Nashville Blago’s Attorney Talks To NashPo
Posted on December 19, 2008 at 1:35 pmTom Wood reports on Rob Blagojevich’s attorney’s reaction to a Chicago Sun Times report:
“I have no knowledge of what’s on those tapes,” Ettinger told NashvillePost.com this afternoon. “What I can tell you is, yes, he was recorded.” The Chicago attorney said a “substantial number” of the wiretaps contain conversations between the two brothers.
“He’s not charged with anything,” Ettinger said. “I’ve spoken with him briefly. I haven’t heard anything where he violated any law.” He added that he plans to challenge the legality of the FBI’s wiretapping.
“This is not the usual way the government proceeds,” the lawyer said. “In this case, they went out and arrested the governor — which I thought was a grandstand play. Where’s he going to?” Normally, “in 98 percent of cases,” Ettinger said, the authorities would simply notify the suspect and tell him to surrender in court.
Noting that the complaint filed against Gov. Blagojevich did not constitute an indictment, Ettinger said he expects the grand jury to hand down formal charges in January. Asked whether he expects his client to be named in that indictment, Ettinger replied: “I hope not.”
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Blago Was A Bookie
Posted on December 18, 2008 at 9:40 amFrom ABC:
Cooley says that before Rod Blagojevich got into politics he was a bookmaker on the North Side who regularly paid the Chicago mob to operate.
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You Need Us
Posted on December 11, 2008 at 7:10 amA newspaperman makes the case in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal that newspapers are more important than ever:
Political corruption is not unknown in Tennessee. Back in January 1979, Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton was accused of selling pardons, resulting in Lamar Alexander being sworn in three days early. Blanton was later convicted of selling liquor licenses and served a prison sentence.
Not long ago, the Tennessee Waltz investigation nailed seven state lawmakers on bribery charges — most famously State Sen. John Ford of Memphis, who is now serving a prison term.
This case also shows the importance of newspapers. Corrupt politicians recognize a free press as a threat to their ambitions. Wiretaps reveal Blagojevich tried to have editorial writers at the Chicago Tribune fired for criticizing him. He reportedly ordered his staff to tell the Tribune owner to “fire all those (expletive) people, get them the (expletive) out of there and get us some editorial support.”
The Blagojevich scandal shows that as long as there are political office holders, some will try to abuse their power. A vigilant federal Justice Department and a vigilant media are the best weapons against such abuses
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The Next Time Someone Says Tennessee Is Corrupt
Posted on December 10, 2008 at 11:44 amYou tell them we ain’t even in the top ten.
Let’s Not Forget The Fact
Posted on at 11:36 amThe bad guy in this whole Illinois governor fiasco said himself that Barack Obama was clean:
The only way this is bad news for Obama is if we live in a world where we are no longer attached to notion of logic. The reality is this is actually very good news for Obama. Here is the clearest case I have ever seen of a politician who was tested and passed the test! He is indisputably clean.
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He’s Dan Rostenkowski, He Solves Problems
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 8:00 amThat’s good, says Aunt B., because the Tennessee Democrats have one:
Listen, Tennessee Democrats, here’s my idea. Dan Rostenkowski is not dead. If we have to have corrupt Democrats trying to throw their political weight around, can we hire ole Dan to come down and put them through some kind of corrupt Democrat trying to throw their weight around boot camp? Because this [crap] is mortifying.
Lesson One could be: if you want to use secret files to intimidate and bully your political enemies, don’t be so god damn lazy as to just find one corrupt State Trooper and have him give you access to THP records. No. You have folks compiling files full of old newspaper clippings, conversations recorded during trysts with hookers you got to first, unseemly photographs taken by ex-cons who need breaks. You have a lot of minor players collecting a lot of seemingly uninteresting information that you know how to bring together into a bone-chilling collection.
Lesson Two: Just because you think you’re smarter than your opponents doesn’t mean your opponents are idiots. If you deliver copies of the damning information you have against them to their offices in the middle of the night by leaving those files on their desks and if there are only three groups that have keys to that office–your opponent, the cleaning crew, and the THP–your mother[scratching] right they’re going to figure out in about fifteen seconds who left the files.
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