The Rahm-Blago Tape

[dellinger63]

An excellent example of 'Chicago Politics'


Four days after the 2008 presidential election, Rahm Emanuel called then Gov. Rod Blagojevich to suggest a plan just “between you and I” that would allow the newly-appointed White House chief of staff to handpick a temporary congressional successor, promising: “I will not forget this.”

In the Nov. 8, 2008 recorded call, Emanuel told Blagojevich he wanted then Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool tapped to fill Emanuel’s 5th Congressional District seat “in my interest of, uh, you know, having somebody there you know that doesn’t want to make it a lifetime commitment.”

Claypool only wants to serve “for like one term or two max,” Emanuel told Blagojevich. “And then he wants to go to the cabinet.”

At the end of the excerpt of the call, Emanuel tells Blagojevich: “I will not forget this ... I appreciate it. That’s all I am going to say. I don’t want to go, you and I shouldn’t go farther.”

In the recorded call, Blagojevich repeatedly told Emanuel he couldn’t appoint to the post since, unlike a Senate seat, a congressional vacancy must be filled by special election.

But Emanuel pressed Blagojevich, saying he could time his resignation so that the then-governor would appoint before the year ended — and before the new Congress resumed. Emanuel also said he was having his legal people look into it.

“And then he gets, you know, all we are giving him is three weeks of a head start. .. it’s not like Forrest doesn’t have a name or anything like that,” Emanuel said. “It gives him a head start and a presumption.”

After Emanuel was sworn in as mayor last month, he named Claypool to head the CTA.

http://www.suntimes.com/5836317-417/...-claypool.html