Tell All Blago Book

[dellinger63]

Wow I'm a buyer.

Wish the tapes were available to the taxpayers. You know the ones that paid for them!

and go out on a limb and predict Patty Blago with the blessing of Rod sold them to the authors, having access to them via defense attys.

Obama's ties to Rezko were a nagging issue in the 2008 campaign. Rezko and Obama were friends, and Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for Obama for the first three political offices he sought. Obama also acknowledged a lapse in judgment over his involvement with Rezko in private real estate transactions related to the purchase of Obama's home in the Kenwood neighborhood in 2005.

Blagojevich's claim about the money was caught on a government recording that was not made public during either of Blagojevich's trials, according to the book. The book, by Jeff Coen and John Chase, does not say who gave the recordings to the authors.

The accusation of money paid indirectly to Obama is among many musings by Blagojevich that the FBI secretly recorded. Among the others: that Blagojevich mentioned naming Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry to Obama's vacant Senate seat so he could "have a shot" at having sex with her. Blagojevich, a Democrat, also told a staffer he voted for Republican George H.W. Bush for president and then gave the staffer a warning: "If you ever repeat this, first I'll deny it, secondly I'll wait a little bit, then I'll fire you."

The book portrays Blagojevich as being envious that Obama's political fortunes had risen so high when the governor thought the incoming president had bigger Rezko problems than he did.

According to the book, Blagojevich was repeating "a story that (he) had heard that he believed" when he spoke of the $25,000 in cash from Rezko. Talking to his then-chief of staff John Harris shortly after Obama's election, Blagojevich said he had heard that Rezko had given the cash to Bruce Washington, who has held jobs with the state, Cook County and the city school district.

"The cash was for Obama. Not for me," Blagojevich told Harris, according to the book.

"Right," Harris replied.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...294,full.story