on an open telephone line in a discussion as to whether or not she would attempt to have espionage charges reduced in the case of two men who are still awaiting trial for illegally handing over US secrets to the Israeili embassy. In return the suspected Israeli operative (not an American) offered to go to Nancy Pelosi to influence her to appoint Harman chair of the House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), a position in which she would have been able to do a lot for Israel (or anyone else).

Firstly, consider the fact that this spook was comfortable enough with Harmon to make her an offer like that... Harman and her husband, Sidney, are major figures in the world of political think-tankery, charity, etc. BENS, WINEP, AIPAC, JINSA, etc. They get around. She has had to "settle" for a lesser committee chairmanship. As I said, life is not fair.

Then there is the fact that this spook said that he, a foreigner, would go to the minority leader of the House of Representatives (Pelosi) with some prospect of success to ask for Harmon to be made chairman of the HPSCI. Chutzpah indeed! There must have been a good case that he knew Pelosi well enough for Harman to think that plausible. I guess if enough people go to enough dinner parties, eventually everyone knows everyone?

Who was this person, the mysterious voice on the phone? Did he flee the country at some point? Is he now likely to visit Washington soon as a member of a new government? Will there be a dinner party? pl ... http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/04/jane-harmon-and-rod-blogojevich.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. yep. blag's an outsider, pissed off someone with more power, harman's a member of the

"big kid's club".

sucks.

[Occam Bandage]

3. Blago's an "outsider?"

Wow. Just, wow. You do realize that Blago went down because he had the entire goddamn state's power structure running illegally through his own office, as he skimmed off anything and everything anyone wanted to do in IL? That he was the kingpin of what is most likely the most powerful Democratic machine in the country? That he was extraordinarily well financed, and was being groomed by the party structure for a run at the White House before his stunning incompetence resulted in him running his approval ratings into the dirt? I mean, he was flirting with single digits before the indictment.

To suggest that Blagojevich is anything other than the insideriest of insiders is a complete failure to have paid the remotest bit of attention to the man.

[Hannah Bell]

4. he's a working class boy who made good. "insider" = ruling class background &

friends. permanent power structure v. temporary "face" of power.

people like b. get used & tossed under the bush if it's convenient.

[Occam Bandage]

6. Blagojevich was not "the temporary 'face' of power."

He was indicted because he was abusing the permanent power structure, which he controlled totally and completely, for self enrichment. He was not "used and tossed under the bush;" he was the one doing the using and tossing until he illegally used and tossed so egregiously that the law got involved. To suggest that a man who held all the strings of power was an "outsider" is an absolute abuse of that term.

[Hannah Bell]

7. in the fiefdom of Daleys, your "explanation" is laughable. he was tossed under the bus because

he pissed off someone or was a loose cannon.

he obviously didn't "hold all the strings of power", else he'd still be in power. it took just a few weeks to shitcan him, doesn't sound too powerful to me.

[Occam Bandage]

8. I'm going to guess, just crazy wild guess here,

that you are not from Chicago, do not follow Illinois politics, and in fact were unaware of Rod Blagojevich before he was arrested. I'm going to further guess, as a subset, that you have not followed the three years of the slow collapse of Blagojevich's political standing as investigation after investigation into unrelated corruption cases kept pointing to the Governor's office. I'm guessing this because you said it "took just a few weeks to shitcan him."

That would be the way it would appear to someone who did not watch Rod Blagojevich's political image turn from the Golden Boy of Illinois to a pile of dung over quite literally years. The only reason he wasn't thrown out on his ass in 2005 was because he held those aforementioned reins of power; there were always enough people willing to cover for him. He was indeed a loose cannon, but he wasn't cast aside at the first sign he might be embarrassing the Powers that Be. His approval ratings were, again, threatening single digits before Fitzgerald destroyed him. He had years of detrimental loose-cannondom before he managed to step in a pile of his own shit so enormous that the party had to cut him loose.

[Hannah Bell]

9. his "decline" would date from... a break with daley....speaking of corruption...

[Duer 157099]

2. The salient point is that Gonzo stopped the investigation into Harman

Since it wasn't investigated, there's no proof one way or the other of wrongdoing -- albeit it sure seems like it'd be likely.

But that's the whole point: Gonzo nixed the investigation

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Blago may be a corrupt piece of shit.

But Illinois isn't threatening to nuke Iran anytime soon. And there's your difference. Harman's partners in crime have done far more damage to this country in the last 8 years than anybody out of Chicago (save maybe Al Capone, and that was a long time ago).

[Supersedeas]

10. which places Nancy Disaster as the center to the toilet storm