Illinois gub gives right wing talking heads more ammo against Prez-elect

By Gregory Moore

As if President-elect Barack Obama doesn't have enough problems in the world right now, right in his own back yard he now has the crisis of all political crisis coming down upon him.

Forget about Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers and Fr. Pfleger.

Those four men are neophytes when it comes to political scandals that could tarnish the first Black president of this country.

The heavyweight champion of political scandal has just been crowned and the winner is Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff.

If you don't know by now, Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday morning at his home by federal agents on conspiracy charges that include him trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's now vacated U.S. Senate seat.

Of course news of this sort is bound to hit the airwaves and undoubtedly Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hanity and other right wing talking heads are already trying to find ways to link Obama to this scandal.

Don't be surprised that the words "Chicago politics", "insiders" and even the re-surfacing of Wright, Rezko, and Ayers as possible connects by these and other right wing demogauges. In the world of talk show, in order to keep a listenership someone has to become the hated foe and Obama is the man that everyone loves to hate right now from that side of the world.

It's a pity that instead of reporting on the story about Blagojevich, there are going to be news entities like Fox News, National Review and others who want to make this about Obama and where he is from politically.

Fair and balanced coverage?

Are you kidding me?

Not in this day and age.

Not with so many from the right wanting to show that Obama was the wrong pick for the most lucrative job in this country and possibly the world.

They aren't about taking a wait and see attitude; they are about having ammunition of fodder to constantly last from their microphonic cannons.

So while the right wing blowhards try to find ways of keeping their conspiracy about Obama going, this country is now thrown into a political nightmare of unparalleled proportions.

If you take the treasonous acts of Aaron Burr and couple them with all of the mess that has happened with Watergate and even the Iran-Contra fiasco, you will not come up with a big enough scandal than what is in front of us right now.

How serious is indictment that Blagojevich is being charged with?

How about the fact that it is one of the very reasons why the 17th amendment is a part of our Constitution right now. The amendment says in part, "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution."

The amendment was written and ratified to curtail the corruption that was before this current form of selecting Senators. The amendment was written to stop the very actions that Blagojevich is being accused of and there hasn't been a case like his in probably a 100 years or so.

But his story isn't going to be told and nor will the historical significance of this crime even be seriously talked about by right wing conservatives.

Not this week and probably not ever.

Instead President-elect Obama is about to be thrown into this mess of political strife simply because he was a U.S. Senator who became the President of the United States and instead of these talk show hosts withholding judgment on our 44th President or any of his staff, under the bus they will all go.

That's a sad commentary on our talking media but it also shows just how bad this scandal could become.

With a scandal like this, right wing opponents aren't going to look for plausibility or deniability for President Obama; they are looking for blood and flesh.

Too bad because if there was ever a time for the collective sides of the media to come together and show the country that responsible journalism still exists even after election, this is it.

That's not going to happen.

Not with a juicy scandal like this so close to our new president and it involves his U.S. Senate vacancy.