Ill. scandal a test for Obama

His transition team's response may have been too cautious and slow.

By Thomas Fitzgerald

Inquirer Staff Writer
President-elect Barack Obama's response to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's alleged effort to sell his old Senate seat grew steadily more specific last week, but it might not have been enough to blow away the stink.

The scandal was a major test of the Obama team's ability to manage a media firestorm that threatened to tarnish his political image as a reformer, while continuing to assemble an administration and attempt to shape economic policy.

Obama reacted tentatively at first and then with surer footing over three days, an evolution that mirrored how he handled other controversies during the campaign.

But some, including Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell, say that approach might not work so well on the presidential stage.

At the end of the week there were lingering questions about whether Obama's staff had contact with Blagovjevich, a rare blemish on an transition process that even Republicans have called near-flawless.

"They have never been in an executive position before," Rendell said Friday on MSNBC's Morning Joe program. "The rule of thumb is whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story. Politicians are always misjudging the intelligence of the American people."

Rendell said that "of course" Obama's people must have talked with Blagojevich, saying one possible point of contact is chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who succeeded the Illinois governor in Congress. Later, Rendell said he did not mean to suggest the president-elect or advisers did anything substantively wrong. He instead said was criticizing how the transition office handled media inquiries on the topic.

At first, Obama was vague, saying Tuesday that he was sobered by Blagojevich's arrest, had not discussed the Senate seat with him and would not comment on an ongoing federal criminal investigation. The next day, he said through a spokesman that Blagojevich should resign, but did not address questions about staff communications with the governor.