RUSH: This situation in Chicago, by the way, with Blagojevich, there’s something here that’s not right. Yesterday Barack Obama went out there and said nobody at his staff had talked to Blago about this thing. One thing that’s weird about this, it’s totally normal that Obama would talk to somebody about it, it’s his seat. There’s something very strange about saying nobody ever talked to Blagojevich, when we now know that Rahm Emanuel did. He may even be on the wiretaps. Rahm Emanuel spoke six times to Blagojevich about Obama’s successor. Fox Eyeball News in Chicago has the story. The Tribune has a story that there was a million-dollar fundraiser last Saturday for Blago that was aimed at helping Jesse Jackson, Jr. The noose is tightening on somebody here, and now all these Democrats standing up telling Blagojevich he’s gotta get serious here and quit. I am sure he will, just waiting for the price to be right. He’s going to get his money out of this one way or the other. He was praying with this preacher this morning at his house, which is also in the Democrat playbook. If you’re president, the black preacher comes to the White House, but if you’re governor, the preacher comes to your house and so forth.
It’s amazing to see how this is playing out, and it’s adding fuel to the fire to the question, ‘Why did Patrick Fitzgerald step in and stop this now?’ Some people are now beginning to speculate, well, they had to limit the damage to Obama, ’cause there is going to be some here, if this Emanuel stuff is true, and Emanuel is not talking. He’s not answering questions. (interruption) Well, they did let him out yesterday. He’s downtown city hall in Chicago. His kids’ school did a concert there and he went to listen to them and he blew the reporters off. He said, ‘I can’t do two things at once, I’m not as qualified as you. I can only be a parent today. I can’t answer your questions and be a parent,’ when he was asked if he could do both. He said, ‘No, I’m not as capable as you are.’ As such, folks, there’s so much going on here that I don’t have time to deal with irrelevancies, such as Colin Powell. We’ll do that at some other point, maybe later in the day if we have time, but he’s not all that important compared to what is occurring here.
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RUSH: Let’s move on to Chicago here and the Blagojevich matter. The Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan has filed a motion with the Illinois Supreme Court asking justices to remove Blagojevich from office. ‘Madigan took the action Friday as pressure on the governor intensified to step down. The motion challenges his fitness to serve and asks that the Supreme Court oust him.’ That press conference is still going on as we speak. ‘The move came as Blagojevich prayed with several ministers –‘ the old Bill Clinton trick ‘– in his home before heading to his office.’ So he’s unfit to serve. She wants the lieutenant governor to get the gig so that he can appoint whoever he wants and get this Senate seat done. In a continuation of the story that Blagojevich is insane, a story in the Chicago Sun-Times today: ”Is Blagojevich’s Hair a Sign of Sickness?’ — Gov’s chestnut mane might be sign of narcissistic personality disorder, psychologists say.
‘It’s a head of hair that a man 20 years his junior would envy — a chestnut helmet that brazenly mocks Father Time and screams ‘healthy!’ Or does it? Gov. Blagojevich’s glossy locks — perfectly sculpted in rain or snow — may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist. ‘It’s all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw,’ said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than two decades. … ‘This grandiose sense of self … doesn’t carry the implication that [Blagojevich] is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance,’ Ambers said.’
Now, this is all fine and dandy, but why in the hell was this analysis missing with the Breck Girl, with John Edwards, who is every bit as narcissistic about his hair as Blagojevich may be, although I’m not aware that Blagojevich is as narcissistic about his hair. But this is how desperate they are to portray this guy as a lunatic and as insane so that whatever is on those FBI wiretap tapes can be discounted and anybody talking to Blagojevich can be discounted because he’s insane, he’s lunatic!
Now, for substantive details, Jesse Jackson, Jr., had a press conference, very bizarre press conference in which he didn’t do anything, didn’t say anything, was with Blago for a month, or 90 days, or 90 hours, 90 minutes, whatever it was, didn’t say a word, it never came up blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The Chicago Tribune today is reporting: ‘As Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois’ next US senator, businessmen with ties to both the governor and US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. discussed raising at least $1 million for Blagojevich’s campaign as a way to encourage him to pick Jackson for the job, the Tribune has learned. Blagojevich made an appearance at an Oct. 31 luncheon meeting at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg sponsored by Oak Brook businessman Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich supporter who also has fundraising and business ties to the Jackson family, according to several attendees and public records. Two businessmen who attended the meeting and spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity said that Nayak and Blagojevich aide Rajinder Bedi privately told many of the more than two dozen attendees the fundraising effort was aimed at supporting Jackson’s bid for the Senate.’ Now, here’s Senate Candidate #5, and on the wiretap tapes Blagojevich is heard referring to Senate Candidate #5 as willing to come up with a half million or a million dollars for Blago in exchange for the appointment and a fundraiser just a week ago.
It’s also not a happy time for Rahm Emanuel, ladies and gentlemen. ‘The attempt by President-elect Barack Obama to distance himself from the scandal erupting in Illinois took a big hit last night with this exclusive report from Chicago’s Fox affiliate. Sources within the investigation say that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, spoke with Governor Rod Blagojevich on ‘multiple occasions’ about the Senate succession that Blagojevich had wanted to sell to the highest bidder — and that Emanuel will likely be on the FBI wiretaps.’ Now, as Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com points out — see, this is one of the curious things. This makes sense. It’s Obama’s seat. Why wouldn’t he be talking to Blagojevich about it, or why wouldn’t he dispatch what’s-his-face, Rahm Emanuel, to do it.
Folks, I didn’t just jump off a turnip truck yesterday. We all know how Chicago operates and everybody in Chicago clearly and surely knows how Chicago operates, and I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut that nobody in Illinois, nobody certainly in Chicago is surprised in the least that Blagojevich was trying to profit from the appointment. It’s the way business is done in Chicago. You cut me in or cut it out. I refuse to believe that all of this, ‘I’m appalled, I’m shocked, I can’t believe this,’ is genuine. I’m reminded of the movie Casablanca, where the police inspector is shocked, shocked that gambling is going on in Rick’s Joint. Why wouldn’t Obama have an interest? We know he did. We know that he wanted Valerie Jarrett, a good friend, to get the appointment. But then all of a sudden, all of a sudden when it was learned — (gasping) — that he was selling the appointment — (gasping) — she pulls out. Obama’s out there saying, ‘We didn’t talk to Blagojevich.’ That makes no sense, because it makes total sense that it’s his seat, that he would be talking to the guy who’s going to appoint his placement.
He’s president of the United States. He wants people he can work with in the Senate. Do you think he went off and played tiddlywinks with his little girls while Blagojevich is trying to figure out who his replacement is going to be? This defies common sense. The notion that Obama and his team had nothing to say about this, no contact whatsoever with Blagojevich, it’s ridiculous. Look at Emanuel’s ties that he’s got in Chicago politics and his status as Obama’s right-hand man. Now, we must be clear, as I said yesterday, none of this means that Emanuel knew specifically about Blago’s efforts to extort money for this, although I have to tell you, I just don’t think that it came as a surprise to anybody when they learned it. I think the shock is that it got out, and it’s possible that Emanuel was working with the Feds. It’s possible that he’s one of the sources. It’s possible that he’s the one that did call Fitzgerald. If that’s the case, why not say so? Not a snitch. He’s protecting the dignity and the honor of the whole appointment process if he’s working with Fitzgerald on this.
The point is there’s plenty that Obama could say here that is not incriminating at all that would fulfill every desire he’s had to be seen as ethically clean and pure as the wind-driven snow. ‘Yeah, of course I’m interested who was in the seat, but I’ll be damned if it’s going to be sold, that’s not what this campaign stands for, it’s not what I stand for. Emanuel was talking to these people; we wanted to find out what was going on here.’ People stand up and applaud, but Emanuel is not talking, and Obama is saying that nobody did talk to Blagojevich. Everbody is saying they never talked to him about this and they were shocked and stunned when it was happening, when they learned that he was selling the seat. But that just defies credulity.
Now, there’s one possible reason not to rush Emanuel to the microphones to answer questions about this is that too much was said and that too many people are in the loop, and so in that case you have conversations behind closed doors with everybody to find out who said what to who so that when you finally admit it, everybody’s on the same page, that all of the I’s are dotted and all of the T’s are crossed, because if there is just one discrepancy — remember, now, we’re told, Fox Eyeball News Chicago reported that Emanuel’s on these wiretaps. So Rahm’s gotta figure out what he said to whom when, he’s gotta remember it all because if he goes out and says something that has just one discrepancy between what he says publicly and what’s on the tape, then that’s problems for Barry, that’s problems for The Messiah. Every misstep, every inconsistency will be put under a microscope. Emanuel — don’t get me wrong here — nobody knows if he did anything wrong yet, nobody knows anything about this yet. If he didn’t do anything wrong, fine, but he still can’t be imprecise. There’s too much at stake.
Obama is too big to fail, but Emanuel is not. Rahm is not too big to fail. I’m convinced that Obama does not want to get rid of him, because Obama, he wants to be president, he wants people like Emanuel to go make it happen. Now, that’s why if he’s on these wiretaps, if Rahm’s on these wiretaps, there’s no way he’s going to talk now until they are damn certain that whatever he says will not be contradicted when the transcript of the tapes is released. And one more thought on this, folks. If all of this is so important, if the press is so consumed by Chicago machine politics and patronage, think about what they could all ask Hillary about. And she’s not saying anything. She could say, ‘I’m not out of Chicago, I’m from Park Ridge. I don’t know about Chicago politics, I’m a senator from New York.’ What is she going to say about Emanuel, ‘Yeah, I know Emanuel, he’s totally capable.’ What’s she going to say about him? So the bottom line here, have you noticed that when there is a Republican scandal, the press become the prosecutors. When there’s a Democrat scandal, the press become the defense lawyers.
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RUSH: Once again, folks, take a long hard look at what’s happening in Chicago. Democrats are attempting to throw out a duly elected Democrat governor who has been charged with nothing. They want him thrown out on the basis that he’s incompetent, insane, a lunatic, and that his wife cusses — and I think it’s an outrage. We don’t see this much; that’s why you should savor it. But nevertheless, I believe that Rod Blagojevich — you people in the Drive-Bys take note of this — I believe that Rod Blagojevich deserves at least the same due process as Al-Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. And as we speak, Democrats in Chicago are denying Rod Blagojevich, the duly elected governor, the same due-process rights that they are demanding Al-Qaeda terrorists get at Club Gitmo. It’s an outrage.