UPDATE:
Union leader Tom Balanoff just testified that right after the Presidential election, he met with both Valerie Jarrett and Alexi Giannoulias about Jarrett’s possible appointment to the Senate by Rod Blagojevich.Balanoff said he asked Giannoulias to set up the meeting. The three met at the Aon Center on Nov. 7.
Balanoff said at the meeting he told Valerie Jarrett about his meeting the day before with Blagojevich.
“I said: ‘He said some goofy stuff … he could be Secretary of Health and Human Services.'” Balanoff testified. “I told her I told him that wasn’t going to happen. We both laughed.”
Balanoff said he planned to tell Blagojevich that if he didn’t appoint Jarrett then the governor couldn’t expect future help from the union, a major Democratic contributor.
“I was going to use our union’s influence to make a good decision,” Balanoff said.
……The morning of the election, Balanoff said he had a discussion on the phone with Jarrett in which he talked about her wanting the Senate seat.
“Didn’t Barack call you last night?” Jarrett asked, according to Balanoff. “Well, I am interested.” He said she told him.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/blago/2010/06/witness_giannoulias_at_meeting.html
A good decision? For whom?
The corruption is rampant.
Top (SEIU) union leader Thomas Balanoff said he was at dinner the night before the November Presidential election when he got a call that was blocked.
So he didn’t take it.Later he listened to his messages: “I walked outside, listened to it and it was from President Obama,” Balanoff said.
“Tom, this is Barack, give me a call,” the soon-to-be President-Elect said on the message.
After Balanoff sent word through an Obama aide to call him back, Obama returned his call later that night.
“Tom, I want to talk to you with regard to the Senate seat,” Obama told him.
Balanoff said Obama said he had two criteria: someone who was good for the citizens of Illinois and could be elected in 2010.
Obama said he wasn’t publicly coming out in support of anyone but he believed Valerie Jarrett would fit the bill.
“I would much prefer she (remain in the White House) but she does want to be Senator and she does meet those two criteria,” Balanoff said Obama told him. “I said: ‘thank you, I’m going to reach out to Gov. Blagojevich.”Balanoff then described a Nov. 6, 2008 meeting he had with Rod Blagojevich to recommend Valerie Jarrett for Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/blago/2010/06/tom_balanoff_obama_called_day.html
More:
SEIU leader Thomas Balanoff, a key witness for the government, has just taken the stand.
Balanoff is expected to testify that Barack Obama called him before the election, giving him the green light to ask Blagojevich to appoint his friend Valerie Jarrett to his U.S. Senate seat.
He’s also expected to say that Blagojevich told him he wanted a personal benefit in return for appointing Jarrett.
Early in his testimony, Balanoff says national union leader Andy Stern first raised Valerie Jarrett as a potential Senate successor in September 2008. As early as as October 2008, Stern said he talked to Jarrett and she said she was interested.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/blago/2010/06/blagojevich_trial_seiu_leader.html
Obama’s partnership with the SEIU mafia runs all the way back to his Chicago days.
Andy Stern wanted Valerie Jarrett to fill the seat, so he calls his buddy B. Hussein. B. Hussein, in turn, calls Thomas Balanoff to put an exclamation point on the suggestion.
Al Capone is in the White House.
Related article:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0610/Obama_sought_seat_for_Jarrett.html
Related post:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/obamas-ties-to-blagojevich-get-scrutinized/
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