Lost in all the Chicken Littling about OMG OMG Did Obama Play Ball With Blago (Answer: No. If you need further information, it's past the jump.) is the fact that Rod Blagojevich almost escaped from Patrick Fitzgerald's net -- and the people who nearly saved him were Dennis Hastert, Bob Kjellander, and Karl Rove.
More on this past the jumpy-wumpy-woozie thing. (Also at Fire Dog Lake.)
The plot was hatched in early 2005:
Maloof said he met with Rezko at Rezko's Wilmette mansion in February of 2005 after Maloof had received a federal grand jury subpoena. Maloof testified that Rezko told him not to worry.
"The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor," Maloof quoted Rezko. "Patrick Fitzgerald will be terminated and Dennis Hastert will name his replacement."
Hastert at the time was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the ranking Republican in the state's elected delegation to Capitol Hill.
Maloof's story appears to corroborate the plot described in the guilty plea of former Illinois finance authority chief Ali Ata. He was charged with Rezko in a separate federal financial fraud case. Ata claims Rezko told him that Illinois Republican power broker Robert Kjellander would lean on then-White House political chief Karl Rove to fire Fitzgerald to kill the Rezko investigation.
Hastert lost his job as speaker after the 2006 election and resigned from Congress late last year. So far, ABC7 has been unable to reach him for a comment on Maloof's testimony.
Rove, of course, probably wasn't interested in protecting Rezko so much as he was in fighting off Fitz over the Plame case. Kjellander and Hastert had their own motivations, as Rezko, contrary to being the heavily-partisan Democrat fundraiser of the TradMed's imaginings, actually raised heavy amounts of cash for Republicans as well:
<div class="wbq"> Republicans in Washington could presumably be persuaded to spike an investigation into Democrat Blagojevich because Rezko raised money for the GOP too and is accused of scheming with Republican heavyweight Stuart Levine, who has pleaded guilty in the case and testified against Rezko.
Kjellander, former treasurer of the Republican National Committee, received $809,000 in consulting fees for Blagojevich's 2003 sale of state bonds, much of which prosecutors believe was funneled through a Rezko associate to Rezko "assignees." Kjellander has not been charged with wrongdoing.
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Something to bear in mind when the Republicans and their GOP/Media Complex allies work to try and use Blago's woes against Obama.
Oh, and about whether Obama played ball with Blagojevich:
Well, Fitz made a point of saying this today:
In a conversation with Harris on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them."
In other words, Obama's people didn't even try to cut any illicit deals with Blago, much to Blago's displeasure.
And there's also Fitz' statement as reproduced by ABC's Sunlen Miller:
"I’m not going to speak for what the President elect was aware of," he said. "We make no allegations that he’s aware of anything and that’s as simply as I can put it."
When he was asked the same question again, Fitz responded thus:
"I’m not going to down anything that’s not on the complaint... I have enough trouble speaking for myself, I’m never going to go try to speak in the voice of a President or a President-elect so I simply pointed out that if you look at the complaint there’s no allegation that the President-elect, there’s no reference in the complaint to any conversations involving the President-elect or indicating that the President –elect was aware of it and that’s all I can say."
Were any phone calls to the President-elect or any members of the Obama transition team intercepted?
"You can read the complaint. I’m not going to sit here with a 76 page complaint and parse though it – that’s all we’re alleging. And I’m not going to start saying ‘did anyone ever talk to anyone?’ You can read what we allege in the complaint. It’s pretty detailed. Look in the 76 pages. And if you don’t see it, it’s not there."