Sunlight in Chicago

Keep an eye on the Rod Blagojevich trial in Chicago, which opened today. It may provide more disinfectant for Chicago and America than anyone believes possible.

Blagojevich was caught doing nothing more or less than practicing Chicago politics—which is what the Obama White House headed by Rahm Emanuel is doing on a national scale. Blago wanted a payoff for the appointment of a Senator to fill Obama’s term; and Obama and Emanuel were negotiating the identity of the appointee and the terms of the payoff. It’s really that simple, and everyone knows it. The prosecutor who initially blew the whistle on Blago (after listening to tapped phone conversations) obviously was worried about how blatant all the talk was and how it was likely to go right to Obama if he didn’t step in and break if off when he did.

So we have Chicago crooks and thugs acting like Chicago crooks and thugs; this episode just happens to be going to trial because prosecutors were already on the trail of Blago when he really turned on the crass. "The Sestak Lies", on the other hand, would never have come to light at all had Joe Sestak not felt an uncontrollable urge of honesty and more or less spelled out the bribe that was offered to him.

The Obama cabal is trusting that TARP and porkulus have given them access to enough slush funds to pay off the judge, the jury, the witnesses, the prosecution, the defense, the media, the court reporters, the courtroom janitors and anyone else necessary to make sure the desired fix is carried out—which is built on a story of evil Blago, innocent Emanuel, and distant uninformed Obama.

There has been a drumbeat of speculation that Obama’s Memorial Day trip to Chicago was all about sending signals through various meetings and by personal presence that the upcoming trial had better follow an agreed script that won’t get too close and too uncomfortable for Obama.

Not one intelligent soul will believe the story or the script; everyone will know that the whole Chicago machine was involved; and everyone will know that Emanuel acts with the full knowledge and consent of Obama.

So will the fix hold?

Outwardly, it may appear to. But Obama is far more exposed than he knows. With Clinton, lots of observers kept thinking “just one more exposure of what a scumbag this guy is” and he’ll be removed from office. He almost was removed, but he had enough political dexterity to survive. Plus he managed to remain likable to a sizable swath of the American people. With Obama, we’re not so sure.

Clinton never tried to cram gigantic legislative overhauls down the throat of the American people against their will. Obama is acting squarely against the will of the people in the imposition of Obamacare and in the orchestrated reviling of Arizona and its immigration law. Obama has lost the people, and he never really had a sense of personal connection with them anyway. He was an aloof, cool persona that was such a blank slate as to allow impressionable voters to believe he was anything they wanted him to be.

The fraud of Obama’s claim to competence; the fraud of Obama’s claim to being a fiscal hawk; the fraud of Obama’s claim to support Israel; the fraud of Obama’s promise of transparency in government; the fraud of Obama’s claim to reduce taxes on 95% of Americans—all are exposed, and the list is growing every day. But the Blago trial will remind Americans that Obama was a fraud from the get-go—from the very beginning he was anything but a ‘post-partisan’, transparent political leader. He was acting like a Chicago thug in handling one of the very first items on his agenda, flagrantly ignoring the law just as he has continued to do so with Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Andrew Romanoff in Colorado.

Here’s why all of this may matter a whole lot more than the leftist cabal believes. It takes a certain level of ‘encrusted stupor’ on the part of the people for these kinds of lies and scripted trials to succeed without rebellion or upheaval by the people. Encrusted stupor can be in the form of cynicism or apathy, which have been plentiful in the years leading up to the election of 2008. But we think the stupor has been blown away in the 18 months since Obama took office, and with it, the ability to keep truth under wraps is gone. And if real truth comes out in this trial--which may happen even if the script nominally is followed--the shift in thinking toward removing Obama from office will take a big jump.

The sunlight of truth is a powerful disinfectant.

Paul Gable

June 3, 2010