The Obama Report

CBS News addresses a question to Barack Obama [a question that I had asked on Tuesday]:

“Did you or anyone close to you contact the FBI or U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald about Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to sell your Senate seat to the highest bidder?”

"Blagojevich seems to believe that Obama’s team was aware of – and had rejected – his offers, telling Harris in a wiretapped Nov. 11 conversation that Obama was “not willing to give (Blagojevich) anything except appreciation” for picking Jarrett. If Blagojevich contacted anyone on Obama’s team even hinting at a possible pay-for-play arrangement, it seems they would have been obligated to report that to law enforcement."

As I wrote on Tuesday:

Prosecutors allege that in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett - a close friend of Obama - to the Senate seat, Blagojevich sought appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services or wanted an ambassadorship in the new Obama administration. It seems highly unlikely that the president-elect was unaware of this. And if he did have knowledge that Blagojevich was seeking to sell his senate seat and chose to remain mum about it, well, that would seemingly be grounds for impeachment.

Mr. Fitzgerald, please be fair and upright about this investigation and treat the Messiah just as you would any other US citizen. If you're going to hound Rod Blagojevich over his alleged crime, then it behooves you to go after the accessories of this crime too. Nowhere in the bible - or even the constitution - does it say that a Messiah is exempt from following the letter of the law - even a Messiah as exalted as Barack Obama.

From Wikipedia:

An accessory must generally have knowledge that a crime is being, or will be committed. A person with such knowledge may become an accessory by helping or encouraging the criminal in some way, or simply by failing to report the crime to the proper authority.

I would, however, take this one step further than CBS and suggest that even if the Obama team wasn't contacted by Blagojevich about a play-for-play arrangement, merely possessing knowledge of the crime and failing to report it to the proper authorities, would be enough to make Obama an accessory to the crime.