Axelrod On Blagojevich Scandal: 'We Were Not Involved'

David Axelrod said at tonight's Harvard Institute of Politics conference that Obama's team wasn't involved in talks with Rod Blagojevich about Obama's seat, slightly expanding on Obama's own comments today.

"It's a painful thing for me coming from Illinois. It's a really appalling story, and there's not a whole lot to clean up," he said in response to a question from moderator Gwen Ifill about whether he wanted to clean up elements of the story. "What's been said speaks to it. There's a vacancy the governor apparently -- if you believe the complaint from the government -- had some ideas about what to do with it.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[MyTake]

Oh, come now! You have a long history with Blago and you know how this guy does gutter talk.

So there are only two suspects in the Obama camp, yourself and Emanuel who were capable of talking about the Obama vacancy.

Then there is Blago's witchy wife who did the real estate work with Rezko to come up with that property for Obama. I wonder what they call "Whitewater" in Chicago.

Obama does not become a President and then offers no concern, no thoughts and no desire on a vacated Senate seat that he occupied and will be important to him when he becomes that President.

[swo68]

I agree with the essence of what you're saying, but Axelrod and Emanuel seem a little high on the food chain these days to be talking "dirty" like that. Plausible deniability etc. Although, Axelrod was caught lying recently...

[mcantwell]

Talking to Blago is not a crime. It's the people who accepted and went along with the "Pay to Play" scheme who have a problem.

[MyTake]

Well, Chicago has a long history of corrupted politics and politicians. Over that period, many good people have been made to turn a blind eye to that corruption through various methods of intimidation.

Politicians with the intellect level of Obama and Emanuel have to be suspicious of the political environment in Chicago and take steps to always have their dealings properly referenced by a paper trail.

The FBI wire tapped and bugged locations to obtain their information. Imagine, given the state of today's technology, if Blago wire tapped his own phone conversations all the time and used those conversations to run his Pay & Play scams. He would have had a hey day, had he trapped Emanuel pleading or manipulating candidates for Obama's replacement now that Emanuel is a presidential Chief of Staff.

So, yes, talking to Blago cannot be treated casually and you always have to position him by having a third party witness to all conversations and a perfect paper trail.

[care4mypeeps]

I am elated David Axelrod expounded on the fact that President elect Barack Obama's staff was not envolved in this scandal. It won't stop his detractors for blaming him for everything under the sun but it gives us a sense of pride by the way this scandal has been expedited for justice.