Free Republic

THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat. Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil the president-elect’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor. Republicans are salivating at the prospect of tying the president-elect to the notoriously corrupt Chicago machine in which he forged his career. Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist,...

President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, spoke several times with Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois about possible candidates for Mr. Obama’s Senate seat, aides close to the presidential transition team said Saturday. Mr. Emanuel has not been accused of wrongdoing by federal prosecutors. A Democratic transition aide said that the two men had discussed a wide range of people who might fill Mr. Obama’s seat, but that Mr. Emanuel had not engaged in any deal-making with Mr. Blagojevich, who was charged last week by federal prosecutors with conspiring to turn a profit from the appointment. The conversations...

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested in Chicago Tuesday on two counts each of corruption charges relating to trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. More at Fox News