OBAMA ABSOLVES HIMSELF IN BLAGOBUST - LEFT AGREES
The irony in the left’s total absolution granted the Obama transition team regarding any unethical contacts with Governor Rod Blagojevich or his staff actually makes for some pretty good comedy.
This is the crew that swallowed al-Qaeda propaganda whole with regards to every war “atrocity” ever reported instead of giving their own military or government the benefit of the doubt - including the “Haditha Massacre” where many liberals tried to outdo one another in heaping calumny on innocent soldiers. And now a single report, issued by a politician who presents no other evidence that could clarify or contradict its conclusions, is being trumpeted to the skies as “proof” that no one in the Obama camp did anything wrong.
In short, the left is apt to unquestioningly take what al-Qaeda and Obama say at face value while dismissing the reports of their own government.
Now I will be the first to point out that there were many reports from our military regarding readiness of the Iraqi Army and other political benchmarks set by Congress that were less than honest. And there have been other instances where our government lied outright about the war, specifically in their overly optimistic assessments about progress in bringing peace and security to the provinces.
I am not saying that we should automatically believe everything the government says and not believe al-Qaeda propagandists. I am saying that the left is being hypocritical by not showing the same skepticism they direct towards the Bush Administration on anything and everything they come out with compared to their superficial, eager embrace of the one sided, sole source Obama report on staff contacts with Blago.
It is a selective form of information processing that proves two things; most on the left are partisan hacks and that we are in for at least four years of insufferable hypocrisy from people who are so clueless that they fail to recognize it.
Apparently, we are to suspend disbelief for the duration of Obama’s presidency. No matter that not one single taped conversation with the principles has been released to either confirm the information in the report or make Obama out a liar. Reports in the press on what Fitzy actually has as far as taped conversations between Blagojevich and the Obama team have been wildly overstated (at least according to the report). And yet, when the press assures us that because of the findings in the president-elect’s own manufactured report we can now put this controversy to rest.
In a front page diary at Kos from JedL, we get this bit of certainty about our new president:
Let me emphasize this point: the reason why the release of the Obama report was delayed was to allow Fitzgerald to complete his interviews with the transition team. In other words, everything that Obama’s team has said has been true.
Such unquestioning devotion based on nothing more than a politician’s word - an oxymoron to be sure - would be laughable if this same attitude wasn’t so prevelant on the left.
And as expected, there was nothing to hide. The entire Craig memo is online (.pdf), and after reading it, everything we’d heard from Obama and his team was completely true. Obama never spoke to Blagojevich or his office about the Senate vacancy; no one on Obama’s staff ever had any inappropriate discussions with the governor or his office; and no one Obama’s staff ever had any indication that Blagojevich was engaged in alleged corruption.
The report is quite thorough - in a self serving kind of way. But what in God’s name does anyone expect? If anyone actually thought Obama would put one iota of information in that report that would have contradicted anything he or his aides have said on the matter they belong in an insane asylum.
So what’s the rush, guys? The exoneration of Obama and his team as a result of findings released in their own report after conducting their own investigation would make most people with a molecule of curiosity say “OK, fine. I’m glad they say they’re innocent of any ethical breach or lawbreaking as a newborn babe. Perhaps we might wait upon Fitzgerald for a release of, like, you know, some actual evidence that what they say is true rather than swallowing their report whole like a good little Obamabot?”
But why let a little reality slip into the “Reality Based Community” when anti-intellectualism is so much easier to embrace?
UPDATE
I note that Steven Benen makes the arguement that because Fitzy has the tapes, this means that the Obama camp was “forced” to tell the truth lest any information that came out a a later date would contradict what’s in the report.
One imagines that Obama detractors might not believe these conclusions — “the transition team can’t clear itself of wrongdoing!” — but the review was done with the knowledge that Blagojevich and his office was the subject of FBI wiretaps. The transition team, in other words, knew in advance that any false claims would be easily exposed, so they had a very strong incentive to be completely honest.
First, there is no certainty that the tapes in question will ever see the light of day and the Obama camp could certainly have been told this. No doubt Fitzy would play some of the tapes at any trial of Blagojevich and Harris but since there almost certainly was nothing illegal offered by Blago to the Obama camp, the chances of any Blago-Emanuel converstations aired at trial would be slim. What kind of horse trading that might have gone on would be irrelevant in a criminal trial but might be damaging politically.
Secondly, as we saw with Bill Clinton, parsing words is an art form and statements made in the report could very well contradict what the actual conversations might say because a good lawyer can twist words and facts until they reveal exactly what he wishes them to reveal. The report could have said the sun rises in the west and Obama could come out with a statement that if you are standing upsidedown and facing sideways, of course the sun rises in the west, dummy.
No doubt Bennen et al would swallow that one without any skepticism too.
Freedom of Information Act?? Do we the public have a right to the tape gathered here??
But the manner in which the left views Obama in such absolute purity of motives and deeds in all things, such a paragon of all virtue - I’m wondering if the Pope has yet canonized Obama?? The left has. No, wait, I’m being unfair. The left has NOT canonized Obama as if he was a saint. The left has DEIFIED Obama as if he was their God messiah.
Who are mere created beings to question God?? Rick, this blog you have written - well, actually, isn’t it blasphemy?? No wonder the left gets angry with those who dare question Obama.
Many of them declare my worship of Jesus Christ irrational. Ummmmm… Jesus Christ really was sinless, He really was perfectly pure, He really did die for our sins, He really was born of the Virgin Mary, He really did rise from the dead, He really is the Son of God: Jesus Christ really is Messiah and God.
I mean, can the left now better understand my worship of my messiah, Jesus Christ - and how I consider Him sinless and worthy of all adoration… now that they have their own messiah God they worship and adore??
Rick, I just can’t understand, really, how those who worship and adore a Chicago politician can really challenge my personal faith in the Son of God.
They’re doing the same thing - except they’ve chosen a politician… and I don’t find Obama worship more intelligent that Jesus Christ worship, from any logical point of view.
Just a couple of thoughts this Christmas Eve.
How can any of them who so adore Obama… not see they are worshiping him just as we worship Jesus Christ. I think wisdom goes with a man worthy of such praise.
I guess we all worship something.
Merry Christmas.
Comment by anon — 12/24/2008 @ 12:13 pm
Watching Republicans try to move forward is a bit like watching fat guys (I am one) at a buffet table. You don’t want to keep grabbing for the brownies of scandal-mongering, but you can’t quite stop yourselves.
There’s nothing here. Nothing but empty calories. And every time you go back to it your party is going to look a little worse, a little more out of control, a little less relevant. In the end, just pathetic.
But Merry Christmas, or holiday of your choice, anyway.
You’re right. I think we should let them do this for anything the Obama administration does - even if they blow up the fucking world. Let’s let them investigate what went wrong themselves and tell us, their pathetic slaves, that it wasn’t their fault but someone else’s. Then we can all let out a chorus of “Yes we Can!” and get back to being hoodwinked by this crew of Chicago pols.
Great idea.
ed.
Comment by michael reynolds — 12/24/2008 @ 1:32 pm
Expecting the Obama camp to properly investigate and disclose all improprieties, release all tapes, etc re: Blago, is equivalent to expecting Nixon’s camp to have properly investigated itself and disclose everything pertaining to Watergate. Which includes releasing all tapes (were Deep Throat not involved to expose them and hold their feet to the fire).
Unfrigginbelievable. The hypocracy on the left continues to achieve new, formidable levels almost daily…
Comment by brian.s. — 12/24/2008 @ 1:40 pm
Well, my question is why didin’t President Bush do this whenever anything came up? I mean, I do not see how you do not believe the president-elect!
Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — 12/24/2008 @ 2:40 pm
How in the world can anyone believe ‘In other words, everything that Obama’s team has said has been true.’?
First, just because the Federal Prosecutor has Team Obama’s statements does not mean they are, in fact true. Were they made under oath? If so, and the statements turn out to be false, will The One be cited for perjury?
Second, it took Courts Martial to absolve the Haditha Marines yet John Murtha and the rest of the Democrat Party has yet to apologize. Are we to expect The One to extend the same Rights to those Marines as to his Team?
Third, independent analysis and fact checking is merited given the Democrat Party’s tendency towards scandal. Provide the raw data and let the Blogosphere dig as we did for certain other ‘documents’ foisted upon a gullible nation.
Comment by SeniorD — 12/24/2008 @ 3:54 pm
There’s nothing to investigate.
No allegations, no accusations. On the contrary, the prosecutor seems to have exonerated the Obama people.
So is the theory that we should investigate matters for which there is no allegation of wrong doing? That’s going to be kind of hard, isn’t it? Kind of time-consuming?
Or are we supposed to appoint special prosecutors every time a handful of ideological bloggers get a bug up their nether regions? If so then I guess we’ll need a few hundred prosecutors just to follow up on all the wild accusations made against Mr. Bush by leftie blogs over the last eight years.
There’s no credible accusation of anything. At all. Nada. Zero. But then why shouldn’t the party that has zero credibility just keep doing the same old same old ad infinitum? Spend the next 4/8 years tightening up your tinfoil hats and howling in the wilderness.
You’re on the path to party suicide.
Comment by michael reynolds — 12/24/2008 @ 4:13 pm
Don’t we have bigger problems right now? A swing and a miss for the Rightwing (nuthouse).
Comment by Frederick — 12/24/2008 @ 4:21 pm
“… as we saw with Bill Clinton, parsing words is an art form and statements made in the report could very well contradict what the actual conversations might say because a good lawyer can twist words and facts until they reveal exactly what he wishes them to reveal.”
Obama’s a master of parsing his words, but he’s telling the absolute unvarnished truth THIS TIME. Uh-huh. OK.
Personally — I doubt he’d make any stupid moves THAT far along in his campaign, so I doubt there’s anything incriminating to be found regarding his replacement. But I have to agree, the way people have jumped on this as “proof” is just plain outrageous.
It doesn’t matter, however, as ANYTHING he does or says or advocates or promotes or HAS done will be hailed as just the greatest thing ever. Get used to it.
Comment by DoorHold — 12/24/2008 @ 4:36 pm
What galls me about this issue is that the Obama machine once again is rewriting history and getting away with it - without as much as a second glance by the MSM.
There were contemporaneous media reports starting before the election about conversation between Obama/Obama staffers and Blagojuvich and his staff. Then a day or two after the election there were more reports. Then Axelrod late in November makes an unconditional statement that Obama had talked with the governor about the Senate appointment.
Now Axelrod has retracted his statement to conform with Obama’s stated position as of early December. Some of the media reports have disappeared from the internet in the past two weeks. Haven’t we seen this before during the Obama campaign - inconvenient facts just “disappearing”? Reminds me of the Soviet tactics of airbrushing history to suit current “truths”.
Will anyone pursue this issue and hold the PE’s feet to the fire now and into the future on this less than admirable trait of intimidating others to only report the “world according to Obama”?
Comment by in_awe — 12/24/2008 @ 6:04 pm
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There is something ironic about Rick, who has swallowed roughly a quarter mile of brooksticks with nary a gag worth mentioning claiming others are doing the same in this non scandal.
Comment by Davebo — 12/24/2008 @ 9:33 pm
Al Capone Said Today That His Transition Team Has Reviewed It’s Contacts With Bugs Moran’s Gang And Found Itself Blameless
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> In short, the left is apt to unquestioningly take what al-Qaeda and Obama say at face value while dismissing the reports of their own government.
But, soon, they’ll be accepting the reports of their own govt. CHANGE!
Comment by Arthur — 12/26/2008 @ 12:35 am