No, not THE Chicago lawyer.  A professor at U. of Chicago, Richard Epstein, argues in The Wall Street Journal that card check is unconstitutional because it removes many free speech protections.  Since it’s a good, not-too-long read, I’ll just link to it so you can read his arguments against the legislation.

Over at Ace, he has a post that pulls a quote from a Newsbusters article excusing Blagojevich for his issues.  David Gregory said this:

(A)t the heart of all politics is pay to play. Yes. There’s a thin line between expectations and shakedown. But do any of us really believe that the people who raise huge sums of money for a particular political candidate aren’t expecting something for their efforts? Do we really believe that a person who is vested with the power to give away an Iraqi contract isn’t going to give it to the person who will somehow do him or her the most good?

Haha, not really, but can you IMAGINE if someone had said this about Dick Cheney and Halliburton?  No!  Cheney was excoriated by the left for supposedly giving his former company Halliburton contracts.

Just for clarification, please replace “an Iraqi contract” with “a Senate seat” and you’ll have Gregory’s true quote.  Not much difference, eh?

By the way, Ace argues this is just a perk afforded Democrats by the MSM.  I, however, believe this is just a special treat afforded to anyone who might tarnish The One.  If “Hot Rod” Blagojevich was “Billy Bob” Blaggard, a high-level Democrat from some southern state, the media would be all over the story calling for his head with no excuses at all.

Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama’s choice for Secretary of Commerce, MIGHT be caught up in his own pay-for-play scandal.  It appears that a company that has already been caught up in the financial scandal in Birmingham, AL is being looked at for work done on the 2004 Democrat Convention.  Richardson chaired the committee in charge of running the convention that year, and investigators found that the company’s president also donated to Richardson’s PAC.  A grand jury has been empanelled in New Mexico to look into this.

The list keeps growing.  I should set up a betting site for who’s next.

Update: A local NM news station tried to ask Richardson some questions, to no avail.  He just about ran out of the room where a news conference was taking place.  The story also has some background on the CDR association. (H/T: The Weekly Standard)

This would really be terrible.  I can’t even imagine this guy in the Senate.  Let’s hope the vote count starts trending back toward Coleman.

I read this article over at Redstate, and my jaw dropped.  The newly-elected representative of New Orleans, a city that has a majority African-American population, will probably be denied entrance into the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).  Part of the problem, I would assume, is that he’s Republican.

His other sin?  He’s not black.  His name, as you may recall, is Anh “Joseph” Cao, who is from Vietnam.  Maybe they’re mad he won against one of their members, Rep. William Jefferson, who kept his bribe money in the freezer.  It definitely sounds like they are out to promote African-American Representatives and Senators and not the African-American constituents who helped put most of them there.

These are the constituents who were seen all over television during the Katrina debacle with Kanye West telling Bush what a horrible person he is for letting that happen to them.  And now the CBC won’t let their representative into their caucus?  I would think the CBC would welcome him with open arms, because someone who isn’t African-American might need “help” understanding the plight of an African-American, and they could be the ones to explain it to him. I certainly hope Obama touches them with a little hopenchange to help them welcome the new Obama era and let Cao in.

Incidentally, Cao has accepted an invitation to be a member of the Congressional Asian-Pacific Islander Caucus.  They allow anyone who is of Asian-Pacific Islander decent OR who represents a heavily Asian-Pacific Islander district.  Heck, even if you just care about Asian-Pacific Islander causes, you will be welcomed.  Why can’t the CBC be so open?

Fox Business Network has filed a Freedom of Information Act suit against Hank Paulson over the use of the TARP funds.  They have requested details of purchases related to two banks, but the Treasury has yet to respond.

Good for Fox.  We’re not talking about national security here.  This is taxpayer money being used to support business, and as any stockholder, we have the right to know what’s going on at these companies.

Update: This is why they are suing. (H/T: Hot Air)

The biggest Ponzi scheme was not created by Bernard Madoff; it was created by the U.S. government.  It’s called Social Security.  I heard G. Gordon Liddy equate the two on the radio this morning.  It sounded like he was reading an article, but I couldn’t find it.  He gave some stats about just how insolvent the program, along with Medicare, are, and we are just taking in money now to pay those who require payments.  Pretty soon, we won’t be able to keep up and it will all come crashing down.  He made a few points about how Social Security is different, seeing as how we all know what we are getting into, unlike most Ponzi scheme victims.

Anyone know the article?  It would be nice to link.

FNC is reporting that ABC is reporting that the White House has announced it IS going to bail out GM and Chrysler.  They aren’t giving any details yet, but I’m sure they will be forthcoming.  Not a good sign.

Update: FNC is reporting that the President is making $17.4 B in loans from the TARP fund available to the auto makers, $13.4 B now and $4 B when the second part of TARP is released.  Reportedly Hank Paulson will be in charge again, not a “car czar,” and the automakers will have to show “viability” by March.  I’m sure that term is not defined anywhere in the plan.

During Bush’s presser, he said the automakers would have to get all stakeholders to make concessions, including debt holders, management, and labor.  He said “experts” had to believe their plans would be a meaningful way toward profitability.  This is a loan for an “orderly restructuring” outside of bankruptcy.  He said if they didn’t make the necessary changes by March 31, 2009, the loans would come due and the automakers might be forced into bankruptcy anyway.

Stewart Varney at FNC summarized the two biggest conditions: 1) wages and work rules must be “competitive” to foreign companies operating in the U.S., and 2) retirement compensation must be on solid footing.  He also said that other conditions include 1) executive pay limitations, 2) jobs banks are gone, 3) taxpayers are the first to be paid back, 4) no new dividends are paid, and 5) the government gets to look over the books.  Varney pointed out that all the words being used are vague and squishy, and this is pretty much Bush punting the problem to the Obama administration.  He predicts the UAW will temporarily go along so they can make it into a more friendly administration and Congress which will make those squishy terms more firm, but in the UAW’s favor.

Update II: Hot Air has the video.

Even though Obama sources denied direct conversations, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Emanuel pushed Blagojevich to appoint Obama insider Valerie Jarrett to Obama’s Senate seat.  Emanuel also requested Blagojevich make the appointment by a certain time, althought he report didn’t give the date.

Details on this story coming out in bits and pieces at a time doesn’t look very good for Obama’s team.  I know he’s using the excuse of “Fitzgerald made me do it,” but after denials and corrections and wait a minutes, this is starting to really look bad, even though I don’t believe that Emanuel promised anything to Blago for the appointment.

Update: Hot Air’s Ed surmises that Blagojevich’s side is leaking conversation information as a mob-style threat to Obama — take me down, and you’re going with me.