Charles Dharapak
This morning’s Chicago Tribune has new details on the contact between Obama staffers and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. While Rahm Emanuel might not be the “president-elect adviser” referred to in the criminal complaint against Blago, the paper says Emanuel talked with the governor's former chief of staff, John Harris, before and after the election. Emanuel delivered a list of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat that the president-elect found “acceptable.” The list included adviser Valerie Jarrett; llinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth; state Comptroller Dan Hynes; and US Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago. Some time after the election, Emanuel called Harris again to add the name of Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan. “It makes perfect sense for the president-elect or his people to have some interaction about filling the seat he was vacating,” Schakowsky said. At a news conference this week, Obama denied that his staffers participated in any improper dealmaking with the governor, but declined for the moment to outline what contact they might have had.