Ethics violation
“Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich’s ’conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave,’ according to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. But Mr. Fitzgerald’s statement would, at the very least, make well-regarded former Attorney General Robert Jackson flinch in his,” Victoria Toensing writes in the Wall Street Journal.
“Almost seven decades ago, Jackson admonished a meeting of U.S. attorneys that they should be dedicated ’to the spirit of fair play and decency. A sensitiveness to fair play and sportsmanship is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power.’
“In the Dec. 9 press conference regarding the federal corruption charges against Gov. Blagojevich and his chief of staff, Mr. Fitzgerald violated the ethical requirement of the Justice Department guidelines that prior to trial a ’prosecutor shall refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused,’ said Ms. Toensing, a former Justice Department official.
“The prosecutor is permitted to ’inform the public of the nature and extent’ of the charges. In the vernacular of all of us who practice criminal law, that means the prosecutor may not go ’beyond the four corners’ - the specific facts - in the complaint or indictment. He may also provide any other public-record information, the status of the case, the names of investigators and request assistance. But he is not permitted to make the kind of inflammatory statements Mr. Fitzgerald made during his media appearance.”
Slow to react
“’I was appalled and disappointed by what we heard in those transcripts,’ Barack Obama said Thursday about the documented misconduct of the governor of Illinois. That’s right. He was appalled. And it took him only 48 hours to realize it,” Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman writes.
“If the U.S. attorney is to be believed, we had Rod Blagojevich talking about auctioning off Obama’s old Senate seat. We had him trying to extort a newspaper. We had him trying to parlay a tollway project into a $500,000 contribution from a highway contractor. We even had him trying to shake down a children’s hospital executive,” Mr. Chapman said.
“The reaction from fellow Illinois Democrats was swift and severe. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn demanded that the governor step aside. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin urged the legislature to call a special election to fill the Senate seat. Attorney General Lisa Madigan proposed to ask the Supreme Court to temporarily disqualify the governor from carrying out his duties (and later did it).
“But Obama had a ’My Pet Goat’ moment, freezing up in the face of the shock. ’I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time,’ he said. ’It’s a sad day for Illinois.’ You’d have thought the Bears had failed to make the playoffs.
“That was the first day. The second day he was only slightly less tepid, with his office issuing a statement saying, ’The president-elect agrees with Lt. Gov. Quinn that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois.’
“Would it be ’difficult’ for Blagojevich to serve the people? Yes, kind of like it was ’difficult’ for the Titanic to continue its voyage. Understatement is one thing. What Obama exhibited was more like lockjaw.”
Not impressed
National Review magazine appears less reassured by President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team than some other conservatives.
“Obama’s economic team has received too much praise from Republicans, including Karl Rove,” the magazine said in an editorial.
“Lawrence Summers, Peter Orszag and Christina Romer are getting credit for not being protectionists, even though almost no economists are. Romer has had a kind word for tax cuts in the past. But Summers is a thoroughgoing redistributionist. Orszag has floated a plan to make Social Security solvent that relies almost entirely on tax increases while lending academic support to demagoguery about ’benefit cuts.’
“Timothy Geithner’s cooperation with Henry Paulson in Wall Street bailouts, meanwhile, hardly qualifies him as a free-market champion. Republicans who offer this crew extravagant praise are doing their small part to move the center of gravity of the economic debate leftward.”
Counting the days
Team Obama is offering a four-year calendar as part of a fundraising effort to help retire the Democratic National Committee’s debt, reporter Christina Bellantoni writes in a blog at www.washingtontimes.com.
“They offer a four-year calendar that will cover every moment of the Obama administration,” in return for a contribution of $35 or more, Ms. Bellantoni writes.
Obama for America, in a message to potential contributors, said: “Show your support for our ongoing movement with an Obama four-year calendar - or share one as a holiday gift.
“Make a donation of $35 and get a limited edition, full-color calendar featuring photos of President-elect Obama and his family from the campaign trail.
The Obama folks added: “You can also donate just $25 and get an Obama winter hat.”
Huckabee’s style
“As a presidential candidate, conservative Mike Huckabee always had a joke or a dig ready. But now, as host of Fox’s ’Huckabee,’ he’s playing it straight. And it’s working,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column of U.S. News & World Report.
“His angle: Stay calm, be respectful and anybody will go on the air. ’I’ve enjoyed having guests on the show who normally won’t do Fox,’ says Huck. Guests like liberals Bill Maher, Richard Dreyfuss and Oliver Stone. ’My philosophy is, I take the words “guest” and “host” very seriously. And to me, host implies a certain level of civility and hospitality, and if you have a guest you treat them as such and you would expect them to behave as such,’ says the Republican. ’And if you do, you can have people with varied points of view.’
“But TV’s not his future. He’s still looking at a 2012 presidential run and is traveling the world to polish his foreign-policy skills.”
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or e-mail Greg Pierce.
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