Month: December 2008

Obama and Axelrod disagree about Senate appointment conversations with Blagojevich

Jake Tapper at ABCNews raises some significant questions regarding conversations between the Obama campaign and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Obama’s statement today on the matter: “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”

But earlier David Axelrod said Obama had conversations with Blagojevich about possible nominations to Senate (“I know he’s talked to the Governor…”)

Tapper writes the following after this YouTube clip from Axelrod:

(UPDATE: An Obama Transition Team aide says that Axelrod misspoke on Fox News Chicago.)

There are no allegations that President-elect Obama or anyone close to him had anything to do with any of the crimes Gov. Blagojevich is accused of having committed.

In fact, there are indications that Mr. Obama and his team refused to go along with the “pay to play” way Blagojevich is accused of operating, offering only “gratitude” if the governor appointed his friend Valerie Jarrett to take his U.S. Senate seat, much to the governor’s chagrin.

But there remain questions about how Blagojevich knew that Mr. Obama was not willing to give him anything in exchange for the Senate seat — with whom was Blagojevich speaking?

Did that person report the governor to the authorities?

Now Axelrod misspoke? I would like to hear Axelrod himself explain that. Given Axelrod’s prior writings on patronage, the nature of Chicago politics, and the cozy relationship of all these players, questions about ethics and influence peddling are relevant. This just scratches the surface of the questions both Obama and even Joe Biden (long time fundraiser and friend of Biden, Joseph Cari provided Blagovich information secondary to a plea agreement in the Rezko case) might have to confront about people involved in this sting of Blagojevich.

This indictment is R-rated (lots of F-word variations) and has some interesting twists. One is the outing of the Governor’s leakmeister, Michael Sneed. Gawker has more…

Tapper keeps up the with the questions. The Axelrod misspoke thing is incredible. Furthermore, it seems incredible that the Obama team would not have spoken to Blagojevich about something so important as a Senate seat appointment. As Tapper notes, the issue that is obscured is who on the Obama team told Blago that Obama would not be dealing up plums.

UPDATE: Read this lengthy Huffington Post column with the Blago phone calls in mind. This column goes all the way back to early November, just after the election, with a blow by blow account of what seemed like high-minded deliberations by Blagoshowmethemoneyvich.

Psychology concept of the day: Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias – A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
– David Myers, Social Psychology, 8th Ed., pg. 112.
Confirmation bias – connotes the seeking or interpreting of evidence in ways that are partial to existing beliefs, expectations, or a hypothesis in hand.
– Raymond Nickerson, Review of General Psychology, 1998
No doubt all sides of recent political and public policy issues will accuse each other of engaging in confirmation bias. However, let’s see how many examples we can find. I may be adding more to this post as time permits.

Berg vs. Obama: Request to submit amicus brief filed

On the Supreme Court docket for Berg vs. Obama (08-570), there is a notation that on December 1, AZ attorney Lawrence Joyce filed a request to submit an amicus brief (friend of the court) on behalf of Bill Anderson. I spoke to Mr. Joyce who said he filed this petition on behalf of Mr. Anderson because he believes there is merit to the Berg case and he believes the legal burden of proof of Obama’s citizenship should be on Obama and not Berg. Berg has granted permision for the brief to be submitted.
The request begins:

Motion For Leave To File A Brief Amicus Curiae
The Court’s amicus, Bill Anderson, requests leave of this Court to file a brief amicus curiae in this case. Consent to file it has been obtained from the petitioner, whom this brief supports; the respondents have not granted consent.
The amicus is a citizen of the State of Arizona and an elector of that state for elector for President of
the United States.

The brief is here.
In contrast today, Ronald Kessler, writing for the conservative Newsmax.com disputes this case and relates a conversation he had with Berg at a dinner meeting. Kessler finds several reasons to discount the suit and believes conservatives should leave the issue and move on to more substantial issues.
Michelle Malkin joined in a few days ago with a clever column on the birth certificate kerfluffe.

Donofrio vs Wells: Supreme Court will not review case

The Associated Press is reporting that SCOTUS will not review the Donofrio case.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.
The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a “natural born citizen,” one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
At least one other appeal over Obama’s citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg’s lawsuit.

The SCOTUS docket has not been updated but will be shortly. The Order’s List is here with the denial. RE: the Berg vs Obama case, someone named Bill Anderson would like to get in on the case. See that docket here…
(h/t: FredVN)