ObamaHood.org

Posted on the Huffington post of all places

President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had direct conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich about Obama’s replacement in the US Senate, FOX News Chicago reports.

Citing “a source familiar with the investigation,” Fox says that Emanuel had “multiple conversations” with Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris, who was also arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges, about the seat and that they we’re “likely recorded and in FBI possession.”

Fox’s source said that Emanuel gave the governor’s office a list of “candidates that would be acceptable to President-elect Barack Obama” but no “quid pro quo” or “dealmaking” is suspected.

Meanwhile, an angry Emanuel says he won’t go to work because of the media stakeout. He told an ABC News cameraman that has received death threats:

The President-elect’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said today he won’t go to the Chicago Presidential transition offices in order to avoid reporters seeking to ask him whether he had contact with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich about the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama’s election.
Emanuel appeared “beet-red,” according to an ABC News cameraman who was invited inside by Emmanuel to use his bathroom this morning.

“I’m getting regular death threats. You’ve put my home address on national television. I’m pissed at the networks. You’ve intruded too much, ” Emanuel said, according to the cameraman.

Emanuel has refused to comment as to whether he is the un-named Presidential advisor cited in the FBI affidavit filed in the Blagojevich case. “You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter yesterday. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Don’t do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

By ALLAHPUNDIT at HotAir.com.

Ed Rendell conveniently frames The One’s cautious handling of this as an amateur mistake that’s destined to prolong the coverage. Really? Amateurishness isn’t the first quality that springs to mind when I think of someone like Axelrod. Nor does the infamously combative Rahm Emanuel strike me as the type to be cowed into silence by death threats. Here’s a radical alternative theory: Maybe they’re honestly worried that someone on the team’s exposed and don’t want to give the press any new crumbs until they have their story straight.

Obama’s staff has declined to respond to even basic questions, like who is conducting the probe, how long it will take, what issues are being explored and whether they are working with federal investigators. Obama has promised transparency throughout his service and to divulge contacts his staff has had with Blagojevich’s office in the coming days. But his staff has locked down on inquiries in the meantime…

Emanuel is not a target of the probe, according to people who have been briefed on the investigation.

The two people spoke on a condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation is ongoing. One is a person close to Emanuel, who said he has been told by investigators that he’s not a subject of their probe…

Another question that Obama’s staff didn’t answer is how he knows that his office had no involvement if he had yet to gather all the facts about conversations they had with Blagojevich’s office. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, transition officials said they do not want to release any information on the internal review until it is completed.

My hunch is the same as Maguire’s — that someone on the team was approached by Blago to make a deal, that the offer was rejected, but that that person then neglected to tell Fitzgerald about it. Is that illegal, i.e. misprision of felony, or just shady? Such are the questions Team Barry may find itself momentarily consumed by.

In case you’re wondering, no, Obama’s approval rating hasn’t suffered from this at all.