Early on in his relationship with Rod Blagojevich, former aide John Harris says he assumed the role of the governor’s “Prince of Darkness,” trying to protect the former governor from himself.
Testifying at Blagojevich’s corruption trial this afternoon, Harris said he would assert himself at times when he saw Blagojevich on the verge of causing “political harm, public relations harm, harm in his relationships with other people.”
Harris testified: “If his course of action was something that he was embarking on, that I could see no immediate harm potential, I may let it go, deal with it later, let somebody else push back on it. There was only so many arrows I could absorb and still have a dialogue with him.”
However, as time went on, Harris said he eventually relented and became an enabler.
During a telephone conversation on Nov. 7, 2008, Blagojevich and the governor’s political consultant, Fred Yang, offer kudos to Harris for coming up with a plan that mimicked a baseball “three-way trade” for the U.S. Senate seat appointment.
Harris’ proposal would have SEIU’s Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern telling Barack Obama that they were successful in convincing Blagojevich to appoint Valerie Jarrett to his old U.S. Senate seat. In return for his cooperation, Blagojevich would be named national director at the Change to Win campaign. This, Harris figured, allowed for plausible deniability of a quid pro quo. In addition, Harris assumed that the job would allow Blagojevich to seize upon a “political comeback” in 2016.