With Friends Like These---

The arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (to be referred to as Blago) for seeking to sell the U.S. Senate seat of Barack Obama for a bribe underscores just how difficult it will be for the mainstream media (MSM) to cover up the President-elect's past and his associations. While the MSM gave Obama a pass for his associations with Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers while trying to find out if Sarah Palin was guilty of jaywalking in Wasilla, Alaska, during the general election they now have to deal with the reality of Obama's Chicago ties. That is because the tapes that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald produced revealed Blago to be such a blatant crook and identified many other Illinois political figures all of whom are associated with the President-elect.

Initially the tapes seemed to clear Obama of any deal making regarding the seat, but at this writing it is becoming clear that the President-elect's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was involved in discussing the issue with the Governor. Don't forget Emanuel, Obama and others were heavily involved in getting Blago elected in 2002 and Blago in turn supported Obama when he ran for the Senate in 2004. At this point it is hard to exactly forecast what is going to happen, but here are a few predictions.

1. Patrick Fitzgerald has a lot more evidence to make a case than he has shown. He will use this as leverage to bring down as many high ranking wrongdoers as possible. He has already put the previous Governor in jail, caused Scooty Libby to resign from the White House and tried to find evidence to cause Karl Rove and Dick Cheney problems in the Valerie Plame case.
2. When faced with serving 30 years in jail Blago will make the best deal possible for himself and turn in everyone he knows including Obama (if there is a problem) to save his skin.
3. If there is a case against Obama the President-elect's more fanatical fans in the media will still defend him saying that because of all the problems he will face as President he deserves a pass because he needs to focus on those issues. Attacking Obama will be viewed as an unpatriotic act. At the same time some of Obama's supporters who backed him because of a desire for "Change" may finally realize that they have elected a Chicago machine politician and that is not a good thing for the country.
4. The real test for Obama will come when he becomes President and has the option of replacing Fitgerald as U.S. Attorney in Chicago. If that happens there will be a firestorm of protest and Obama will have to seek ways to change the subject.
5. It now appears the person filling Obama's senate seat will be chosen through a special election rather than being appointed. While, Illinois is a blue state, the Republicans might have an outside chance if they picked a candidate who was clean and had charisma. This person could run on a clean government platform which might succeed given what has under under Blago.