Here's a question you must have thought about a thousand times: would you take a billion dollar cut in pay to be a United States Senator?
For a few fleeting days in 2008, Oprah Winfrey was high on Rod Blagojevich's list of candidates, but he never extended a formal offer.
"She's a kingmaker!" Blagojevich tells chief of staff John Harris in undercover tapes played for the jury Monday. "She made Obama!"
Blagojevich concedes that the queen of talk would most likely never take the job, but he tells Harris the idea is "not far fetched."
"Nobody would assail this pick...she is huge!" he says. "There's nothing 'affirmative action' about her!"
In a mattress of a few days, Blagojevich goes from declaring, "I don't want Jesse Jackson, Jr to be a US Senator," to seriously considering his candidacy.". On the tapes, Blagojevich tells Harris that Jackson has promised thru emissaries to raise money; "One and a half million dollars.".
Harris said he was present at a meeting with Blagojevich and Jackson on December 8, 2008, where the Congressman presented his credentials for the senate job. After reading thru the documents, he says Blagojevich declared "Well Im glad someone is thinking about me and how they can help me!"
Blagojevich didn't elaborate, and he was arrested the next day.
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