{Could not resist posting this in honor of our own Muck - where has he gone?}Jake Tapper of ABC News has probably just gotten himself uninvited from any future trips on Air Obama. Tapper has been sifting through the muck of the Rod Blagojevich corruption mess with not a rake, but a backhoe. And some ugly facts are emerging from the sewage.
Asked what contact he'd had with the governor's office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."
But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.
While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a "kingmaker," Axelrod said, "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."
(UPDATE: An Obama Transition Team aide says that Axelrod misspoke on Fox News Chicago.)
(UPDATE #2: Axelrod this evening issued a statement saying. "I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.")
Oh, but there is soooooo much more. Go read the whole thing. Obama has a long record of supporting Blagojevich - even helping engineer Blagojevich's first election to the governor's office. So, the questions now are how deep is the muck and how much will splash onto Obama. Sure, the majority of the media is going to give this a pass. But there will be a certain amount of stink that will stick.