FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

I’ve obtained documents sent to a reader in response to his FOIA request regarding the creation of Barack Obama’s Change.gov website. It gives you the rest of the story. You’ll recall last month that I blogged several questions about the propriety of allowing the perpetual Obama campaign to use a .gov domain name for what appeared to be a fund-raising front. Readers and industry observers noted that the decision appeared to violate General Services Administration rules governing government domains.

Opponents argue that the amendment cannot be applied retroactively, but proponents say the amendment is clear on that issue.

"Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity," one of the briefs read. "There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions, or exclusions: 'Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.'

" … Its plain language encompasses both pre-existing and later-created same-sex (and polygamous) marriages, whether performed in California or elsewhere. With crystal clarity, it declares that they are not valid or recognized in California."

Geraldine Ferraro gave a thumbs down to Caroline Kennedy's bid for the Senate yesterday - even as the Camelot daughter won her biggest endorsement for the job, The Post has learned.

Ferraro, the first woman nominee for vice president, sent a letter to Gov. Paterson urging him to instead appoint one of New York's six sitting female Congress members to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate.

At the same time, Brooklyn Democratic Party head Vito Lopez, who leads the biggest county party in the city, issued the first formal endorsement for Kennedy.
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Ferraro is correct. But the fix is in!

Caroline Kennedy is finally sharing some of her political opinions with the people she's campaigning to represent — casting herself in the liberal tradition of uncle Ted Kennedy, bucking Barack Obama by supporting same-sex marriage and disavowing Hillary Clinton's 2002 vote for the Iraq invasion.

A Kennedy spokesman drafted seven written answers to the eight questions submitted by Politico to the 51-year-old attorney, author and electoral novice.

Some of Kennedy's responses were brief and vague — and she flatly refused to answer a pressing political query we posed: Will she support the Democratic nominee for New York mayor in 2009?
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Caroline Kennedy is an empty suit but good enough for New York apparently

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday rejected a Democratic proposal for a temporary 1 1/2-cent sales tax hike despite pleas by their colleagues across the aisle to look beyond political partisanship in the face of California going broke.
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Good for the California GOP - need to hold their ground or there will be no tax reform

Kenneth W. Starr, the former U.S. Solicitor General who led the inquiry into President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica L. Lewinsky, will argue the case in favor of upholding a ban on gay marriage before the California Supreme Court.

Starr was today named lead counsel for the official proponents of Proposition 8. This afternoon, the group filed court briefs defending the legality of the proposition, which was approved by 52% of California voters last month throwing into question thousands of marriages performed during the five months the practice was legal in the state.

The briefs are in response to a spate of legal challenges filed by gay rights advocates, including the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has changed his position with respect to the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

Brown filed a brief Friday saying the measure, which amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman, is itself unconstitutional because it deprives gay couples of a fundamental right.

After California voters passed Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, Brown initially said he would fight to uphold the ballot initiative in his role as attorney general, even though he personally voted against it.
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Brown has violated his charge as Attorney General. Time to recall him.

WHEN THE alleged brazen attempts by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) to auction off a U.S. Senate seat were revealed last week, the leadership of the state legislature made noises about the need for a special election. Press conferences were held. Bills to make such a vote possible were promised. And then — silence. It had dawned on the Democrats who control the legislature and their fellow Democrats in Washington that they might actually lose a Senate election. So much for letting the people speak.
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The Dems won't sanction a psecial election and the seat will remain vacant until Blago eventually resigns.

Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the state's high court on Thursday said a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car "like a rag doll" can be sued.
California's Supreme Court ruled that the state's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if the are administering emergency medical care, and that Lisa Torti's attempted rescue of her friend didn't qualify.

Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a unanimous court that a person is not obligated to come to someone's aid.

"If, however, a person elects to come to someone's aid, he or she has a duty to exercise due care," he wrote.
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Flap smellls a recall of the California Supreme Court brewing. Waht a ridiculous decision.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will not sign a package of bills Democrats sent him today to increase taxes and make program cuts, an $18 billion effort passed without Republican votes.

The governor said the package did not include provisions to stimulate the economy by loosening environmental standards, making more use of contractors on public projects and give him flexibility to furlough state workers without union intervention.

Republicans claimed the Democratic package was illegal because it raised $9.3 billion in taxes without a two-thirds vote. But Schwarzenegger did not criticize that approach.

Reporting from Sacramento — Sidelining the Legislature's minority Republicans, Democratic lawmakers today passed an $18-billion plan to ease the state's financial crisis through higher gas, sales and income taxes and cuts to schools and healthcare.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would veto the package, saying it did not go as far as he wanted to stimulate the economy.
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Arnold is vetoing the measure for the wrong reasons. But, Flap will take it.

Gavin Newsom held his second town hall-style meeting of his campaign for governor Tuesday night, this time fielding questions from Santa Rosa residents.
Many of their inquiries had to do with local issues. But then came the no-brainer question: Mr. Mayor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been nominated as chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a promotion that almost definitely takes her out of the governor's race. Care to comment?

"Yes, she is, thank you and goodnight," Newsom said with a grin. The room burst into laughter and applause. (You can't say the mayor doesn't know how to work a crowd.)

In all seriousness, Newsom told the audience, he'd be very surprised if Feinstein decided to run, given the power associated with the Intelligence Committee job.
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Flap bets Jerry Brown is relieved as well - damn relieved.

Reporters Jump All Over Mostly Silent Princess Of Camelot; Mayor Of Syracuse Doesn't Offer Endorsement
Who Should Get Senate Gig? Siena Poll: Cuomo 26, Kennedy 23
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Caroline has it in the bag. Cuomo will run for Governor as Paterson steps down.

California may soon have more bankrupt towns on its hands.

The city of Vallejo, Calif., gained national attention earlier this year by filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Now, two neighbors are fighting to avoid the same fate, as the state's economic crisis spreads.

Isleton and Rio Vista, small towns roughly 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, say they have begun consulting with bankruptcy lawyers as they draw up plans to deal with their mounting budget crises. The towns' leaders say they hope to avoid bankruptcy, but concede the move may eventually be their only option.
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Where is Arnold?

A new military plan for troop withdrawals from Iraq that was described in broad terms this week to President-elect Barack Obama falls short of the 16-month timetable Mr. Obama outlined during his election campaign, United States military officials said Wednesday.
The plan was proposed by the top American commanders responsible for Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, and it represents their first recommendation on troop withdrawals under an Obama presidency. While Mr. Obama has said he will seek advice from his commanders, their resistance to a faster drawdown could present the new president with a tough political choice between overruling his generals or backing away from his goal.
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Want to be Obama stays with their recommendtions?

Elián González could play a role in next month's confirmation hearings for Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general.

Last week, eight Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee fired off letters to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Ark., and Attorney General Michael Mukasey seeking any documents prepared by Eric Holder or his staff on a variety of Clinton-era controversies, including “the April 22, 2000, raid in Miami, Florida, by Border Patrol agents to take Elián Gonzalez into custody.''

Holder served as deputy attorney general during the raid in Miami. His role as an Obama presidential campaign advisor prompted a small contingent of Cuban exiles to protest outside Obama's speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami in June.

Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr. told Congress under oath that he had "only a passing familiarity" with the criminal case against billionaire Marc Rich before President Clinton pardoned the fugitive financier in 2001- testimony that is now raising concerns among lawmakers reviewing Mr. Holder's nomination.

Correspondence with the Justice Department and testimony secured by Congress from other witnesses show that 15 months before the pardon, Mr. Holder met privately with Mr. Rich's attorney and received a presentation about what Mr. Rich's defense believed were flaws in the government's case.

Rick Warren, conservative author of “The Purpose Driven Life” book series and pastor at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Cal., will deliver the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration next month. This is change?

Warren, outspoken proponent of California’s Proposition 8, is James Dobson masquerading as a moderate. A writer for The Nation observed the following after a 2005 interview with Warren: “Lamenting the ‘tyranny of activist judges,’ who obstruct the will of the majority, he evinces no understanding of minority rights or the judiciary's role in enforcing them. Explaining his views about homosexuality and gay rights, he notes, ‘I don't think that homosexuality is the worst sin,’ and, ‘By the way, my wife and I had dinner at a gay couple's home two weeks ago. So I'm not [a] homophobic guy, okay?’

Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.
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Will gay leaders protest? Boycott Obama?

An attorney for Rod Blagojevich says the embattled Illinois governor will not appoint someone to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

Attorney Ed Genson says Senate leaders have already said they won't accept an appointment by Blagojevich, so there's no reason for the Democratic governor to select someone.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger answered a question today about whether he might support the majority-vote package being crafted by legislative Democrats today to balance the budget.

Just don't look for an answer in his answer.

"We'll look into that," Schwarzenegger said.

Later, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear added, "As the governor has said, we need a balanced proposal. That includes legitimate cuts, real revenues and economic stimulus, including public-private partnerships and design-build," referring to public contracting methods. "If their proposal does not include these element, tonight's vote will be nothing more than a drill."

To call the Democrats' latest tax package complex would be an understatement.

California law requires a two-thirds vote to increase taxes — meaning Republican support is necessary. But Democrats are making an end-run around the GOP with this latest package, which the Legislature will vote on later today, in a number of ways.

Democratic state lawmakers today unveiled a new package of $18 billion in budget fixes that include more than $9 billion in new general fund revenue to be raised with a simple majority vote, avoiding the need for Republican support.

Democratic legislative leaders have cobbled together an $18 billion package of budget cuts and tax increases that they contend can be passed today by a simple-majority vote.

The maneuver, if passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, could soften the impacts of the state's decision this morning to halt funds for thousand of public works projects statewide.

The complicated new budget-cutting proposal comes after weeks of tense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on bridging a projected $40 billion shortfall over 18 months.

"We're committed to getting the job done with or without our Republican colleagues," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said.

Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg plan to vote tonight on the proposal, crafted secretly behind the scenes and unveiled Wednesday.

Democratic legislative leaders are planning to use a series of complex legal maneuvers to raise Californians' gas, sales and income taxes over the objection of Republican lawmakers, who have been able to block such proposals in the past.

Under the Democrats' plan, sales taxes would increase by three-fourths of a cent. Gas taxes would go up by 13.5 cents per gallon. And a surcharge of 2.5% would be added to income taxes.

In three brief orders, less than one page in length, and without explanation, the Illinois Supreme Court today rejected calls that it temporarily remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office.

The court today turned down a request, filed last week by the state's attorney general. She urged the court to temporarily remove Blagojevich from the governor's office and put the lieutenant governor in charge.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan acted under a section of the state constitution that gives Illinois Supreme Court the power to declare a governor unfit to serve. She urged the court to take the case and act quickly, "in light of these extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances."
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Fitz better indict Blago soon, if he can!

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is warning that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, it could try to attack the United States.

Barak said the world should press Iran to stop it from building nuclear weapons.

He spoke at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. He said, "If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America."

His name is Robert Cooley.

Cooley was a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago in the late 1980's who became one of the most potent witnesses against Chicago corruption, testifying for federal prosecutors in cases that resulted in dozens of convictions.

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.

The decision of Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser and former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to formally ally in the race to become the next chairman of the Republican National Committee is, by rights, a minor affair, but it has to the potential to be the most important development yet.

The real story behind this story is not even about Pelosi and Rahm; it's about the battle for the hearts and minds of rank and file Democrats, who will face four-way cross-pressures from the White House, their constituents, the Republicans and their party leadership in Congress.

Pelosi knows the power game.
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Not Pelosi for now.

The traditional media is USELESS, PATHETIC, and VENAL. I suggest that team Obama keep the satellite channel that it purchased during the General Election and offer its own programming. I would prefer government sponsored propaganda to the CORPORATE-funded DRIVEL that we are currently subjected to.
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Talk about drivel……

A month from now, the nation will say farewell to its sports-obsessed president who doesn't like tough questions. And it will replace him with, well, another sports-obsessed president who doesn't like tough questions.
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The "in the tank" MSM is already starting to turn on Obama

Top Conservatives on Twitter have launched a new action project targeting the “three little piggies” — UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, GM CEO Rick Wagoner, and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli.

Last night, word was spreading among conservative bloggers that two Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee may be going wobbly on the review of attorney-general nominee Eric Holder at his confirmation hearing. Sens. George Voinovich and Dick Lugar conspicuously chose not to sign a letter to committee chairman Patrick Leahy declaring that Holder's record requires more time to review.
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After today's revelations about Eric Holder and Rod Blagojevich Flap thinks the GOP will hold up his nomination

Before Eric Holder was President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be attorney general, he was Gov. Blagojevich's pick to sort out a mess involving Illinois' long-dormant casino license.

Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" — a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.
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This may put a stop to Holder's nomination. an organized crime link is not good for a US AG.

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports from Chicago: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will likely hold a press conference toward the end of this week, ABC News has learned.

The embattled governor, arrested last Tuesday, has yet to respond to charges that he tried to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich says the day "will soon be here" when he'll tell his side of the story to the people of Illinois.

As he prepared to go for a jog this morning, an upbeat Blagojevich told reporters outside his home that he's "dying" to talk to Illinoisans. He says he could do so by the end of the day or "maybe no later" than Thursday.
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When Blago starts to talk the Obama crowd will start to scatter.

How shocking, some folks are saying, that Caroline Kennedy might use her storied last name to land a Senate seat.

I don't recall hearing a whole lot of carping when George Walker Bush, son of George Herbert Walker Bush, became an instantly plausible presidential candidate because his dad had served in the Oval Office.
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The Senate is becoming more like the House of Lords each month.

It’s official. The old Clinton gang really is back together again. Answering the phones these days for the co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition, John D. Podesta, is none other than Betty Currie.

A committee of the Illinois House considering evidence and testimony in an impeachment inquiry against Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich adjourned its first day of hearings after about an hour on Tuesday, after the governor’s lawyer and the federal prosecutor seeking to indict him both expressed concerns.
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And, no special election legislation - Chicagoland politics as usual

US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse."

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

Bush's comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis.

"I am sorry we're having to do it," Bush said.
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Maybe Bush should let Cheney be President for a month or so.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) urged New York Gov. David Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with Reid's thinking.

Reid and Paterson spoke by phone last week, according to the source. The call was not prompted by Kennedy or anyone in her inner circle but rather was based on Reid's belief in her qualifications to serve and her ability to run for and win the seat in a 2010 special election.
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The fix is in for caroline.

Team Obama's response has made what should have been a one-day story into a full-blown p.r. crisis. So far, it seems to have adopted the early Clinton-administration approach - turn a minor problem into a big one by mismanaging the media.

The Obama camp has managed to violate almost every tenet of crisis communications - starting with Rule No. 1: Get all the information out quickly, accurately and fully.
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But Obama and Rahm do NOT want the information out until they have stories coordinated.

Democrats in the Illinois House of Representatives postponed stripping Governor Rod Blagojevich’s power to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama that prosecutors say Blagojevich tried to sell.

The governor, a Chicago Democrat, retains authority to appoint Obama’s successor while the House pursues an impeachment process that may last weeks. Democratic lawmakers led by House Speaker Michael Madigan dropped plans late yesterday to schedule a special election to fill the post after failing to agree in a closed-door meeting, said Steve Brown, a Madigan aide.

The expectation that Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar will be nominated as Interior Secretary by President-elect Barack Obama presents Republicans with a prime pickup opportunity in a swing state, an early sign that their fortunes may be turning after two disastrous elections in which the party lost a combined 13 seats in the Senate.

Gov. Bill Ritter (D) will appoint Salazar's replacement but that appointed senator will have less than two years to establish himself or herself before standing for election to a full six-year term in 2010.
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GOP's best shot would be for Salazar's brother getting the appointment and then the GOP winning his House Seat.

In talks with Emanuel and others, sources say, Pelosi has “set parameters” for what she wants from Barack Obama and his White House staff — no surprises, and no backdoor efforts to go around her and other Democratic leaders by cutting deals with moderate New Democrats or conservative Blue Dogs.

Specifically, Pelosi has told Emanuel that she wants to know when representatives of the incoming administration have any contact with her rank-and-file Democrats — and why, sources say.
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Dem turf wars have already started.

Clinton is focused on her transition to the State Department, people close to her say, and being seen as meddling in the Senate choice would likely make her more enemies than friends.

"Sen. Clinton completely respects the privacy of his process so will not be commenting on it or any individual candidate, nor does any third party speak on her behalf," said her spokesman, Philippe Reines.
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Yeah right…..

Illinois lawmakers started impeachment proceedings Monday against Gov. Rod Blagojevich as he continued to show up for work in Chicago and firmed up his legal team to fight corruption charges.
The state House of Representatives unanimously authorized a bipartisan committee to explore the possibility of ousting the two-term Democratic governor, by a vote of 113 to zero. But lawmakers did not move forward with a bill to create a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, which Gov. Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell.
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Should the Dems not pursue a special election who will take the seat for two years? A lame duck Senator before they even started.

Last week, in a press conference on Thursday, President-elect Obama announced that his staff would conduct an internal review of contacts with Blagojevich and his office. At the same press conference, Obama announced that this internal review would find no inappropriate dealings between his staff and Blagojevich. Since Obama announced the findings of the promised internal review at the same time he announced the internal review, it should come as no surprise that the internal review found just what Obama said it would.

If none of those contacts were "inappropriate" could releasing the details really "impede" the investigation? Such a public release would reveal the nature of some Blagojevich discussions about the Senate seat and would necessarily compromise the identities of the individuals involved in those discussions. Presumably, Fitzgerald is interviewing some of those people now and the less they know about these discussions, the better.
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How will waiting a week help?

The correspondent for Al Baghdadiya, an independent Iraqi television station, had previously been detained in November 2007 for two weeks by “a particular party” — his brother didn’t reveal whether American or Iraqi –- after videotaping the scene of an improvised explosive device that targeted an American Humvee. He was held again two months later for several hours by the American army without charges, his brother said. Other reports said he had been kidnapped by Shiite militants.

Muntader al-Zaidi was the head of the student union under Saddam Hussein and he earned a diploma as a mechanic from a technical institute before becoming a journalist. He worked at al-Qasim al-Mushterek newspaper, an Iraqi daily founded after the 2003 invasion, then he joined al-Diyar satellite channel, an Iraqi channel founded after the war. Two years later, he joined al-Baghdadiya satellite channel, another Iraqi channel, which is based in Cairo.
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Reportedly this moron is a Bathist - SH's party.

No one on President-elect Barack Obama's staff had "inappropriate discussions" with Gov. Rod Blagojevich about the vacant Senate seat in Illinois, according to a statement just released by the Obama-Biden transition office.

Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer also says that while a "review of transition staff contacts" with Blagojevich has been completed, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked that it not be released until next week.

The Obama transition team released a statement on its communications with Blagojevich in relation to Obama's Senate seat.

There are two pieces of news:
(1) The Obama team has completed its review of communications with Blagojevich's office and affirms that the president-elect had no contact with the governor and that his staff had no "inappropriate discussions."

(2) They won't release the review, however, until Dec. 22 — at the U.S. Attorney's office's direction.
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Right…. A Christmas burial for Obama.

Obama, December 11: "I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the governor's office about this vacancy so that we can share them with you over the next few days."

It is now four days later. Just how much time does it take to assemble a list of who had contact with Blagojevich and his staff and when? How long does it take to put together, "A met with B on the day of C, and they discussed D; E met with F on the day of G, and they discussed H"?

Yes, Fitzgerald said Obama is not a target of the investigation. But when a relatively simple question is met with foot-dragging, one remembers that the truth is available immediately, but lies take time to coordinate.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill Richardson’s political action committees.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.

Whether or not Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich resigns today (and The Fix is loath to predict what "Pay-Rod" will do), Senate Democrats may well have a problem on their hands as they seek to decide how to fill the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

National Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are advocating for the seat to be filled by appointment, a job that would probably fall to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (D), assuming Blagojevich either resigns or is impeached.

Top Democrats in the state — led by attorney general and 2010 gubernatorial front-runner Lisa Madigan — seem to favor a special election. Yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Madigan said, "The best thing for the people of the state is to have a special election, have somebody put in that position legitimately by the people."

President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, communicated with the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois about potential candidates for Mr. Obama’s Senate seat and provided a list of names, according to two Obama associates briefed on the matter.
The Obama associates said the interactions concerned several people who might fill the seat. Such contacts are common among party officials when a political vacancy is to be filled. It was not clear whether the communication was via direct telephone calls.

The Chicago Tribune reported that communications between Mr. Emanuel and the governor, both Democrats, had been captured on court-approved wiretaps, but Obama associates gave conflicting accounts of the interactions.

Obama aides have said privately that Mr. Emanuel did not engage in any deal-making with Mr. Blagojevich, whom federal prosecutors charged last week with conspiring to turn a profit from the appointment.

Fortunately for Brown, none of the local officials he was browbeating had the guts to challenge his legal authority. Global warming is, after all, a popular cause for any politician to espouse, and Brown was already making noises about riding the issue into another stint as California's governor in 2010. Threatened with potentially endless litigation, the local officials backed down and allowed Brown to vet their land-use plans by whatever standard he deemed to impose.

Opposing federal intervention on behalf of felons is popular with those on the political right while opposing global warming endears Brown to the left. And after all, he is the man who, as governor three decades ago, espoused a political "canoe theory" in which one paddles on the right for a while and then paddles on the left to move ahead.
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Jerry Brown the master pol. But, he is afraid of Dianne Feinstein

Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn't ruled out signing a bill creating a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, his spokesman said Monday, the first hint the embattled governor may loosen his grip on the seat.

Blagojevich was arrested last week on charges he tried to profit from his power to choose Obama's replacement and shook down businesses seeking state deals.

While Blagojevich hasn't seen a proposed special election bill he hasn't ruled out the possibility of signing such a bill, spokesman Lucio Guerrero said early Monday without elaborating.

The governor, meanwhile, remained defiant and returned to work Monday to sign a tax credit bill after earlier seeing off his wife, Patti, and the couple's two daughters.

Barack Obama had begun thinking about his Senate successor even before the presidential election, and dispatched Rahm Emanuel days after the vote to contact aides of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to begin talking up Mr. Obama's preferred candidates, associates of Mr. Emanuel said this weekend.

Mr. Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago, had been approached about being Mr. Obama's White House chief of staff the week before the election, though he hadn't yet officially decided to take the post. Nonetheless, the issue of Mr. Obama's Senate replacement was sensitive enough that senior Obama aides wanted to keep the matter within the circle of Illinois political figures, according to people familiar with campaign deliberations at the time.
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Why has Obama tried to stonewall this issue. What about the transparency?

Iraq faced mounting calls on Monday to release the journalist who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush, an action branded shameful by the government but hailed by many in the Arab world as an ideal parting gift to the unpopular US president.

Colleagues of Muntazer al-Zaidi, who works for independent Iraqi television station Al-Baghdadia, said he "detested America" and had been plotting such an attack for months against the man who ordered the invasion of his country.

"Throwing the shoes at Bush was the best goodbye kiss ever… it expresses how Iraqis and other Arabs hate Bush," wrote Musa Barhoumeh, editor of Jordan's independent Al-Gahd Arabic newspaper.
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The radical Muslims could not defeat President Bush. So, they throw shoes. How pathetic.

Conventional wisdom holds that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ordered the FBI to arrest Rod Blagojevich before sunrise Tuesday in order to stop a crime from being committed. That would have been the sale of the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

But the opposite is true: Members of Fitzgerald’s team are livid the scheme didn’t advance, at least for a little longer, according to some people close to Fitzgerald’s office. Why? Because had the plot unfolded, they might have had an opportunity most feds can only dream of: A chance to catch the sale of a Senate seat on tape, including the sellers and the buyers.
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Preventing the sale of the Senate seat was worth the early exposure.

Saying he was confident that information would be made public regarding the president-elect's contacts with the embattled Illinois governor — who is accused of putting up Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder — McCain urged his Republican colleagues to keep their political priorities in order.

"I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary," said the Arizona Republican. "You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively toge