[转帖]Governor tried to sell Obama\'s Senate se

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Governor tried to sell Obama's Senate seat, FBI alleges
Newly vacant post at stake in graft case
PAUL KORING

December 10, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic was charged in a "staggering" corruption case yesterday after being caught on profanity-laced FBI wiretaps allegedly trying to sell president-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Mr. Obama said that while he was "saddened and sobered" by the news, "I had no contact with the governor or his office. ... I was not aware of what was happening." But the president-elect declined to address whether his staff or intermediaries had held talks with the governor about filling the Senate seat.

"The Senate seat, as recently as days ago, seemed to be on the verge of being auctioned off," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

Unless the incoming administration escapes completely unscathed from the fallout from yesterday's bombshell, the taint of the latest Chicago corruption scandal could sully Mr. Obama's promise to bring change to politics.

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In one foul-mouthed outburst, drawn from scores taped by FBI agents over the past month, Mr. Blagojevic threatens to deny Mr. Obama his preferred choice unless there is a big payoff. "They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation," Mr. Blagojevich said to his chief of staff John Harris a week after Mr. Obama was elected. "**** them."

The exchange suggests, at least, that Mr. Obama's staff had made clear the president-elect's preference but also that they had rebuffed Mr. Blagojevich's demanded price.

Also arrested was Mr. Harris, 46. Mr. Fitzgerald described the case as a "political corruption crime spree."

Mr. Fitzgerald, the high-profile, hard-driving prosecutor who put media baron Conrad Black behind bars and enraged the Bush administration by sending one of Vice-President Dick Cheney's top aides to jail, said "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."

Only a fraction of the transcripts from scores - maybe hundreds - of wiretapped conversations were included in the 74-page criminal complaint.

None of the excerpts in the court documents involved conversations between Mr. Blagojevich and Mr. Obama or their senior staff members.

But other conversations indicate there was communication after the election between the governor, who has the right to fill the Senate seat vacated by Mr. Obama, and possible candidates and the president-elect's staff.

"I'm not going to speak for what the president-elect was aware of," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "We make no allegations that he's aware of anything. And that's as simply as I can put it."

But he also made it clear that yesterday's stunning indictment was made part way through an ongoing investigation and that Mr. Blagojevich had been the subject of a criminal probe going back years.

The profane wiretap excerpts paint a sordid picture of the 51-year-old governor jockeying to extract money in exchange for selecting a U.S. Senate candidate. "I've got this thing and it's fucking golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for fuckin' nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there," he says at one point, threatening to appoint himself. "How much are you offering, [president-elect Obama]?" he muses. "[President-elect Obama], you want it? Fine. But, its got to be good or I could always take [the Senate seat.]"

Mr. Blagojevich suggests in the transcripts he might want to be named to the cabinet as health and human resources secretary, or be given a union job paying $300,000 a year. In another, he proposes that billionaire Warren Buffett be tapped to fund the job or that his wife be given a plum post. He also claims that one candidate for the Senate seat offered $500,0000.

The Democrat also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Mr. Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

Although Mr. Obama has sought to distance himself from Mr. Blagojevich in recent months, he backed his re-election in 2006. And Rahm Emmanuel, another prominent Chicago politician now Mr. Obama's chief of staff, boasted earlier this year that the two of them were the architects of Mr. Blagojevich's successful 2003 election as the state's first Democrat governor in 30 years.

"We basically laid out the [governor's] general election, Barack and I," Mr. Emmanuel said last summer.

So far, Mr. Obama has been largely untouched by the endemic sleaze and corruption that infests Chicago and Illinois politics.

However, Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a high-rolling fundraiser for Mr. Blagojevich and Mr. Obama, was convicted of fraud and other charges.

The taint of scandal has swirled around Mr. Blagojevich's office for months but his lawyer, Sheldon Sorosky, dismissed yesterday's early-morning arrest and afternoon court appearance as "just politics." After a brief court appearance, Mr. Blagojevich was released.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the bombshell left Democrats scrambling to both protect the president-elect and concoct a new method of filling his vacant Senate seat.

Illinois's other senator, Dick Durbin, also a Democrat, said: "No appointment by this governor under these circumstances could produce a credible replacement." He urged state legislators to quickly pass legislation setting up a special election.

Corruption is widespread in Chicago politics, the crucible of Mr. Obama's own political career. If Mr. Blagojevich is convicted, he will be the fourth of the past eight governors convicted.