Some of Nothing

Sprinkles v. Fitzmas
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Steve Benen rightly smacks Liz "Sprinkles" Sidoti for push-reporting a Blag-Obama scandal:

THE INEVITABLE PUSH.... It's only been 24 hours, and it's pretty obvious that reports like this one, from the AP's Liz Sidoti, are going to quickly become mind-numbing.

President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even stepped into office and already a scandal is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn't accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama's now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to try to link him to the scandal.

There's just no reason for reporting like this. Is Obama connected to Blagojevich's scandal? No, but the scandal is "threatening to dog him." Has Obama done anything wrong? No, but Republicans are going to "try to link him to the scandal."

Personally, I'm not in a place to determine whether or not Obama has done anything wrong here. But Patrick "Fitzmas" Fitzgerald (you know--the guy actually investigating the Illinois governor) might be, and he says:

“I’m not going to speak for what the President elect was aware of," he said. "We make no allegations that he’s aware of anything and that’s as simply as I can put it."

Later when asked if Obama had been briefed on this case, Fitzgerald again answered, “I’m not going to down anything that’s not on the complaint... I have enough trouble speaking for myself, I’m never going to go try to speak in the voice of a President or a President-elect so I simply pointed out that if you look at the complaint there’s no allegation that the President-elect, there’s no reference in the complaint to any conversations involving the President-elect or indicating that the President–elect was aware of it and that’s all I can say.”

Reporters are starting to make lawyers look good by comparison. I'm pretty sure that's one of the seven signs of the apocalypse.

PS MFP has the stomach flu, and I choose taking care of him over taking care of blogger today (and yesterday). Too bad.

Nothing New byslag at 10:46 AM