Break Out the Popcorn: Rendell Hammers Obama, Emanuel Runs for Cover

This is getting interesting now. You had to figure a loose cannon like Ed Rendell would be chiming in over the Rod Blagojevich scandal, and sure enough, he unleashes on Barack Obama.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell today criticized Barack Obama for not being more upfront about the Illinois corruption scandal.

Now, he said, the story will continue to dominate the media’s attention.

“They have never been in an executive position before,” Rendell said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The rule of thumb is whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story. Politicians are always misjudging the intelligence of the American people.”

Known for his blunt critiques of fellow Democrats, Rendell did not hold back during the interview.

The criminal complaint essentially exonerates Obama and his staff, Rendell said, because it quotes Blagojevich as saying the president-elect would offer him nothing but appreciation for appointing Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett to the position.

“Did Rahm Emanuel who took Rod Blagojevich’s seat in Congress have contact with Rod Blagojevich? Of course he did,” Rendell said. “They may have thought he was the craziest S.O.B. in the world. But you still have to have contact with him.”

The criminal complaint exonerates Obama and his staff because it quotes Blagojevich as saying the president-elect would offer him nothing but appreciation for appointing Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett to the position, Rendell said.

“Blagojevich curses them out,” Rendell said. “It is easy [for Obama to] just say, ‘Hey folks here it is, of course we had contact.'

"But they made the mistake of making it a four or five or six day story.”

Meanwhile, the heat is now squarely on Emanuel, who's ducking reporters and scurrying for cover. Emanuel loves the media when it portrays him as a tough guy, but now he looks like he's got something to hide and doesn't look like such a tough guy any more.

President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama "advisor" named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama's friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.

Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama's news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago's City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet.

A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.

"You're wasting your time," Emanuel said. "I'm not going to say a word to you. I'm going to do this with my children. Dont do that. I'm a father. I have two kids. I'm not going to do it."

When in doubt, invoke the children.

What a worm.

Also revealed now is the fact some businessmen with ties to Jesse Jackson Jr. and Blagojevich planned a fundraiser to gather $1 million for Blagoejevich, which ostensibly would have been the payoff to the governor so he could appoint Jackson to Obama's seat.

According to a published report, businessmen with ties to both Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson discussed raising $1 million for Blagojevich as a way of persuading him to appoint Jackson to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Citing unnamed sources, the Chicago Tribune reports in a story for Friday's editions that businessman Raghuveer Nayak and Blagojevich aide Rajinder Bedi told attendees at an Oct. 31 meeting that they needed to raise $1 million for the governor to make sure Jackson was appointed to the Senate.

Nayak is a Blagojevich supporter who is also close to the Jackson family. Bedi has also been a Blagojevich fundraiser.

What we're witnessing this week is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. The entrenched corrupt Chicago machine is showing cracks and I suspect we're going to see corruption revealed beyyong our wildest imagination once the feds beging digging a bit deeper.

Obama can pretend he's above all of this and his media handlers will move mountains to carry water for him. But it's just not credible to believe he's clean in all this. He's the face of the Chicago machine and denying any involvement in the organization that put him where he is just isn't going to fly.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the link.