Celt
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Member since 4/08 7758 total posts
Name:
colette
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Wow this situation in Illinois is getting UGGGGGLY
HOW is it that Blago is still allowed to pick the next senator? And it appears that allegations of corruption have been out there for YEARS; the guy's own FIL accused him publicly!!!! The wife sounds like a real charmer too....
I'm really amazed at the blatant "F*U*" mentality these 2 have... Calling the President-Elect, from your home state and your own party a "MF"?????
Excerpts from CNN article today....
(CNN) -- Despite Patricia Blagojevich's myriad charitable endeavors, she is now thought of as the goading voice in the background of a November phone call taped by the FBI.
...
"Hold up that f---ing Cubs s---. F--- them," she allegedly said as her husband, Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, bandied about a scheme to withhold state funds from the Cubs' parent Tribune Company unless the owner agreed to fire certain Chicago Tribune employees.
Seven days later, according to the affidavit, she took part in a meeting about whether President-elect Barack Obama would secure a lucrative job for her if her husband appointed Obama's preferred candidate to his vacant Senate seat.
...Blagojevich and her family have been part of the Chicago machine for decades. The 43-year-old mother of two is the oldest daughter of Margaret Mell and longtime Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, whose district includes part of Chicago's Northwest Side, where Rod Blagojevich was raised.
...After Rod Blagojevich was elected to the state's top post, a public feud erupted between the governor and Mell. Tensions reached a flash point in January 2005, when Rod Blagojevich reportedly shut down a Joliet, Illinois, landfill owned by Patricia Blagojevich's second cousin.
Mell, in an interview with the Chicago-Sun Times, castigated Rod Blagojevich as someone who "uses everybody, and when there's no more use, he discards them." Mell further said that his daughter was wearing "blinders" and didn't realize her husband was a manipulative political animal who would "throw anyone under the bus."
Mell also leveled a flurry of allegations against his son-in-law's administration -- most notably that Rod Blagojevich's fundraising chief, Christopher Kelly, "trades appointments to commissions for checks for $50,000" to the governor's political fund, the newspaper reported.
...Though Mell did not accuse his daughter of improprieties in his well-publicized rant, Patricia Blagojevich has been the subject of scrutiny over her real estate deals, most notably those involving businessman Antoin Rezko.
Rezko, who was convicted in the summer on 16 counts, including fraud, money laundering and abetting bribery, is part of this week's allegations against Rod Blagojevich. Federal authorities allege Rezko is one of the conspirators with whom the governor schemed in what Fitzgerald called "a corruption crime spree."
...Patricia Blagojevich's ties to Rezko came under fire after the Chicago Tribune in 2005 reported that 25 percent of her income in 2004 -- about $38,000 -- came via deals with Rezko, one of the governor's top fundraisers at the time. Aides to the governor said there was nothing nefarious about the business relationship.
In October, the Chicago Tribune reported that the first lady's home-based real estate firm, River Realty, had received about $700,000 in commissions since 2000, when Blagojevich began raising funds for his gubernatorial run. Of those commissions, the paper reported, about three-quarters came from "state contractors, family and others with political ties."
...Despite the reported income, the federal affidavit outlining the charges against Rod Blagojevich states the governor was bemoaning his family's "financial stress" and expressing hope that Obama might help alleviate it.
...The affidavit says the governor had harsh words for the president-elect should he not help the Blagojeviches. Calling Obama a "motherf---er," the governor scoffs incredulously at the idea of appointing his preferred candidate without a kickback, the affidavit says.
"For nothing? F--- him," he said, according to the affidavit.
The next day, the affidavit says, Rod Blagojevich firmly ruled out appointing Obama's preferred successor.
"They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F--- them," the affidavit quotes him as saying.
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