Barack Obama is putting Bill Clinton's foot into his own mouth
Barack Obama is repeating Bill Clinton's mistake — and I'm not talking about his cabinet appointments. As the scandal over "hot Rod" Blagojevich's graft flares up, Barack Obama had the foolishness to claim, that he had no conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich about his vacated U.S. Senate seat and was "confident" that his team was not involved in any deals with the governor, who is accused of trying to sell the seat."
By saying that, in addition to being dirtied by mere association with the disgraced Governor (the two campaigned together before and endorsed each other), Barack Obama is, by all appearances, lying.
Worse. The local newspaper, that until December 11, hosted unremarkable articles describing the Obama-Blagojevich November 5th meeting before it took place:
and, subsequently, one from November 8th (by a different author) describing the meeting as having taken place:
has pulled the articles from its site.
Both articles aren't any longer available on the news-paper's site — evidently, the President-Elect has the powers over not only present and future, but also over the past... The federal investigation, that caught Blagojevich trying to sell a US Senate seat, was previously concentrating on "lesser" corruption, such as pressuring "Chicago Tribune" to fire authors critical of Blagojevich. Obama is coming from the same town...
But enough of the "crazy talk" of the Government silencing media — for all we know, "Connect Tristates" could've volunteered to help Obama avoid embarrassment. It is not relevant to the point, I set out to make.
Bill Clinton, contrary to some of his defenders' recollections, was not impeached "for sex". He was impeached for perjury — lying under oath — having said (under oath) to "have never had sex with that woman" (Monica Lewinski), he committed a "high crime or misdemeanor", which, according to the Constitution, is grounds for impeachment.
Barack Obama just needs to repeat under oath, what he has already said to the cameras, and he'll be in the same situation. Facing disgrace not for graft/bribery, but for lying.
Just as Clinton, who should've admitted the (perfectly legal and consensual) sex with his intern, Obama is now trying to come out of the scandal "too clean". There was no shame in meeting with Blagojevich, and, indeed, in refusing to pay him for appointing the new Senator. So, why is Obama denying meeting him?
Curiously, my colleague, who happened to be a supporter of Obama, has not been arm-twisted to add the same disclaimer by the University's administration...