The Daily Background
| Obama’s transition team releases report on their contacts with Blagojevich
by Arlen Parsa
The memo is available here for download.
In a nutshell, it’s pretty boring and says that the following:
Rahm Emanuel is the only person on the transition team who had contact with the Illinois governor’s office.
Obama had originally thought Valerie Jarrett would be a good person to fill his senate seat, and Rahm Emanuel communicated this to Blagojevich, but said that the only thing the president was willing to provide in exchange was appreciation. Jarrett decided she’d rather be in the White House than in the Senate so she withdrew her name from consideration.
Following this, Obama and Emanuel discussed other possible replacements, among whom were Rep Jan Schakowsky, Rep Jesse Jackson Jr, Dan Hynes (the Illinois Comptroller) and Tammy Duckworth. Emanuel relayed these names to the governor’s office but, again, there was no quid pro quo or offer of exchange of any kind.
More information is coming out on Obama’s Blogojevich contacts
In spite of what the Obama team has told us, the contacts than had with Blagojevich ran deep. The most troubling thing is Obama wanted to maintain a close relationship with Blagojevich even after he was under suspicion. New information has been uncovered through the Freedom of Information act.