The friend is Chris Dodd, and the story is that, in order to protect Geithner and Obama, the administration threw Chris Dodd under that enormous bus that has come to shelter so many.
The basic facts are fairly well known at this point, after several initially conflicting stories: Dodd’s original bill had a clause that banned the AIG bonuses, and Geithner pressured him to eliminate the restriction, which he did. Congress passed it and Obama then signed the bill.
The only real question at this point is what did Obama know and when did he know it? Whether Geithner acted on his own (somewhat unlikely, IMHO, although the White House would prefer that you think so) or with Obama’s knowledge, there is no doubt that the impetus came not from Dodd but from the administration, and that Dodd is being sacrificed.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. But whether or not I think highly of Dodd (I most decidedly do not), the point is that he’s been a big supporter of Obama and that he’s taking the fall right now.
The thought has surely crossed Chris Dodd’s mind more than once these past few days: is this how Barack Obama treats his friends?
But if Dodd had been paying even a particle of attention to Obama’s behavior (or, to be fair, to the dirty game of politics itself), he would have known the answer to be a resounding “yes.” I’m starting to get redundant here, but I keep going back to the earliest days of Obama’s political career (think “Alice Palmer”).
Besdies, would else you expect from an Alinsky disciple and instructor? Anyone—anyone—who believed Obama’s lofty pre-election rhetoric of change and transparency and morality was simply not paying attention to the actual behavior he had exhibited during his entire political career, as well as during the campaign itself.
I keep harping on the Alice Palmer story. Please read the whole thing if you’re not familiar with it, but here’s a quick summary:
The day after New Year’s 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city’s South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama’s four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.
Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.
But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder [African-American] stateswoman [and Obama mentor] like Palmer.
A close examination of Obama’s first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.
The article appeared in the Chicago Tribune in April of 2007. But it remained a largely local story. Somehow, most people—even those who follow politics rather closely—have never heard of it. Why was this not heavily publicized during the campaign? (Yeah, I know; rhetorical question.) Can you imagine what the MSM would have done with it if this incident had been in George Bush’s or John McCain’s past, ? (Yeah, I know; obvious observation).
Obama’s ruthlessness towards Palmer and all the other Democrats attempting to run against him in the primary of his very first election was a warning to all opponents: don’t mess with me, or I’ll screw you, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re friend or foe.
Except for the fact that it didn’t involve actual blood, Obama’s methods remind me of nothing so much as the way ambitious mobsters in “The Godfather” let everyone know at the outset what stuff they’re made of. But Mafia dons don’t ordinarily run for president.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Alice Palmer was not on my radar.
I don’t understand Obama’s message lately.
It strikes me (as somebody who reads a lot about Obama) as all over the place to try to keep people liking him.
How else can you explain the way he handled questions about the bill of attainder taking AIG executives contractually obligated compensations with a 90% tax. Obama dissapproved of that bill and said we need to handle these things a different way.
Yet, he himself has not proposed a way to deal with them except to foment outrage.
Each moment he is crafting messages to APPEAL to Joe citizen but to the ASTUTE we are left scratching our collective heads.
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I heard the Alice Palmer story early on in the campaign. It didn’t amaze me at all. Actually I think Hillary should have used it (I’m sure her people were well acquainted with the story) but it would have probably let so many skeletons out of the closet (on both sides) that it would have made the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark look like nothing.
Good riddance to Dodd especially since it looks like the Republican may actually have a chance at that seat. He is one of the prime authors of this whole financial fiasco and what hubris to think he was untouchable.
He can join Jeremiah Wright, most of eastern Europe, Georgia, the Ukraine, The Baltic states, and Israel under the bus. Getting to be cramped quarters.
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
To me, the key aspect of the Alice Palmer story is that Barack even ran against Palmer for that state legislative office.
Alice Palmer planned to leave her long held office in the State Legislature (she was a fixture) and run for higher office. She threw her prestige behind the unknown Barack as a candidate for her seat in the state legislature. After she lost the Dem Primary for the higher office she sought, she asked Barack to step aside so she could be re-elected to the State Legislature in the general election. He refused to back out of a race in which he likely could not have been a contender without Alice Palmer’s original endorsement of his candidacy.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Obama has never had any friends, hasn’t any friends, not likely he will ever have any friends. Obama has a posse of like minded political climbers, worshipers, associates, and useful idiots – and they’re all expendable.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I knew the broad details of the Palmer story, but reading that story in detail (and recalling the fates of Obama’s later Senatorial opponents) really sets my “leftist farm system” antennae quivering uncontrollably. /g
Somebody was definitely running interference for the Messiah. That’s clear.
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
In response to GeoPal, Obama has friends, but he is not making new ones with his policies right now. In his first 60 days in office he has had a hard time actually getting anything done because the policies are not sound in nature. http://www.newsy.com/videos/newsy_com_archive_obama_s_60_days/
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Ordinarily.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
The Alice Palmer story, while it didn’t get wide play in the MSM last year, was in the blogosphere. I began a compilation of Obama-related links last year, and the Trib article was one of the first links I added- courtesy of the BigLizards blog.
I wonder how many Obama voters will be saying in the next 4 years, “If I had known about Alice Palmer….”
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
To the remarks about Obama not having any friends I find that with many liberals (and probably not many RINOs either – but true conservatives may be a different story) I think in the political arena we have the Caesar – Brutus syndrome going on. I don’t think many would stand back to back with any of their (so called) “friends” if it weren’t in their own best interest.
Sad
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
“But Mafia dons don’t ordinarily run for president.”
And they wouldn’t ordinarily be given a free pass by the media.
(Although, perhaps John Gotti had a chance. The media seemed to be in love with him.)
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
“The administration threw Chris Dodd under that enormous bus that has come to shelter so many.”… Is it safer under the bus than within it?
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I was teaching at a small college in southern Illinois during O’Bama’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. His Republican opponent was involved in a very heated and messy divorce, so much so that the court records were sealed to protect the privacy of both parties. Well, lo and behold, if them darned sealed records didn’t get leaked to the press. Wonner who coulda done that? In the ensuing hulabaloo, the Republican candidate withdrew and Alan Keyes, of all people, stepped in as a carpetbagger candidate against The Messiah, resulting, of course, in a cakewalk for O’Bama. And the rest is history. Not saying it was The One or his folks who did the leaking, but “Cui bono?”
March 24th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Apropos of some “Who sent him?” discussions we’ve had in earlier threads: Those attorneys sound expensive. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know who paid for them.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:37 am
How many friends Stalin had? Eventually, all of them were executed or thrown out of politics. Compare how Bush defended his friends, even when it became politically damaging. As for Obama, I do not expect anything other from power-hungry sociopath.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Many commenters here and elsewhere said that they felt as living in “Atlas Shrugged” world. But it increasingly looks more like “1984″ world. Interesting to see how far it is possible to go in this direction without actually using terror, only demagogery and intimidation.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:04 am
“…is this how Barack Obama treats his friends?”
“Friends?”
I doubt that he really has any.
He is a malignant narcissist, for whom other people simply don’t come into his sphere of reference.
If you like “Godfather” comparisons, remember Micheal Corleone at the end of “Godfather II”, with everyone he could have even remotely cared about
gone, history, sacrificed to his cause of survival at all costs. This is how I picture Obama down the line.
-
March 24th, 2009 at 8:13 am
One of the characteristics of 3rd World countries is that they are low-trust societies. Without trust, political and economic transactions are difficult to make and enforce. Being a “high-trust” society has been one of the great underpinnings of U.S. economic strengths.
It used to be that Americans gave their elected officials the benefit of doubt. No longer. In fact, the opposite has occurred and, today, politicians’ motives are immediately impugned. Obama, Dodd, Hilary, Frank and their cabal are creating a ruthless, amoral political culture that may eventually return to destroy them as well but at great cost to all of us.
My question, are their actions a cause or symptom of the destruction of our culture of trust?
March 24th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Danny, great question, and worthy of reflection. Corrupt politicians are certainly not a new thing in America, but something is clearly different now.
My initial thought is that the permanent campaign, the relentlessness required to stay in office now, has selected for qualities that have significant potential for pathology.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
The charges of corruption are not equal, however. If it was, it wouldn’t be so bad. People could blame both Democrats and Republicans, but in reality, those that say “pox on both their houses” are inevitably Democrat shills, dupes, and tools. They carry the fight with such slogans as “The Culture of Corruption” because no matter what they think they know about politicians, they still trust in Democrat politicians and distrust the enemies of Democrat politicians.
Low-trust societies simply are geared towards trust based upon blood or feudal relations. This is different from high-trust societies where trust is based upon principles, institutions, and greater constructs.
The problem is not that Americans distrust politicians, that would be a good thing if they did. No, the problem is that Americans trust con men while believing that they are wise in distrusting con men. They trust in their masters the same way criminals trust in their gang leaders. It’s all about “us vs them”.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Obama’s ruthlessness towards Palmer and all the other Democrats attempting to run against him in the primary of his very first election was a warning to all opponents: don’t mess with me, or I’ll screw you, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re friend or foe.
This is not atypical of revolutionary Leftists, Neo.
We all know, or should know by now, the real history behind the Left’s grand utopias and social “transformations”. In the end, once they have executed and tortured to death the Ruling Elite, they will set their sights on each other: Cuba, Iran, Russia, Germany, Vietnam, it was all the same. Once the Left wins, the purges start.
But still, there is a great satisfaction in seeing Leftist tools, dupes, and idiots get what they thought they were forever immune from given the ethical and moral limitations of the “Ruling Elite” that they had fought so hard against.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Ymarsakar: I wrote about that very thing, here, in my post entitled “Revolutions devouring their own.”
I think the extraordinary thing about Obama is that he did his dirty work right at the outset; he didn’t wait for the revolution to start. Maybe that’s because he would say, “L’Révolution c’est Moi.”
March 24th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
That link does bring back interesting memories, doesn’t it, Neo.