LIFE IS UNFAIR
“At a news conference just now, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald made very clear that he had uncovered no evidence of misbehavior on the part of Barack Obama,” Michael Scherer wrote Tuesday in the Swampland blog at time.com.
“’I should be clear that the complaint makes no allegations whatsoever about the president-elect or his conduct,’ he said. But he also made clear that his investigation was hardly complete. He still needed ’to find out what happened.’ And he said, as a policy, that the U.S. Attorney office is not in the business of ’giving clean bills of health.’
“That’s the reason that the fall of Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to continue to haunt Obama, not to mention Chicago’s Democratic establishment, where he built his roots. The president of the United States has a higher burden than just about any elected official anywhere. His staff will be called on by the press to account for all their conversations with Blagojevich and his aides. Obama will have to explain what he knew about these discussions,” Mr. Scherer said.
“The bit players in the complaint, like the unnamed Senate Candidate 1 and Senate Candidate 5, will have to come forward and explain their involvement. … Obama’s staff and political allies may be forced to get attorneys of their own. …
“U.S. Attorney investigations often end with indictments far from where they start. (See the cases of Valerie Plame and Jack Abramoff.) And Fitzgerald is going to continue to follow the facts, which means many more questions for people close to Obama. So regardless of Obama’s innocence, this will continue to be a burden for the president-elect and those around him. Politics, like life, is not fair.”
FOCUS ON ILLINOIS
“I had just finished a piece on former Republican Gov. George Ryan’s crimes and his unworthiness of a pardon, and now Gov. Blagojevich (D.) gets himself arrested,” David Freddoso writes at National Review Online.
“Blagojevich’s crimes, if proven true, appear to be much, much worse. There will be tons to say later about Chicago’s extreme corruption, to which Barack Obama was always willing to turn a blind eye. We will learn quite a bit more about Chicago and Springfield from Blagojevich’s downfall in the next few months,” Mr. Freddoso said.
“But for now, two important observations. First, no one wants a Senate appointment from a man accused of selling the seat. We may need a change of governor soon. There is no law in Illinois providing for situations in which the governor temporarily gives up his powers. The General Assembly would have to pass such a law. An impeachment is probably more likely. Blagojevich could appoint someone from jail, but I don’t think the Senate would seat such an appointment under these circumstances.
“Second, by arresting Blagojevich before Inauguration Day, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has done the one thing that absolutely prevents Barack Obama from removing him from his position. As he has worked doggedly to send corrupt politicians (many of them Obama’s friends and political allies) to prison, Fitzgerald has arguably become the most important man in Illinois politics.”
HALTING CHANGE
“In a stimulus plan, the first job is to get money out the door quickly. That means you avoid anything that might require planning and creativity. You avoid anything that might require careful implementation or novel approaches. The quickest thing to do is simply throw money at things that already exist,” New York Times columnist David Brooks writes.
“Sure enough, the Obama stimulus plan, at least as it has been sketched out so far, is notable for its lack of creativity. Obama wants to put more computers in classrooms, an old idea with dubious educational merit. He also proposes a series of ideas that are good but not exactly transformational: refurbishing the existing power grid; fixing the oldest roads and bridges; repairing schools; and renovating existing government buildings to make them more energy efficient,” Mr. Brooks said.
“This is the federal version of ’This Old House.’ And this is before the stimulus money gets diverted, as it inevitably will, to refurbish old companies. The auto bailout could eventually swallow $125 billion. After that, it could be the airlines and so on.
“It’s also before the spending drought that is bound to follow the spending binge. Because we’re going to be spending $1 trillion now on existing structures and fading industries, there will be less or nothing in 2010 or 2011 for innovative transport systems, innovative social programs or anything else.
“Before the recession hit, we were enjoying a period of urban and suburban innovation. We could have been on the verge of a transportation revolution. It looks as if the Obama infrastructure plan may freeze that change, not fuel it.”
AFTER SANTA
“Being Santa Claus is fun. Delivering the credit-card bills later is much less fun,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib writes.
“And so it will be for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. He will get to play Santa Claus at the outset of his term, telling people they can spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the name of stimulus. Later, of course, he’ll have to play Scrooge, telling the country that the bill has come due,” Mr. Seib said.
“The challenge for the Obama team is making sure Americans in general, and Congress in particular, remember that both roles lie ahead for the new president. The task, in the words of one senior Obama aide, is to make sure that people don’t think the model for stimulus spending in coming months is ’backing in the Brink’s truck and opening up the door.’ ”
BACKING BLACKWELL
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has recruited his old friend, Steve Forbes, as honorary chairman of his campaign for Republican national chairman.
Mr. Blackwell e-mailed the news about the Forbes magazine publisher on Tuesday to the 618 voting members of the Republican National Committee.
In a memo Tuesday to RNC members, asking them to consider Mr. Blackwell for the chairmanship, Mr. Forbes, who twice sought the Republican presidential nomination, called Mr. Blackwell an “extraordinary leader and longtime personal friend.”
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or e-mail Greg Pierce.
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