| | Frank Rich: GOP attempts to link Obama to Blagojevich 'won't work'
 Although Republicans have been doing their best to implicate President-elect Barack Obama in the scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's attempt to sell Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder, New York Times columnist Frank Rich believes Obama has nothing to worry about.
In an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, Rich began by suggesting that the extravagantly obscene transcripts of Blagojevich's conversations are "going to be the gift that keeps on giving, I think, for quite a while ... but the attempts to link Obama to it are almost as laughable as the transcripts themselves."
"Republicans, for obvious reasons, they want to tie Blagojevich to Obama like an anchor," Maddow noted.
"Right, but it won't work," Rich replied confidently. He suggested that the Republicans are "just trying to change the subject" now that 79% of Americans tell pollsters they won't miss George Bush's when he's gone and even Joe the Plumber is saying he was appalled and embarrassed by John McCain.
"Do you think this is sort of a non-partisan accountability moment?" Maddow asked. "Nobody is standing up and saying, 'This is a witchhunt, Blagojevich ought to be left alone here.'"
"I think it is a good sign," Rich agreed. "And by the way, the same thing happened with the last Illinois governor, George Ryan, who was a Republican. Again, it was a bipartisan feeling that he should go, and in fact he's now in jail."
"I've been thinking about it in broader terms," Maddow continued. "To me it feels like a heck of a contrast to see someone get nailed so publicly for this type of corruption while the giant swindle that was the Iraq war is still an applause line for this president."
"I completely agree with you," Rich replied. "Accountability and the lack of it has been an enormous issue of this entire decade, not just in the Iraq War but on Wall Street. ... Compared to the things people have not been held accountable for, what [Blagojevich] is accused of is relatively minor."
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Dec. 10, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
|
