Does Anyone Else Smell Fish?
It’s been an interesting weekend, politically speaking. And here’s hoping it all adds up to a great 2010.
First off, we have what everyone is talking about–Governor Richardson’s withdrawing himself from being in Obama’s Kitsch(en) Cabinet.
Why would he do this?
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he pulled a Blago-type blunder and got caught. Seems he’s sold government contract(s) to company(ies) in exchange for fundraising monies. ABC’s Jake Tapper reports that, well, Richardson wasn’t quite forthcoming about his business dealings. This all came to light about a month ago, when the Big O’s transition team found out that the FBI couldn’t give Billy a clean bill-y of health, politically speaking.
Hmmm… I seem to recall another Billy who wasn’t exactly forthcoming (no pun intended) about things…
Anyway, Richardson’s people are saying that he did tell Obama’s team all about it, and they didn’t have any problems with it. In fact, they said that this all came to light in August (2008), so there should have been absolutely no surprise in it, as he’s done nothing wrong.
If that’s the case, then why did he voluntarily pull himself out of the cabinet position? I mean, Obama’s team is saying that he wasn’t asked to… Could this possibly be a hidden case of throwing someone under a certain bus? As Hot Air says here, the wheels on the bus are going “thump, thump, thump.”
Who knows what’s going to happen, but I do wonder if he’ll end up resigning from being governor, unlike Blago…
What is that fishy smell hanging in the air?
And speaking of Blago…
Where is the news on whether or not PEBO (President-elect B. Hussein Obama)’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has a connection to the SS (Selling the Seat) Scandal? I haven’t heard hide nor hair of it since the big blow-up with Blah-Blah-Blago announcing the “winner” as being Mr. Burris. The last I’ve heard was when Jake Tapper posted this story about Rahm being caught on tape discussing the position with Blago. Granted, it comes directly from the Chicago Tribune article found here. And even then, Rahm only passed on to Blagojevich PEBO’s list of whom he would like to see fill his Illinois Senate seat: Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, State Comptroller Dan Hynes (his personal government page can be found here), Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Rep page is found here), and Democratic Attorney Gen. Lisa Madigan (Atty Gen page found here).
According to Jake, PEBO has said that he absolutely, positively did not talk to Blago about filling the seat, but he wasn’t so forthcoming about his staff having conversations with the governor. Hmmm… Could this potentially be another setup for someone to be thrown under the bus? I’m betting not, since PEBO has kept mum about his staff. I’m betting that he told Rahm to make the call so that there could be plausible deniability.
And we called Clinton “Slick Willie.” Seems to me that Obama’s veneer is like polished granite.
But I digress…
So now that Burris is calling himself Senator (which, legally, he is a senator, even if Blago is under investigation), Harry Reid-My-Lips-”No-New-Senator” is saying that Democrats will refuse to seat him. Whatever. They probably don’t have a leg to stand on.
But I do kind of hope that they can prevent him from being seated. Why? Because if they can, then Republicans can–using the same logic–stop Al “I like me” Franken from being seated.
Yes, you can assume correctly from that statement. Al Franken has sorta-kinda-possibly won the senate seat in Minnesota. But only after several lawsuits and a HUGE number of formerly “lost” ballots.
As Ann Coulter recalls:
The famously honest people of Minnesota probably think this means the recount is almost over. But like a bad Al Franken sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” I predict this recount will keep going on and on and on for no apparent reason.
To understand what is happening in Minnesota, one must turn to the Washington state gubernatorial election of 2004.
As in Minnesota this year, the Republican candidate kept winning and winning, but the Democrats refused to concede, instead demanding endless recounts. Meanwhile, Democratic precincts kept “discovering” new ballots for the Democrat, Chris Gregoire.
Six days after the election on Nov. 10, 2004, Republican Dino Rossi was ahead by 3,492 votes. But five days later, heavily Democratic King County election officials actually claimed to “find” 10,000 uncounted ballots! And they favored Gregoire!
Nonetheless, after a full recount, Rossi was still ahead, but this time by only 42 votes.
So the Democrats demanded a third recount — and King County continued its miraculous ballot-”finding” trick, which continued to favor Gregoire.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Democrat election officials were “finding” new votes as much as they needed to find new votes. Here are 10,000 new votes. You need more? OK, back to work!
Eventually, King County found enough provisional and absentee ballots to put Democrat Gregoire in the lead — and this result was immediately certified by the weenie Republican secretary of state.
She’s talking about Christine Gregoire, in case you wanted to find out more information about her. Oh, and, the “weenie” Republican SoS? That was Sam Reed.
Rossi was again defeated in the 2008 election by Gregoire. 53% to 47%. Big surprise.
Something that I found interesting is that, in 2004, the head of the Washington State Democratic Party was Paul Berendt. Three guesses as to who’s behind the recount in Minnesota–and the first two don’t count.
Oh, and, it appears that Ann was right. I mean, after several recounts and a HUGE number of “typos” and “lost ballots” etc., Al finally won. By 225 votes. Probably manufactured, but hey. Whatever gets the job done. So, he’ll be ratified toot-sweet and be the biggest joke this side of PEBO.
Is it me, or does anyone else smell fish?
Oh, and, if you’d like to read Ann’s follow-up stories that, IMO, are just as enlightening, you can find them here and here. I liked the second one of these two better than the other, but that’s just me. Ann has an awesome way with words.
Here’s hoping that, after all the fishguts have rotted away, 2010 will be a great year for Republicans!
I wonder what this week will bring, now that Obama’s moved to DC. And given that it’s now roughly 3:30 in DC, I wonder how the Obama girls’ first day of school went? Not that I particularly care, but hey… Everyone else in the media will be covering it. Why not give it a nod here?
