Rahm Israel Emanuel, First Obama Appointment, Caught up
in Illinois Blagojevich Corruption Scandal 

FOUL-MOUTHED ISRAELI CITIZEN 
SLATED TO BE PRESIDENT-ELECT'S CHIEF OF STAFF

Senate scandal snares Obama's chief aide
By SARAH BAXTER
The Sunday Times, London   Sunday, 14 December 2008
 
WASHINGTON — THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago
arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign
as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he
had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the
names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat.

Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil
the president-elect’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds
his corruption case against Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor. 

TWO FOUL MOUTHS—Obama chief-of-staff designate Rahm Emanuel
with disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich at earlier news conference.

Blagojevich has been accused of plotting to sell Obama’s Senate
seat — which is in the governor’s gift — in return for financial and
political favors.

Republicans are salivating at the prospect of tying the president-
elect to the notoriously corrupt Chicago machine in which he
forged his career.

Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist,
said: “If Obama wants to be squeaky clean, he is going to have
to cut all his Chicago friends loose. His chief of staff has
fingerprints on the murder weapon.”

Emanuel ducked out of view last week, avoiding reporters’
questions and complaining of harassment and “death threats”
as the news spread that he was the likely unnamed adviser cited
by the FBI with whom the tainted Blagojevich hoped to bargain
over the appointment.

Slow with answers, consulting lawyers

For the “No Drama” Obama team, the spiraling controversy has
been an alarming distraction in the midst of the US economic
meltdown. Obama has yet to release a promised timeline of
contacts between members of his transition team and the
governor's office, while Emanuel is thought to be consulting
lawyers.

Ed Rendell, the outspoken governor of Pennsylvania, said the
Obama team was bungling its response. “The rule of thumb is:
Whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a
one-day story as opposed to a three-day story,” he said.

Private telephone discussions between Emanuel and John Harris,
Blagojevich’s chief of staff, began as early as the weekend
before the November 4 election, the Chicago Tribune revealed
yesterday.

Emanuel let it be known that Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser,
Tammy Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war veteran, and two other
candidates would be “acceptable” to Obama.

Unable to complete sentence without f-word

Emanuel had further talks with the governor’s office after the
election, during which he added another name to the list. It
does not appear that Emanuel engaged in any illegal horse-
trading — Blagojevich complained at one stage that all the
president-elect’s team was offering was “appreciation.”
“F*** them,” the governor said.

Jarrett, Obama’s first choice as senator, was swiftly named
a senior White House adviser to Obama after Blagojevich
complained, according to FBI transcripts, that he was not
going to “give f******” Jarrett the f****** Senate seat
and I don’t get anything”.

However, questions remain over what Emanuel said when
and how much he know about the governor’s “pay to play”
scheme. He may have been fully aware of what Blagojevich
was attempting.

At one stage the governor told an aide that he wanted an
unnamed “president-elect adviser”, thought to be Emanuel,
to help “raise 10, 15 million” for a charitable group, which
the governor could head.

Notoriously crude Emanuel 'cute'

Did Emanuel receive the news, and if so, how? Did he report
his suspicion of illegal activity to the FBI or did he treat it
just as a normal part of wheeler-dealing in the corrupt Windy
City? And did he use the same four-letter language to discuss
the succession in the same crude terms as Blagojevich?

Obama once joked at a charity “roast” that the notoriously
crude Emanuel — who was elected to Congress in
Blagojevich’s old seat — was rendered “practically mute”
when he lost his middle finger in an accident.

“When you are Rahm Emanuel and you use the f-word all the
time, it is supposed to be cute and amusing,” Norquist said.
“When the governor of Illinois gets caught, people say, ‘Oh,
he’s crazy’, and the proof that he is crazy is that he talks
like Rahm Emanuel.”

Obama faces a stark choice. Emanuel was his first
appointment as his chief of staff after the election. If
he were to throw him out of the inner circle now with his
reputation under siege, it would be a singular act of disloyalty
before the transition team has even had a chance to take
office.

Scandal lapping at Obama's ankles

Emanuel has not yet resigned as a member of the House
of Representatives for Illinois, although he has pledged to do
so. Obama had to work hard to persuade Emanuel, who had
his own independent power base in Congress and a semblance
of normal family life with his young children, to join him in the
most intensive, high-pressure job in the White House.

However, the scandal is lapping at Obama’s own ankles.
Blagojevich is a product of the entrenched graft and corruption
that have characterized Chicago’s style of government since
the days of Al Capone, the prohibition-era gangster.

He is being investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald, 47, a fearless
prosecutor who brought down Scooter Libby, Vice-President
Dick Cheney’s neoconservative adviser, and Conrad Black,
the media baron.

Fitzgerald is a much-resented figure among Obama’s advisers.
David Axelrod, the Chicago mastermind behind Obama’s
campaign, once complained: “He goes after fleas and elephants
with the same bazooka. At some point there is a line ... where
you begin criminalizing politics in its most innocent form.”

Convicted Obama friend talking to investigators

Obama is himself embroiled in a subplot of the scandal with
uncomfortable connections to Blagojevich, even though the
president-elect said last week that he was “appalled” by the
governor’s actions.

As Fitzgerald widens his inquiry across Chicago, witnesses will
be lining up to talk — if only to save their own necks. Harris,
who has been accused with his boss of planning to sell the
Senate seat, resigned last Friday, prompting speculation that
he intends to cooperate with federal investigators.

Ominously for Obama, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the property
dealer and fixer who helped him to buy his $1.65m house in
Chicago by purchasing an adjacent plot on the same day, has
also been talking to investigators in an attempt to reduce a
prison sentence following his conviction for fraud and bribery.

Rezko is expected to be a key witness in the corruption case
against Blagojevich but he also knows more than anybody
about the house purchase and other deals with Obama.

The plot thickens

When the house came on the market, the seller insisted that
both plots were sold at the same time.

But while Obama bought his part of the property for $300,000
under the asking price, it has emerged that Rezko’s wife not
only paid the asking price for their slice of land — $625,000 —
but that the extra piece of property may have been deliberately
overvalued.

A valuer who made an initial lower estimate, only to be
overruled, is believed to be giving evidence to Fitzgerald’s
team.

Rezko also appears to have helped Blagojevich with his domestic
affairs. Investigators have been trying to find out whether he
charged the governor for $90,000 worth of improvements to the
family room and deck of his house.

The governor’s wife, Patti Blagojevich, a Lady Macbeth figure
who may face charges herself for encouraging her husband
to behave corruptly, received $47,000 in commission from a
property deal involving Rezko.

Clout list used by president-elect

In a further disturbing connection, Rezko regularly supplied
Blagojevich with a “clout list” of names of people he thought
the governor should appoint to state boards and jobs.

Obama made use of Rezko’s clout list on at least one occasion,
when he recommended that Eric Whitaker, an old Harvard
friend and doctor, be hired as director of Illinois’s public health
department.

Whitaker, Obama said, “had expressed an interest in that job.
He did contact me, or Tony contacted me, and I gave him
a glowing recommendation because I thought he was
outstanding.”

Fitzgerald made it clear that Obama is not a target of
investigation. Emanuel is thought to be free from any threat
of charges. But that will not be the end of the matter.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5337807.ece