If the serious allegations against Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich are proven to be true in a court of law, he — and any other accomplices — should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
In the meantime, the right-wing media erupted into an orgy of anticipatory celebration and glee, and into unveiled attempts to implicate President-elect Obama, by trying to tie him to the governor, to the alleged crimes, and to the Illinois corruption in general.
Already, the questions of “What did Obama know, and when did he know it” are rampant.
Yes, as a Senator from Illinois and apparently an acquaintance of the governor, as the one whose U.S. Senate seat — the selection of his replacement, that is — is at the heart of one of the allegations of wrongdoing, Obama should tell what he knows about the allegations, and I am sure he will.
I just happened to be listening to an excited and elated Sean Hannity on his radio show — I could only take a few minutes of it. What I heard during that short time went something like this … (Of course, I do not remember exactly Hannity’s words, but I do remember that the alphabet soup and numbers he threw out just made my head spin. So I took the liberty to peek at the formal federal complaint to refresh my memory, and took some satirical license to make a point):
At a meeting on such and such a date, Fundraisers A and B approached Advisors C and D and Individuals X and Y to seek 500 grand to help Senate Candidate 5 defeat Candidates 2, 3 and 4. However, advisor D claimed that the governor preferred Candidate 1, but that if Fundraiser B could convince Individual E to raise a million, the governor might be able to make Candidate 5 a Senator.
At that time, the group received a phone call from Advisor M saying that Fundraiser F claimed that he might be able to get some money up-front from individual Z, if the gov. named Senate candidate 007 to the Senate seat.
Then, Emissary R came in claiming that he was approached by Associate L, well-known to Individuals X, Y and Z, who had talked to Advisor S to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for the gov. when he ran for re-election…
And so the gobbledygook went on, but for Hannity it was apparently clear as day that Barack Obama, somehow, someway is involved in this tragedy.
When it comes to the hate-Obama crowd, 2 + 2 will always be 5, and the letters A, B, C, etc., will always lead directly to the letter “O”
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.