Blago and the O-Team: Update

Byron York points out the problems of being innocent of specifics when dealing with Patrick Fitzgerald:

Could the Blago Scandal Ensnare Team Obama? You Betcha.
If you don’t think it can, you don’t know prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

Given Rod Blagojevich’s profane railings against Barack Obama, revealed on federal wiretaps, few observers believe — although none know for sure — that the Obama camp engaged in any pay-for-play dealings with the governor, and therefore few see any legal problems for Team Obama resulting from the criminal investigation.

Seems about right to me, judging from the incomplete information we have. But that doesn't mean all is sunshine and puppies for the O-Team.

...Emanuel might be asked many questions, under penalty of perjury or false-statement charges. Prosecutors will compare his answers to what they have on tape. Perhaps they’ll invite him in for another session of questioning. Then they’ll compare his answers in the second session to his answers in the first. Perhaps they’ll repeat that a few times. As anyone in the Bush administration could advise Emanuel, it doesn’t matter if he did anything wrong or not. He just better have his answers in order.

Yep. Just ask Scooter Libby how that works. In the meantime this will continue to cast a shadow over the inaugural buzz, simply by being hometown scandal with major Obama ties, regardless of any specific innocence on the part of O-Team members. Emanuel would be wise to hang on to that seat in Congress for the very near term. It's always good to have a fallback employment option.

BONUS Blago/O-Team Memory Hole!:

Holder omitted Blagojevich link from questionnaire

Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.

Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week -- an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama's transition team indicated late Tuesday.

...Holder signed the questionnaire on Sunday -- five days after Blagojevich's arrest for allegedly putting Obama's U.S. Senate seat up for sale.

Oops.

BONUS Bonus Update!:

Jesse Jackson, Jr. an informant to Blago investigations

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. — who was cited in a criminal complaint against Rod Blagojevich — has been an informant for at least a decade with the U.S. Attorney's office, and has informed on the embattled governor of Illinois, though not in the case currently under investigation, Jackson spokesman Kenneth Edmonds told CNN Tuesday.

Yes, folks, truth is not only stranger than fiction, it's often more amusing as well.