Well, it wouldn't be weird if Emanuel, or Obama, had stated that right off the bat. They haven't, which leads to all types of speculation about Emanuel being caught on tape, and if so, did he participate in what Fitzgerald has characterized as "the most appalling...fact that Governor Blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama."
The ball's in Obama's court, but I have a feeling, judging from previous behavior (e.g. Rev. Wright), there will be a period of frantically trying to find out if Emanuel is on the tape, and if so, exactly what he said -- in other words, how they can shape the story and/or damage to Obama's advantage.
In that regard, the media stands ready and willing to help, we can be sure.
It would be ridicules to assume there were no discussions. What needs be fleshed out is what were the nature of the discussions that had to have occurred. Note, in a separate report, it was said that JJackson Jr’s people contacted Blago in Oct and the subject of a million to his campaign was brought up as an offer for the Senate job. There was mention on the tape of a million so that seems to confirm that happened. So, given the floor being a million, what were the discussions and how were they going to get beyond one million. Since Blago likes to use “campaign chests” as a personal ATM and since the Sun God raised like a billion for his own campaign, I would look into discussions and how campaign contributions may be involved. It would not be difficult for the Sun God’s people to steer a huge donation to Blago as long as his “fingerprints” were not on it.