Blago appointed Obama’s AG to probe corruption; probe found no corruption; Holder forgets the whole thing
Ah, the Chicago way.
So: Governor Blago appoints Obama AG nominee Eric Holder to investigate corruption. Holder receives $300,000 for his legal services. Corruption probe finds no wrongdoing.
And, oops, Holder neglects to mention all this on his AG questionnaire. See the questionnaire for yourselves here.
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.
Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week — an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama’s transition team indicated late Tuesday.
“Eric Holder has given hundreds of press interviews,” Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement. “He did his best to report them all to the committee, but as he noted in the questionnaire itself, some were undoubtedly missed in the effort to reconstruct a list of them.”
Holder signed the questionnaire on Sunday — five days after Blagojevich’s arrest for allegedly putting Obama’s U.S. Senate seat up for sale. The Judiciary Committee asked him to provide lists and “copies of transcripts or tape recordings of all speeches or talks delivered by you” and “all interviews you have given to newspapers, magazines or other publications.”
The March 2004 Chicago news conference where Holder and Blagojevich spoke was widely covered because of a controversial 4-1 Gaming Board vote earlier that month to allow a casino to be built in Rosemont. That vote defied the recommendation of the board’s staff, which had raised concerns about alleged organized-crime links to the Rosemont casino’s developer.
A real stickler with unfailing attention to detail and unassailable ethics, that Eric Holder is, isn’t he?
Flashback to 2004 (you can watch the video at that link):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2004Governor Blagojevich names well-respected former U.S. Justice Department official as independent Special Investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board Eric Holder to assist Gaming Board in expanded review of issues surrounding Rosemont as location of 10th casino license
CHICAGO – One week after calling for a full and open review of concerns surrounding the location of Illinois’ 10th casino license, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today announced his appointment of former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., as Special Investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board.
The Governor’s action came in response to a flood of questions and criticisms that followed the Gaming Board’s selection of the Isle of Capri Corporation – which intends to build a casino in the Village of Rosemont – as the winning bidder in the auction for the state’s last casino license.
“Last Wednesday, I called on the Gaming Board to conduct a full, open, and public review of all the facts surrounding the issue of gaming in the Village of Rosemont. I also said that I would name a special investigator to work with the Gaming Board to help oversee that review and ensure the integrity of the review process,” said the Governor. “For that reason, it is essential to find an outsider – someone with no connections with the parties involved, or with any of the proceedings that have taken place. We wanted someone with no horse in the race. We wanted someone whose legal knowledge, reputation for integrity, and independence are indisputable. So today, I am announcing the appointment of Eric Holder as the special investigator to work with the Gaming Board to conduct this review.”
Holder has an impressive record spanning nearly three decades as a public prosecutor and federal investigator…
“Eric Holder is one of the most qualified and experienced prosecutors in the United States. We are fortunate he agreed to work with the Gaming Board on this matter,” Blagojevich said.
As Special Investigator, Holder will work with the Gaming Board to conduct a full, open and public review of all of the facts, problems and concerns surrounding gaming in the Village of Rosemont, including the problems associated with Emerald Casino, the previous owner of the 10th license. The review will examine the Isle of Capri’s negotiations with the Village of Rosemont, and determine whether any of the concerns that caused the Gaming Board to take revocation actions against Emerald Casino Inc. are still present in any way.
***
Ed Morrissey weighs in.
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- HOTAiR: Holder holding out on Blagojevich connections | Impeach Barack Hussein Obama.US Blogs
- Blago Appointed Obama AG To Investigate Corruption; None Found | The American Pundit
- Obama’s AG Eric Holder: Entangled In Corruption Again « Jane Q. Republican
- Holder had past connections with Blago, too (updated) | skewred.com
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Categories: Corruption
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Is Gaming the same as gambling? Is there corruption in Gaming? This takes place in Chicago? There are corrupt politicians involved, possibly going all the way to the top?
Next thing you know their will be mob connections…
I just threw up a
littlelot. WTFO!Dear Reynard the Fox;
Please find under the welcome mat the key to the henhouse.
Yours,etc,
Farmer Obama
“I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that there is gambling going on in this establishment.”
“Your winnings, Commissioner.”
Kinda makes a person wonder just how many illegitmate chldren did Al Capone actually have?
The ‘chicago political machine’ may YET be the undoing of Obama. Clearly, no one is immune from that dirty backroom dealing environment.
Conservatives should raise that little factoid at Holder’s confirmation hearings. We may not be able to block the appointment, but we can set the stage for later, when we tell the world they were warned.
Great. The perfect guy to continue the Bush tradition of only prosecuting Republicans and patriots.
I can see obama now with a pitch fork
“get under the damn bus and stay there!!!”
We have 2 major obama appointees neck deep in coruption already AND HE ISN’T EVEN SWORN IN YET!!!
Change right?
Well, as the church lady used to say, “Isn’t that special?” Of course, it’s not like there’s anything WRONG going on here or SMELLY.
“Birds of a feather…”
There’s a lot of flocking corrupt-ocrats in Chi-town.
“The governor’s made quite clear to me that he has no preconceived notions as to how this should turn out,(wink wink) that we should follow the facts, let them lead us to wherever they take us and then report to him (wink wink)and to the people of the state with regard to our findings,” he said.
Blago – to – Obama; “Eric Holder is a stand up guy, he ain’t no rat! He knows who butters his bread.”
No wonder this guy has $1,446,470 CASH on hand in banks, as listed on page 46.
Oh ye of little faith. The “Office of the President Elect” will have a statement soon to show us how we didn’t hear or read what we heard or read.
Another note: Wouldn’t you just LOVE to see someone crash that annoying little podium? Like a Chris Farley skit from the old SNL?
“Oh and here we have the podium for the Office of the President Elect.”
“Wow! It’s so nice and …… oh, oh, oh, oh CRASH!!!.”
“Sorry.”
“Look what you’ve done, you idiot!”
“Where are we gonna get another of those things?”
The whole thing is so pretentious and makes me sick with the posturing. Office of the President Elect … GET OUT!!!!!!
You have to wonder, hope actually, that these things will continue to come up and come up and fester to the point that the MSM is going to have to get involved.
At some point the stench is going to be so bad and corruption so obvious that for reasons of self-preservation they MSM will have to get to work.
Also, we can hope there is some genuine investigative journalist out there that sees this as too big of an opportunity to pass up.
Ya, ya I am hallucinating….
So THIS is the time of hope and change. Excuse me while I go read in the bathroom for the next 4 years.
I can’t believe y’all are still questioning Obama in these hard times. PEOPLE ARE HURTING! HE JUST WANTS TO HELP! Gingrich and McCain must be seething mad at you mean, vile, evil conservatives!
Joe Biden, motivational speaker. “In four years, you’ll be living in a van down by the river!
I don’t know why he’d do this…Blago’s wife isn’t near as cute as Mark Rich’s wife…
I have a feeling we’ll be hearing that word a lot over the next four years…
Change we can believe in!
What is that old game – Six Degrees of Separation? We should play it with Obama and corrupt officials, hate-based religious figures, hard left radicals, etc. It would make an interesting wall poster to have it all diagrammed out.
Conflict of interest? Nah, there’s no conflict, as long as you don’t show any interest.
I never would have guessed that one of my favorite games as a kid is still one of my favorites today.
…connect…the…dots…
A drawing with a LOT of straight lines. More like “two degrees”
Eric Holder? Gun Control Eric Holder? This Eric Holder:
Of course we don’t NEED guns-we can always Dial 9-1-1 and DIE as this young women did. Hey, the police were there is 48 minutes. She was screaming for her life but the dispatchers heard nothing indicating an emergency.That Eric Holder? We are in for a BAD four years.
Barack Hussein Obama wants to repeal ALL state concealed carry laws and ban guns not suitable for hunting. Or not. But I am sure Eric Holder and PEOB lie about other things.
Crook County corruption on a national scale. Gotta luv it.
Just another mean, vile, evil conservative!
—
That every man be armed–you too ladies.
There simply isn’t enough detergent and bleach in the entire world to clean the slime off the Democrats and their goons.
Oh yeeeeaaaaahhh! fo shizzle! I knew the One and his boyz was clean!
whodababbydaddy?
Here’s a McQuote that fits perfectly in the various Obama-gate scandals that have come out lately: “I’m lovin’ it!”
ROTFLMAO
This is all making me sick.
F the mainstream media, being complicit in all of this!
When they come up with the Schumer/Feinstein Fairness Doctrine-by whatever name and means-be prepared to fight as you have never fought in your life. Your very rights as a Free Citizen and the very existence of our country depends on YOU.
—
That every man be armed-you too ladies.
You wanted change. There you go. Obama and the Chicago way of doing “business” and playing politics.
joe scarburrough had the audacity to ask the editor of the new york times why he sent his entire staff to wassilla alaska but couldn’t find corruption in chicago. the answer was priceless. sarah was new on the scene and deserved investigation. so old crime is not worth investigating. correct mr holder.
I’m sure Holder probed the Gaming Board just fine. If he hadn’t, you would be all over it. If Holder had been appointed to probe Blagojevich (he wasn’t), he would have done a good job at that, too.
So he “forgot” this one? how many more lapses in memory is he going to have?
He is steeped in the Clinton culture of corruption and will have had his memory banks cleaned
“Cover me or I sing”? Rough town Chicago-odd accidents inconvenient people have there.
Bring back that silly Untouchables series: it is not looking so silly right now.
I bet you were Governor, I bet you were.
Four more years…
Where the heck did TimeInc get a picture of me????? Of course I was a little younger and my hair was a little darker back then. Oddly I had an uncanny resemblance to Obamma too. Who would have thought??????
RabbidSquirrel, did you really look like a downtown pimp?
I’m sure he did exactly this, and did a darn good job. Otherwise MM and the rabid right would have said so. He was not hired to investigate Blagojevich, though he would have done a good job at that too.
Just like Wright, Dorn, and Ayers – this is not the Eric Holder that Obama knew.
Doesn’t the Messiah have to give a speech now on corruption to prove that he is a transformational candidate who has risen above the corrupt Chicago machine?
I’d ask Obama directly but I am afraid he’d interrupt me and ask me not to waste my question.
Since in the twenties gangsters were extorting and then shooting each other in the streets and politicians were in the Whitehouse maybe now its the gangsters turn to be in the Whitehouse and the politicians are extorting and shooting each other in the streets.
So you are honestly trying to tell me that a corrupt person hired an investigator and paid him 300,000 dollars and you are suprised he found nothing?
come on….
Sorry, I dont want you to waste your question….
Okay — I’m going to try this again. My posts on this thread are falling into a black hole for some reason!
Sorry lgm, but WRONG!! Go to the back of the class. If you bothered to do a little more research, you would have found (from the HA link above):
Looks like the Board was already aware of Holder’s “relationships” way back when. I understand that you are a little slower on the uptake, so maybe you should return to your little magical world where unicorns eat rainbows and poop butterflies. (If you have a daughter under the age of 10, you’ll understand.) Come back when you can keep up.
BO: no hope, no change…just more of the same.
Reminds me of “Caddyshack” when Rodney Dangerfield starts slipping $20’s to the golf tournament judge saying, “Keep it fair; keep it fair.”
How much you wanna bet based on that picture, that Obamas’ buddies were always yelling “Hey! Don’t Bogart that! And try not to get the end so wet!”?
I think it’s kind of funny that a former bookie would investigate the Illinois Gaming Board.
I find it rather interesting how none of the MSM or any of these “newspapers” could do any of this investigative journalism PRIOR to or leading up to this years Presidential Election. Something that Joe Scarborough was grilling the Washington Post and NYT on the other day. WTF? Where were all these supposed investigators BEFORE Hussein got elected and started pre-appointing all his cronies ????? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? But I am just a conspiracy theorist. Called that by the same people who think 911 was staged and that Bush lied about WMDs.
/rolleyes/
No wonder Obama needs Hilary, he needs a way to have all of these gangsters in the administration but get away with it. So far he has not fared so well. Of course, if he is lucky, his new idol George Bush might give a blanket pardon to all Illinois politicians. After the things I have seen this “conservative” do, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Wow. You’d think this would have been newsworthy when it was first discovered several years ago. But guess what:
ABC didn’t report the story because
A) the source wished to remain anonymous; and
B) Blogojevich denied he was guilty.
sonofdy said (#43):
I’m trying to tell you that if there were any evidence at all that Holden did something wrong, it would be all over this blog, and all the MSM media.
Didja know that John McCormick, the reporter Obama told not to waste his question, was the very guy Blago was trying to get fired?
FBI: Blagojevich singled out Trib’s McCormick.
On December 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm,
Come on RabbidSquirrel, I stayed up all night thinking of that one. Damn.
Argumentum ad ignorantiam, math-boy.
As predicted by mny concerning Obama’s connections to the Chicago machine, there would be scandals and repercussions. I for one thought we would see these start to manifest in about year 2. How many of these Obama cronies are corrupt and how long have high level politicians and the press been in the know?
I predicted on this site a couple of months ago that the press would turn on Obama when he won the election and then tried to strongarm them. They are losing marketshare and will fight to protect their jobs and standing, even if they have to turn on Obama. I hope that I am right.
Let the ‘games’ begin!
Can this get any better? What a country!