Wiretap Porn, And Other Thoughts

The most powerful person in Illinois politics is not David Axelrod. Not Valerie Jarrett. Not either the Daleys. Not either of the Madigans. Not Patrick Fitzgerald. It's the person who dropped a dime on Rod Blagojevich, and it's all the people who have information that Fitzgerald might be interested in. Someone dropped a dime on the Senate seat matter. Someone got fed up with the pettiness and went to the U.S. Attorney

.........Wiretap porn -- un-bleeping believable, isn't it? It's like Fitzgerald hired David bleeping Mamet to write the indictment. To be sure, what captivated the press yesterday was not the allegation that Blagojevich held up hospital funding in exchange for a campaign contribution. That was merely (allegedly) evil. No, what was repeated ad nauseam was the non-criminal stuff. What he called Barack Obama. His banal musings about the value of the appointment -- cynical, not criminal; his Yosemite-Sam braggadacio -- eyerolling to some, sad to others, not criminal. The feds included all this to hurt Blagojevich and to build their case in public.

..........Obama's circle of advisers.... question: when Barack Obama first heard about the arrests, did he chat with his inner circle only? The reason that question is relevant is that virtually every member of Obama's inner circle has some significant tie to Chicago politics -- Axelrod, Jarrett, Emanuel, Daley. (Pete Rouse and Robert Gibbs are in the inner circle and don't have longstanding ties to the machine.)  The first instinct of this inner circle was human and understandable; try to get away with adding as little fuel as possible to the combustion. That's always the first instinct of public figures when they (a) have something to side and (b) have nothing to hide. Obama has nothing to hide; indeed, the evidence so far suggests that his allies were repulsed by Blagojevich's entreaties.  The trouble is that the public has been so familiar with the traditional script that politicians use when they're in trouble, and that script opens with the politician's somewhat cagey denial (even if the caginess was not intended) and it continues with the associates of that politician claiming that the questions are illegitimate and that the press is only searching for a head to spike on a pike.  Then, the politician notices the criminal investigation and claims prudence...  well, that's where we are. 

...... Note: Fitzgerald didn't seem to say, or didn't say at all, that having a full and public accounting from the Obama team about their Blago contacts would damage his investigation.  Randal Samborn -- am I wrong? Greg Craig?  In fact, whereas, in the Valerie Plame investigation, President Bush may have been tangentially involved, or at least had an inkling that subordinates of his were involved, Obama does not have the same constraints.  There is no legal reason why he can't comment, speculate, or engage in idle rumors on this whole turn of events. This isn't to suggest that Obama should make off-the-cuff remarks about this or not take it seriously... it's just that there doesn't seem to be the same (veneer of a) legal justification for not doing so.

Obama has been put in an incredibly difficult position wholly not of his own doing, but it is striking to hear him refuse to make any comments due to an ongoing investigation.