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I just do not get what is happening these days....we had two very clear news items posted on Tri Connect describing how O was to meet with Blag that afternoon, then a followup story AFTER the meeting took place. Not to mention the now fading, soon to be forgotten, memory of Axlerod's very clear "I know he has talked with the govenor" etc... comment on video. How did all this just vaporize as if it never occurred?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The lead attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he plans to submit President-elect Barack Obama's internal report on contacts with the scandal-plagued governor to the Illinois House committee weighing impeachment. Attorney Ed Genson told the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday the report would support Blagojevich's claims that he hasn't done anything wrong in his handling of Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. Earlier in the week, Obama released the internal report supporting his insistence that there had been no inappropriate contact with the governor's office by Obama or his staff. State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, chairwoman of the committee,...

Obama report clears Emanuel Mike Allen Mike Allen 29 mins ago President-elect Obama released a report Tuesday declaring that incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had “one or two” phone conversations with disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but nothing improper was discussed. “Mr. Emanuel had one or two telephone calls with Governor Blagojevich,” the report says. “Those conversations occurred between November 6 and November 8, 2008. Soon after he decided to accept the president-elect’s offer to serve as chief of staff in the White House, Mr. Emanuel placed a call to the governor to give him a heads...

WASHINGTON – An internal review prepared for Barack Obama found his incoming chief of staff had multiple conversations with the Illinois governor's office, but said the talks did not involve any deal concerning whom the governor would appoint to replace Obama in the Senate. The report was released Tuesday as a transition official disclosed that Obama and two of his top aides, Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, have been interviewed in connection with the federal investigation into Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The transition official, speaking on a condition of anonymity before the report's public release, also confirmed that Emanuel had been...

President-elect Barack Obama's transition office said in a report released Tuesday that its staff had no inappropriate communications with the office of Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is at the center of a corruption probe. The five-page report identified incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as the only aide who had direct contact with Mr. Blagojevich. Mr. Emanuel "had one or two" telephone conversations with the governor between Nov. 6 and Nov. 8 to discuss his own resignation from the U.S. House as well as potential nominees to fill the Illinois Senate seat being vacated by Mr....

The Barack Obama presidential transition office today finally released its own report on its own internal investigation of its own contacts with legally challenged Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And you'll be comforted to know the Obama folks found no impropriety whatsoever by Obama folks. So go back to wrapping holiday presents or pretending you're working at your desk and checking out Obama's important abs. All is well with the coming World of Change. Speaking of tidy packages, the five-page report was not released in the morning as things are when public attention is desired. It was released at 4:30 Eastern...

I’m not sure whether it’s the 4:30pm timing or the fact that Rahm Emanuel is in Africa that’s my favorite part of the Obama team’s Blago internal review “drop and run” scenario. Really, as others note, the MSM is so placid the Obama team probably could have gotten away with releasing it outside the holiday rush and even answering some questions. But this approach only adds to the “transparency in name only” phenomenon and will irritate a few of the more conscientious reporters. (We note that we already have gone from “no” contacts to “no inappropriate contacts with Blago” with...

Craig's assertions that the transition team was unaware of Blagojevich's efforts to sell off Obama's old seat do not correspond to the transcripts of wiretapped conversations released by the FBI two weeks ago in which the governor repeatedly swears and expresses frustration in his attempts to strike a deal on the Senate seat.

Presidential electors met in state capitals around the United States on Monday to confirm last month's presidential election results that will make Barack Obama the 44th U.S. president on January 20. It is a tradition that goes back to the beginning of the U.S. republic and the first presidential election in 1789.... In all but two states, the winner of the popular vote is awarded all of that state's electoral votes. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which award electoral votes both statewide and by congressional district. The electoral vote count in the various state capitals is largely ceremonial in...

"Something is rotten in the state," says Marcellus in "Hamlet." Well, it certainly is in the state of Illinois. Yet, on hearing U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald describe a plot by his governor to sell his Senate seat – "conduct (that) would make Lincoln roll over in his grave" – how did reform President Barack Obama respond? "I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening. ... And as I said, it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don't think it's appropriate to comment." "A sad day...

President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that nobody in his transition office tried to make a deal with Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on filling Illinois' vacant Senate seat, adding that he has not been contacted by federal authorities during their investigation of the governor...

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he's confident no member of his staff was involved in discussing deals for his Senate seat with disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Obama also said once again that he had no discussions about the seat he is vacating with the Democratic governor, who was arrested by federal agents this week in connection with an alleged corruption scheme. "I was as appalled and disappointed as anyone," Obama said at a news conference called to announce a series of new appointments to the administration he is setting up. "I have never spoken to the...