Obama Team Mum On Blagopalooza

Blago – I love that name. It sounds like a comic book villain, which aptly describes Gov. Blagojevich. Over at the Corner, Mark Krikorian is taking reader suggestions as to what to officially call this recent example of Chicago chicanery – Blago-Rahma, Blagola (like payola), Grand Theft Blago, Seatwater and my personal favorite: Blagopalooza.

The eye of this storm is now centered over Obama and the president-elect’s transition team. Questions of “what did he know, and when did he know it” are rightly being asked of Obama and his men (not by every member of the MSM, mind you). And as I said in a post earlier this week, I take Obama at his word when he maintains that he had no idea of what Blagojevich was scheming, but that doesn’t mean Obama didn’t talk to him about the seat, and at least provide the governor with a few thoughts for replacement. That’s politics – to the victor go the spoils.

So why then, the denials of even speaking with the governor? Why not stop this thing dead in its tracks and say, “yes, we spoke briefly about the vacancy and I provided Gov. Blagojevich with my thoughts on who a suitable replacement might be; but ultimately, we agreed that it was the governor’s call” and be done with it?

Because it’s not done – as we slowly pull the curtain back on the Obama experience, I think we'll see a trail of used up bodies strewn about the path to the White House. Obama’s ambitious and meteoric rise to fame has been built largely on relationships of convenience with people of questionable character. From Wright to Rezko, to Ayers to Daly, Obama has been using people and horse trading on relationships for years, each designed to catapult him to the next stage of his political career - a notion all-too-conveniently under reported by the MSM in its fawning coverage of candidate Obama. And now that he’s arrived, President-elect Obama is quickly looking to distance himself from his poorer relations. But unfortunately for him, when you win the lottery, family has a nasty habit of coming out of the woodwork.

McCain was right – character matters. And as the Messiah veneer inevitably fades, the folks who voted for Obama will see they elected a real character all right...