Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

Speaking about choices. Did you read about how the Obama Administration knew about the location of Osama Bin Laden for three years and how the President was conflicted on what to do?

Looks like the good choices President Obama made was to hire Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta. A bad choice was Valerie Jarrett.

And, release the Bin Laden photos already. Talk about delayed decisions – sheesh…..

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The Day By Day Archive

Chris, this is a funny story about Valerie Jarrett. But, you know that Chicagoland arrogance of ruling the world.

I think some of the Obama arrogance will NOT be ignored in 2012, as John McCain did. How do you spell Jeremiah Wright and Rahm Emanuel?

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The Day By Day Archive

Guess everyone knows who tipped off Valerie Jarrett about Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, now don’t we?

President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was pushing for Obama’s successor just days after the Nov. 4 election, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Emanuel privately urged Gov. Blagojevich’s administration to appoint Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, and the Sun-Times learned Tuesday that he also pressed that it be done by a certain deadline.

Jarrett was initially interested in the U.S. Senate post before Obama tapped her to be a White House senior adviser, sources say.

The disclosure comes days after Obama’s camp downplayed Jarrett’s interest in the post.

At one point, an “emissary” who said he represented Jarrett had discussions with Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris and the governor about naming Jarrett to the post, according to a criminal complaint.

In addition to the discussions, Emanuel submitted a list of names of candidates suitable to the Obama team to the governor’s administration. Jarrett was not among those names because she had pulled herself out of the running at that point, a source with the Obama camp said.

Obama said Monday that an internal report detailing any staff contacts with the embattled governor or his aide would be made public next week.

Emanuel’s discussions do not indicate he was involved in dealmaking with the governor. However, his deeper involvement creates a sticky political situation for Obama.

An Emanuel source said it was “possible” that Emanuel discussed the appointment with Harris and that a specific date was mentioned. “Valerie was deciding whether she wanted to go the Senate. Others had talked to her about it. There were plenty of people who talked to her about it and thought she would be a good choice,” the source said.

So, what did Rham Emanuel know and when did he know it? And, what did Valerie Jarrett know and when did she know it?

The political web is woven tighter for Rham Emanuel to take the fall for inappropriate political trading for Obama’s Senate seat. Plus, the fact that the Feds have him on tape 21 times discussing the matter with either Hot Rod Blagojevich or his staff will implicate him further in any Blago impeachment, Grand Jury indictment and/or trial.

While Obama is close to Emanuel and notwithstanding David Axelrod’s spin control this morning on “Morning Joe,” Barack Obama will need to assess whether Rham will be able to assume duties of COS to POTUS while under a cloud of political scandal.

Stay tuned……

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Was the SEIU an Obama – Blagojevich Intermediary for the Senate Seat? Part Two

Barack Obama on BlagoGate:”Absolutely Certain” No Deal Making From Transition Team – But, Who Tipped Off Valerie Jarrett?

The Blagojevich Private Conference Call, Valerie Jarrett and The Obama Transition Team

Was the SEIU an Obama – Blagojevich Intermediary for the Senate Seat?

The New York Times is out with a piece today that dots the I’s and crosses the T’s on the SEIU’s involvment with Hot Rod Blagojevich, Valerie Jarrett and the Obama Transition Team.

The Service Employees International Union has long boasted that it is on the cutting edge of the labor movement. But it found itself badly embarrassed this week when it was linked by name to Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich’s maneuvering to secure some financial gain from picking the next Senator from Illinois.

The federal criminal complaint filed against Mr. Blagojevich said his chief of staff, John Harris, had suggested to a service employees’ official that the union should help make the governor the head of Change to Win, the federation of seven unions that broke away from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The complaint said Mr. Blagojevich was seeking a position that paid $250,000 to $300,000 a year.

In exchange, the complaint strongly suggested, the service employees union and Change to Win would help persuade Mr. Blagojevich to name Valerie Jarrett, President-elect Barack Obama’s first choice, as the state’s new senator. And the union would get help from the Obama administration, presumably for its legislative agenda.

Several union officials in Chicago and Washington said that the service employees official approached by Mr. Harris was Tom Balanoff, the president of the union’s giant janitors’ local in Chicago and head of the union’s Illinois state council. Mr. Balanoff, one of the union officials closest to Mr. Obama, is widely seen as an aggressive, successful labor leader, who has helped unionize thousands of janitors not just in the Chicago area but also in Texas.

Read the entire piece.

Interesting that the SEIU can be the “DEAL” makers absolving Obama and his staff from any of the dirty business of getting Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend, appointed to his Senate seat. Plus, there is deniability which Obama did earlier today.

A surrogate “pay for play” deal maker for BlagoGate.

Sure beats taking the fall yourself……

Stay tuned…….

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Barack Obama on BlagoGate:”Absolutely Certain” No Deal Making From Transition Team – But, Who Tipped Off Valerie Jarrett?

The Blagojevich Private Conference Call, Valerie Jarrett and The Obama Transition Team

Was the SEIU an Obama – Blagojevich Intermediary for the Senate Seat?

Fox News is reporting this story as breaking news but the Wall Street Journal had this piece last night: Blagojevich’s Big Conference Call and Valerie Jarrett’s Clean Break

Among the hundreds of hours of conversations involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich secretly recorded by the FBI since Oct. 22, one phone call is drawing particular scrutiny among politicos, journalists and others in Washington. It was a marathon conference call on Monday, Nov. 10.

The call lasted about two hours. On the phone were Mr. Blagojevich, his wife, his general counsel, an unnamed adviser, and John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff and his co-defendant in this week’s case.

But what’s drawing the most interest is who was on the line from Washington, and the sequence of political events that followed that same night and in the ensuing days regarding Barack Obama’s close friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett.

According to the FBI, there were “various Washington, D.C., based advisers” on the call with Mr. Blagojevich & Co., although the Washington callers are not named. The FBI also said participants popped on and off the line throughout the conversation.

Ok, so who from the Obama Transition Team was on THAT call? Did they report to Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff?

In other words, who in the Obama operation knew what was transpiring with “pay to play” and warned off Obama’s friend, Valerie Jarrett?

Obama needs to come clean about this and NOW.

Who will “The One” throw under the bus?

Stay tuned…….