Beyond the irony of its outcome, Mr. Obama’s unusual decision to inject himself into a statewide issue during the height of his presidential campaign was a reminder that despite his historic ascendancy to the White House, he has never quite escaped the murky and insular world of Illinois politics. It is a world he has long navigated, to the consternation of his critics, by engaging in a kind of realpolitik, Chicago-style, which allowed him to draw strength from his relationships with important players without becoming compromised by their many weaknesses.Let's be clear here. Mr. Obama injected himself into the statewide issue for ethics reform as a supporter of the legislation. Legislation that Gov. Blagojevich opposed as well as Senate President Emil Jones. Obama's injection was to guarantee passage of the legislation to make things like "pay-to-play" illegal in Illinois. There is nothing "murky" about it. If it had not been for Obama's "injection" the legislation would never have been called to the senate floor.
This also brings up a good point my co-blogger Lisa makes in her last comment.
It's miraculous how such a clean, honest, trustworthy politician like Barack managed to become that way with so many crooked friends and random associates. Kidding aside, I'm glad that there's no evidence that our President-elect was part of the Gov's scheme. That would be a heck of a way to start the Obama adminstration.Lisa, of course, was joking, but her comedy will become the norm for the GOP. In all fairness I don't blame her at all. However, like I mentioned in my reply Obama is hardly "clean," "honest," "trustworthy" or whatever. He is a politician and he'll do what he has to. No one comes out of Chicago completely clean. Thankfully, it's extremely apparent Obama wanted nothing to do with Blagojevich's "pay-to-play" scheme. But that really doesn't matter to Republicans. Every instance Obama was in the same room as the Governor or spoke to him on the phone the GOP will use it as proof Obama can't be trusted and is part of widespread corruption.
My advice to the GOP would be first to worry about your two incumbent Congressmen sitting in prison (Ney, Duke), your incumbent convicted felon senator from Alaska Ted Stevens, and your convicted sex offender incumbent senator (Larry Craig), and your incumbent congressman who was just sentenced to five days in jail for DUI, before you get too giddy.
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