Ward Room Covering Chicago's nine political influencers
Blagojevich Not Impressed by "Grateful and Appreciative"
On November 4, 2008, the night Barack Obama was elected
president, Rod Blagojevich had one thing on his mind: what’s in
this for me?      Blagojevich was already insanely jealous that
a goo-goo state senator from Hyde Park had leaped over him to
the presidency. So he decided to try to leverage his power to
appoint Obama’s successor to set himself up as a national
player, too.      Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s soon-to-be chief of
staff, told Blagojevich fundraiser John Wyma to tell Blagojevich
chief of staff John Harris that the White House would be
“thankful and appreciative” if the governor would appoint
Valerie Jarrett. (Like mob bosses, politicians use a lot of
“buffers” to make deals.)      Those three words drove
Blagojevich nuts.      “Grateful and appreciative, huh?”
Blagojevich sneered to Harris. “I got a 501 (c) 4. Can he get
Warren Buffett and some of his friends to help us with tha