If you are at all interested in the growing Blagojevich scandal, you’ll enjoy this summary by Philip Klein of President-elect Obama’s connections with the Illinois governor. From the article:
[The] wide-ranging scandal, which also included charges that Blagojevich tried to shake down a children’s hospital and have an editor removed from the Chicago Tribune, raises a number of important questions about our next president. The most immediate is whether Obama or any of his representatives had any interaction with Blagojevich over the past month regarding the Senate vacancy.
On this point, there is already some uncertainty.
“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening,” Obama told reporters in the wake of Tuesday’s indictment.
But soon after his statement, ABC’s Jake Tapper posted video of a November 23 interview in which senior adviser David Axelrod said of Obama’s involvement that “I know he’s talked to the governor.”
Later in the day, Axelrod claimed he was “mistaken” in the interview.
Klein addresses the crux of the matter in his final paragraph:
The looming question concerning the new administration is whether Obama could have thrived in a corrupt political environment that routinely produces the likes of Blagojevich without picking up a few tricks along the way.
