Friday Afternoon Roundup - Obama's First Major Scandal and Jihad Abroad

Obama in his arrogance began posturing as President Elect, before he was legally entitled to it. And now in a bit of poetic justice, he has his first Presidential scandal before begin entitled to the title.

The media is mostly working hard to cover for Obama, but his excessively broad denial has left him open to charges of deceit. And now the evidence is beginning to pile up.

It is now increasingly clear that Obama met with Blagojevich to discuss the Senate seat. Governor Ed Rendell, the Penn Dem governor and an Obama backer, who can always be counted on to say or do the inconvenient thing, is criticizing Obama over it.

“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.”

And of course it's impossible to deny this. Certainly Rahm Emanuel talked to Blagojevich. Indeed the FBI's own wiretap of Blago makes it rather clear that Blago was upset about not getting what he wanted from Obama, something that could not have happened unless there was a negotiation going on.



Fox News in Chicago is already reporting that talks did happen between Emanuel and Blago and right now Emanuel is on the run.

The President-elect's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said today he won't go to the Chicago Presidential transition offices in order to avoid reporters seeking to ask him whether he had contact with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich about the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama's election.

Clearly the actions of an innocent man.

But I would say the odds are good that Rahm Emanuel will be the first Obama appointee under the bus in the new administration, before it even enters the White House.

I predicted a while back that Emanuel's ugly style would not play well in front of the cameras, making him a likely early casualty of the admin. I didn't expect it would happen quite so fast.

Meanwhile the Dems are wrestling over how to get rid of Blago as fast as possible in order to avoid a special election, one they're afraid may generate a backlash in Illinois leading to a Republican victory. Something which would be a drastic slap in the face to the phony Obama - Radical Left Dem mandate.

But getting rid of Blagojevich is tricky under Illinois law, which means that if the full court press to give him the bum's rush now fails, they will have to deal with him anyway. Which would be a beautiful and risky piece of irony, after all that. But it's either that or risk losing a Senate seat, and the Democrats have never had much confidence in Democracy. And with the growing Blagojevich backlash, not even ACORN or Chicago mob politics might be enough to salvage Obama's seat in a special election.

Meanwhile Elder of Ziyon has word on Obama's buddy in Iran, repeating the whole "Israel must be destroyed" thing, that left wingers claim he never said, even as Obama offers empty promises of a nuclear shield, as if Iran would do anything more than laugh at the prospect.

Along with a particularly ugly case of Sharia law in action.

Meanwhile at WND, gloating in the world of Islam at what they believe is their imminent Sharia global takeover by the hordes of Islam.

Meanwhile Jihad Watch is holding the Dhimmi and Anti-Dhimmi awards.

At Solomonia meanwhile, an interesting exchange with CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile, which toward the end articulates the gap between taking responsibility for one's own security and pacifism, which is reflected in both the tension over the second amendment, American and Israeli military ability and the facade of pacifist self-righteousness.