Scandal casts shadow over incoming administration

PRESIDENT-elect Barack Obama hasn’t even stepped into office and already a scandal is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn’t accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama’s now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to try to link him to the scandal.

A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

He pointedly distanced himself from the case and yesterday he called on the governor to resign.

In Chicago, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said prosecutors were making no allegations that Obama was aware of any scheming. And Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn’t be helpful to him. Even if the governor was to appoint a candidate favoured by the Obama team, Blagojevich said, “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation.”

Republicans pounced nonetheless.

“The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Gov. Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high ranking officials who will be working for the future president,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new GOP House whip.

Blagojevich’s disdain for Obama was clear in court documents; he is quoted as calling the president-elect a vulgar term in one phone conversation recorded by the FBI.

Despite all that, at the very least, the episode amounts to a distraction for Obama just six weeks before he’s sworn into office. It also raises the spectre of notorious Chicago politics, an image Obama has tried to distance himself from during his career.

It appears that Obama friend Valerie Jarrett, an incoming senior White House adviser, is the person referred to repeatedly in court documents as “Candidate 1.”

That individual is described as a woman who is “an adviser to the president-elect” and as the person Obama wanted appointed to the Senate seat. Court papers say that Candidate 1 eventually removed herself from consideration for the Senate seat.