Ed Morrissey at HotAir:
I doubt too many people around Barack Obama would have any criticisms for US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald or offer any defenses of Illinois politics now. In 2005, however, Obama’s chief political adviser did both in the pages of the Chicago Tribune. While Fitzgerald probed the endemic corruption in the Land of Lincoln, David Axelrod scolded him for criminalizing the normal trading of interests in Chicago-style politics:
Patrick Fitzgerald’s charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have drawn a chorus of shock and outrage.
But Barack Obama’s message man David Axelrod once staked out a much more nuanced position on Fitzgerald’s anti-corruption crusade.
In a 2005 op-ed, Axelrod argued, in effect, that trading political favors – including jobs – is part of the grease that makes government work.
Once again, this demonstrates the links between Barack Obama and the Daley Machine in Chicago. Axelrod serves as the liaison between the two, having spent years working in the Machine before becoming Obama’s right-hand man. In 2005, before making that transition, Axelrod put himself out front in trying to politicize Fitzgerald’s investigation and keep it from reaching his boss, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
And now? I’ll assume Axelrod will keep quiet out of a sense of self-preservation, but the charges against Governor Rod Blagojevich don’t differ much from what Axelrod defended in 2005, except that Blagojevich made the transaction a little too specific. Three years ago, Axelrod defended the concept of horse trading…
This scandal will do what the national media refused to do during the campaign: tie Obama directly to this kind of corrupt political maneuvering and force some answers as to why Obama managed to rise so fast in that environment. His alliance with Axelrod should be Exhibit A.
1 Comment
December 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Great post!
I like your blog!
Care to exchange reciprocal links?
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Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was arrested because he failed to carry out Dictator Obama’s wishes.
See full story at :
http://ngoldfarb.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/dictator-obama-puts-his-enemies-in-jail-even-before-he-takes-office/