Blagojevich fundraiser a down payment?
Zipping through the news this morning I cam across this story from the Chicago Tribune that talks about a fundraiser for Blagojevich that might have been the down payment for Obama's Senate seat:
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois’ next U.S. senator, businessmen with ties to both the governor and U.S. 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.
Among the attendees was a Blagojevich fundraiser already under scrutiny by federal investigators, Joliet pharmacist Harish Bhatt.
That meeting led to a Blagojevich fundraiser Saturday in Elmhurst, co-sponsored by Nayak and attended by Jesse Jackson Jr.’s brother, Jonathan, as well as Blagojevich, according to several people who were there. Nayak and Jonathan Jackson go back years and the two even went into business together years ago as part of a land purchase on the South Side.
Blagojevich and the congressman met to discuss the Senate seat on Monday, one day before federal prosecutors arrested Blagojevich and charged him with trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. As part of the charges, prosecutors alleged that Blagojevich was considering awarding the seat to a politician identified as “Senate Candidate 5″ because emissaries for that candidate were promising to raise as much as $1.5 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund.
This could very well be why Fitzgerald moved as quickly as he did. It would appear that the deal was already partially complete with this fundraiser as a down payment. If Fitzgerald believed that the seat was about to be handed out, and that some dirty politicking was involved, he had no choice but to step in and prevent the deal from going down.
What makes things a little worse for Jesse, Jr. is that if his brother was the emissary trying to pull this off, then that makes his statement on Wednesday true, but still dubious, at best. Wouldn't his brother tell him "Hey, I'm working on getting you this seat"? What was Johnathan going to do, wrap up the seat, and put it under the Jackson family Christmas tree? Jesse Jr. had to have caught wind of this, and merely kept his mouth shut about it.
So now we know why Fitzgerald moved in quickly, and it now appears that Jesse Jr. was going to get the seat. The good news is that it was all for nothing, and Jesse Jr. didn't get the seat. The bad news is that if the legislature can't head Blagojevich off at the pass, he can still appoint someone prior to the 111th Congress convening. Reid can say he won't seat the person, but our money is on the fact he'll seat them. He'll have to. He's already whining that the GOP filibustered him over the auto bailout. If he intends to push for this in January, he'll need every vote he can muster.
Publius II
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois’ next U.S. senator, businessmen with ties to both the governor and U.S. 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.
Among the attendees was a Blagojevich fundraiser already under scrutiny by federal investigators, Joliet pharmacist Harish Bhatt.
That meeting led to a Blagojevich fundraiser Saturday in Elmhurst, co-sponsored by Nayak and attended by Jesse Jackson Jr.’s brother, Jonathan, as well as Blagojevich, according to several people who were there. Nayak and Jonathan Jackson go back years and the two even went into business together years ago as part of a land purchase on the South Side.
Blagojevich and the congressman met to discuss the Senate seat on Monday, one day before federal prosecutors arrested Blagojevich and charged him with trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. As part of the charges, prosecutors alleged that Blagojevich was considering awarding the seat to a politician identified as “Senate Candidate 5″ because emissaries for that candidate were promising to raise as much as $1.5 million for Blagojevich’s campaign fund.
This could very well be why Fitzgerald moved as quickly as he did. It would appear that the deal was already partially complete with this fundraiser as a down payment. If Fitzgerald believed that the seat was about to be handed out, and that some dirty politicking was involved, he had no choice but to step in and prevent the deal from going down.
What makes things a little worse for Jesse, Jr. is that if his brother was the emissary trying to pull this off, then that makes his statement on Wednesday true, but still dubious, at best. Wouldn't his brother tell him "Hey, I'm working on getting you this seat"? What was Johnathan going to do, wrap up the seat, and put it under the Jackson family Christmas tree? Jesse Jr. had to have caught wind of this, and merely kept his mouth shut about it.
So now we know why Fitzgerald moved in quickly, and it now appears that Jesse Jr. was going to get the seat. The good news is that it was all for nothing, and Jesse Jr. didn't get the seat. The bad news is that if the legislature can't head Blagojevich off at the pass, he can still appoint someone prior to the 111th Congress convening. Reid can say he won't seat the person, but our money is on the fact he'll seat them. He'll have to. He's already whining that the GOP filibustered him over the auto bailout. If he intends to push for this in January, he'll need every vote he can muster.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 9:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home