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Whatever
Rahm Emanuel, Blagojevich staff talked
Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the U.S. Senate...
The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat. But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat?
Answer: Yes.
Given the information currently available, the odds that the O-Team did NOT know Blagojevich was soliciting offers for the appointment are essentially zero. And we already know from the affadavits that the O-Team refused any immediate and direct quid pro quo (which is not at all the same as refusing to deal). The remaining question now is, how exactly did the O-Team respond?
Inquiring minds want to know. And we may even get an answer someday.
One source confirmed that communications between Emanuel and the Blagojevich administration were captured on court-approved wiretaps.
UPDATE: Obama team: review shows no inappropriate contact
Just appropriate ones that they won't answer any questions about. But hey, they will document-dump on Christmas Eve!
More UPDATE: Jim Lindgren at Volokh interprets the Obama press release:
It would seem that there are contacts mentioned in the report; otherwise, there would be nothing to hold back for a week. Would it have killed them to admit that there were contacts between the Obama staff and Blagojevioch and his staff (which they couldn't yet disclose), but these contacts were not inappropriate? It's as if the Obama camp are responding to a discovery request and they just can't bring themselves to be fully forthcoming.
Hope! Change!
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Obama - Blagojevich Contacts
Kind of amazing that Obama and his guys are still stonewalling, when there are reports all over the place that contacts with Blagojevich did happen. Politicians never learn--the coverup is worse than the offense. I think most people would accept a simple statement like, "Yeah, we talked to them, and things looked fishy, so we stayed out of it." Unless, of course, the reality is much more damaging....
Absolutely, Tom. And if they
Absolutely, Tom. And if they had done that quickly it would have been a real plus for them, an asset rather than a liability. The way they're handling it now it's a growing liability that's actively sucking the buzz out of their pre-inauguration fanfare.
That doesn't mean they're not handling it properly from their own legal standpoint--we lack enough info to assess that. Without the tapes of the those contacts in hand it's difficult to be sure exactly how one's words could be parsed for inconsistencies to even worse effect, legally and/or publicly.
But Rahm Emanuel sure is keeping his head down nowadays, isn't he? He may decide he wants to just keep his seat in the House anyway. Unlike Obama, he hasn't resigned it yet. ;-)