Report: Rep. Rahm Emanuel May Have Traded Praise For Pork With Blago In 2006
If those rumors that surfaced across the pond that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is gearing up to quit the Obama administration pan out, he should have enough to keep him busy for a while with the trial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. The latest from the greatest show in Springfield is that reports show Emanuel, then a Congressman, may have traded a supportive letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune for a $2 million public school grant.
It seems that anyone and everyone even remotely near Chicago during Blagojevich’s tenure as governor may be implicated in his messy and highly entertaining corruption trial. The AP is reporting that emails and phone calls released during the trial recently point to Emanuel, then a Congressman, agreeing to Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk that he would sign a letter to the editor to the Chicago Tribune in 2006 supporting the governor. The Tribune was for a long time one of the biggest thorns in the spine of the Blagojevich administration, attacking him for what they perceived as constant campaigning rather than governing. A short while after the letter was published, Emanuel demanded the release of a $2 million grant for public schools:
Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, agreed to sign a letter to the Chicago Tribune supporting Blagojevich in the face of a scathing editorial by the newspaper that ridiculed the governor for self-promotion. Within hours, Emanuel’s own staff asked for a favor of its own: The release of a delayed $2 million grant to a school in his district. […]
“On Jan. 16, 2006, a modified letter appeared in the Tribune over Emanuel’s name. Despite the ‘packaging’ of Blagojevich’s programs, it said, ‘It’s wrong to suggest it’s the triumph of form over content. Look inside those packages, and you’ll find real and lasting progress for the people of Illinois.’
The money, however, didn’t follow as quickly, and Emanuel appeared agitated.
‘What the hell is holding up the school funding? This is a real problem for me now,’ Emanuel wrote on Aug. 28 when a contractor on the school project stopped work. ‘I am getting killed.’
When Tusk repeatedly promised to call, Emanuel responded, ‘Just e-mail and tell me first will this happen in my lifetime. Second if yes then when. Real simple.'”
Among the other, more amusing accusations involving Blagojevich and Emanuel is the claim made by “authorities” that Blagojevich ordered his deputy to “get Emanuel to compel his Hollywood agent brother [Ari Emanuel] to host a political fundraiser before the grant was paid.” Imagine how great a fundraiser that would have been.
It always seemed strange that the courts and the media fixated on the claim that Blagojevich tried to sell the President’s former Senate seat when the evidence was shaky compared to Blago’s shenanigans with the Chicago Tribune. The clearest accusations regarding the Senate seat from came from drug-addled fundraiser Stuart Levine and corrupt developer Tony Rezko, who are not exactly reliable sources. The language on the initially released Blago tapes back in 2008 makes it fairly clear that Blagojevich was more than willing to block a deal with the Chicago Cubs and the Tribune if a reporter unfavorable to him wasn’t fired. These are also the tapes on which Patti Blagojevich makes her spectacularly profane debut. The AP report makes it clear that all signs point to Emanuel not being involved with anything illegal, but this is just another bit of evidence pointing to Blagojevich bending and toying with the law vis a vis the media much more than with any Senate deal. And as for Blago’s purported affinity from afar for Ari Emanuel, it’s just another piece of flair on an already colorful political uniform.
(h/t Politico)
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
