President-elect Barack Obama, speaking just now, on the arrest of Rod Blagojevich:
I had no contact with the governor or his office so I was not aware of what was happening. As I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment
Who on his team did have contact with Blago? Indeed, someone's job desription probably included regular touch-ins with Democratic governors.
Now -- there's no loved lost between several senior Obama advisers like David Axelrod and Gov. Blagojevich. The tenor of Blago's relationship with chief of staff designate Rahm Emanuel is less clear; it's not clear from the complaint whether he had direct contact with Valerie Jarrett, known as "Senate Candidate #1" -- allegedly the person Obama wanted Blagojevich to appoint.
To the extent that there are oustanding questons for the transition team to answer, they center on how Blagojevich got his information about Obama; who, if anyone, was the conduit? Did that conduit become aware of Blagojevich's allegedly criminal intentions to benefit from the choice? If so, did that person tell his or her boss? Who helped the FBI here? These questions aren't meant to figuratively indict anyone, nor to hold anyone to a standard that the Obama transition team hasn't already set for itself. Indeed, the Obama folks come out of this looking good; as soon as they were made aware of corruption, or the potential for it, they went to the FBI will full knowledge that Illinois Democrats would be politically damaged.
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