Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Times Of London:

In August 2006, when it was publicly known that Governor Rod Blagojevich and his staff were being investigated for corruption, Barack Obama took the microphone at the Illinois State Fair.

Now, with the allegations that Mr Blagojevich tried to hawk Mr Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder, the scandal — and the stench of Chicago politics that the President-elect hoped he had put behind him — is raising a slew of uncomfortable questions.

Mr Obama’s endorsement of Mr Blagojevich in 2006 was an example of the way that he operated in Chicago. He rarely bucked or challenged the corrupt status quo — in stark contrast to his image as a reformer.

His meteoric rise through Chicago politics was based on making strategic alliances with the city’s entrenched, and often ethically challenged, power brokers — Mr Blagojevich included — then moving on before being tainted by association. Several of these figures he once relied on have since become immersed in corruption scandals.

Mr Obama officially made transparency a central theme of his administration last week, yet he was facing growing calls yesterday to reveal what, if any, contact there had been between his staff and Mr Blagojevich over the efforts of the governor to sell his Senate seat.

Asked on Tuesday, the President-elect said: “I had no contact with the governor or his office so we were not” — he then corrected himself: “I was not aware of what was happening.” The switch from “we” to “I” suggests he was unsure whether his team may have had contact with the governor.

On November 23 David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s chief strategist, who will be a senior aide in the White House, said on Fox News: “I know [Mr Obama] talked to the governor and there is a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

On Tuesday night an aide to Mr Obama said that Mr Axelrod had mispoken. Mr Axelrod later released a statement saying that he was mistaken about Mr Obama speaking directly to Mr Blagojevich about the vacancy: “They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.”

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Obama or his aides. Indeed, Mr Blagojevich appears to provide exculpatory evidence. Yet the governor’s comments are raising questions about what Mr Obama’s team knew about his corrupt scheme — and when they knew it.

According to the FBI Mr Blagojevich was fixated on getting something in return from Mr Obama if he appointed “Senate Candidate Number 1” — widely believed to be Valerie Jarrett, the longtime friend and adviser of the President-elect whom Mr Obama is believed to have favoured as a replacement. On November 10 Mr Blagojevich, during a conference call, allegedly complained that his advisers had told him it was clear that the Obama team was not interested in a quid pro quo over Ms Jarrett. On November 12 she announced that she was not interested in the Senate seat.

The complaints by Mr Blagojevich suggest strongly that at least one member of Mr Obama’s team had been made aware of the governor’s corrupt ambitions — and had cut off the idea.

Eric Cantor, the Republican party’s number two in the House of Representatives, said: “The serious nature of the crimes . . . raises questions about the interaction with Governor Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high-ranking officials who will be working for the future president.” Others have called on Mr Obama to release details of all conversations between his team and Mr Blagojevich’s.

Mr Obama endorsed Mr Blagojevich in 2002, and the governor endorsed Mr Obama for his Senate run in 2004. Mr Axelrod also worked for Mr Blagojevich when he was a congressman. Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief-of-staff, told a magazine earlier this year that he and Mr Obama were senior strategists for Mr Blagojevich’s race in 2002. Yet aides to Mr Obama denied that Mr Emanuel or the President-elect played any substantial role in the campaign.

— Barack Obama intends to use his Muslim middle name — Hussein — when he is sworn is as president. In an interview with two American newspapers, Mr Obama said that he would try to “reboot America’s image in the Muslim world in particular”.