Moving On

Ok. Blago is definitely toast. No tape has surfaced on the face-to-face meeting with Jackson and Blago - doesn't mean one doesn't exist. In fact, if Blago had a clue of what the FBI was doing, he certainly would have covered himself. Obama keeps talking to the press with sweeping denials of essentially ever knowing Blago existed. Fine.

Do I think Obama knew?: Yes.

Does it really matter?:

1) It's not illegal to horse trade jobs or other positions in the private or public sector. It's not ethical, but it's not illegal. I think the trading was more for Valerie(who Obama seemed to be pushing for) and the selling was more for Jackson and another candidate. So if Obama kept his mouth shut, I didn't see any problems for him - other than keeping his mouth shut. Now he keeps talking and is backing himself into a corner where he thinks that everyone around him will take the fall at the end of the day.

Scooter Libby was taken down by Patrick Fitzgerald, the same attorney assigned to this case. He continued to pursue Scooter even though he knew who the person was who leaked the information on Plame. He got him on lying about other things but he didn't have anything to do with the leak of Plame, who arguably wasn't even undercover at the time anyway. Ok, I digress. But it's a similar scenario here.

2) Obama is now in for a heck of a first year.

Anything more to comment on Blago would be rhetorical, so I'm moving on to the economy in my next post. Lots going on there.