What reporters will be looking for is the extent of contact between Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s incoming chief of staff, and the governor about possible appointments to Mr. Obama’s Senate seat. The United States Attorney has said that Mr. Blagojevich was trying to sell the seat but has also said that no one from the Obama camp did anything wrong.
Even if there’s nothing illegal, the matter could pose a perception problem for the Obama team just by the association with the cesspool of Chicago politics that Mr. Obama had so effectively distanced himself from during the campaign.
The Chicago Sun-Times, citing anonymous sources, reported last week that Mr. Emanuel had a “deeper involvement” than had been reported previously, including “direct discussions” with the governor about the seat.
“Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times,” the newspaper said.
The newspaper added that “sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. Sources said that early on, Emanuel pushed for the appointment of Jarrett to the governor and his staff and asked that it be done by a certain date.”
But, the newspaper said “there was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal.” The Obama team denied that Mr. Emanuel spoke with the governor directly about the seat, the newspaper said, saying he spoke with him once only recently to say he was taking the job as Mr. Obama’s chief of staff.
So, did Mr. Emanuel speak directly with the governor about the seat? Such conversations would not be surprising — Mr. Emanuel is an active, well-connected political insider in his hometown and would have an obvious interest in who gets the seat — nor would they be illegal.
Did he push Ms. Jarrett for the job? That might look unseemly but again, it’s not illegal.
The only outcome that would keep this story alive on a national level is if Mr. Emanuel in any way bargained for the seat, offering the governor something in exchange for appointing Ms. Jarrett (or anyone else). But no one is suggesting he did.
The entire matter is providing an early test case of the “transparency” that the new Obama administration has promised. Reporters have felt frustrated that so little information has been forthcoming, while Obama officials say that they have been cooperating with authorities and are, after all, releasing their own internal report.
One problem with the report is that those who produced it did not have access to the tape recordings made by the United States Attorney’s office of the governor’s conversations. So the report is based instead on the recollections of those involved. As such, they may not be totally in sync with the tapes, which may not become public until the case moves through the courts. |
