Will Obama stay untainted?

Here in Chicago, machine style politics pretty much connect everyone in high office in the Democratic party and many in the Republican. So far, the corruption scandal unfolding around Governor Blagojevich has not touched Barack Obama and doesn’t immediately appear to threaten to draw him or his staff into the mess. But there are a lot of questions.

Some journalists are starting to read the wiretap transcripts and ask who these people are.

Barack Obama has flatly said that he has “not discussed the Senate seat with [Rod Blagojevich] at any time.” If that is true — and Obama will undoubtedly be asked the broader question of whether he communicated in any way with Blagojevich on the subject — then the big story in the Blagojevich scandal is the role of intermediaries. Throughout the criminal complaint filed against Blagojevich, there are references to unnamed individuals who play important roles in the scandal — and who know a lot about what went on and who was involved. None of those intermediaries is more intriguing than the person referred to as “Advisor B.”

This will all come out over the coming days. But as the drama builds, the Obama team should be out front answering any and all questions, to uphold the promise of transparency he’s made, and the integrity of the office he’s about to take.

After all, he is a product of Chicago politics. He needs to make the answers as obvious as the questions.

The number of long-time Chicagoland figures in and around the president-elect’s inner circle is so large as to make a Blago-connection to at least some of them inevitable….

Obvious questions that will have to be answered by the president-elect in detail: When did you first meet with B?  How often and how closely have you worked with him?  Did you know his chief-of-staff?  If any member of your Administration is implicated in any of these scandals, will you dismiss them immediately?

The MSM issued a huge pass to candidate Obama during the election when it came to Rezko et al.  They cannot keep that up through an entire presidency.