The Blago Distraction

Political pros know that the best time of the year in which to bury a scandal is Christmas week. People are busy. Reporters are on vacation. Almost no one is watching the news.

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So perhaps you can excuse me for being a little suspicious about a recent announcement from Barack Obama's office. It said that he would release an internal report about his team's contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich—the man the Feds allege is a one-man influence-peddling crime spree—in "the week of Dec. 22."

I'm betting on Boxing Day, Friday, Dec. 26. Or maybe at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

The original release was supposed to be this week. But it was pushed back, the Obama camp said, at the request of the official investigating Blago: Chicago-based U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the 21st-century Eliot Ness. Fitz's office confirmed that he had made the request, though there is no way of knowing how adamant he was about it. The reasoning seems clear enough: Fitz does not want any information about the Obama's team's contacts to be made public because it might give Blago's bad guys—who allegedly tried to solicit bribes—clues about how to cover their tracks. But surely, if they acted wrongfully, they have gotten their stories straight by now.

So the timing of the report is more complicated than that. At least it seems that way from the manner in which Obama's own camp has been acting. They have been cautious and quiet in the extreme.

The key to understanding what is going on almost certainly is Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago congressman and former Clinton administration insider whom Obama tapped to be his chief of staff. Emanuel wasn't just another hire: he was the first person the president-elect chose. He is the foundation of the whole Obama administration edifice.

It was widely speculated that Emanuel's voice is on FBI surveillance tapes of Blago and his circle. The recording machines were rolling before and after Election Day, when, not surprisingly, there was a lot of talk, in Chicago and elsewhere, about whom Blago would pick to replace Obama in the Senate. There might also have been taped talk, after Obama picked Emanuel, about who would replace him in the House. (Blago had nothing to do with the House seat legally; there will, by law, be a special election. But the matter would have been of interest to every pol in Illinois.) If any Blago flunky was hinting at payoffs—which Fitz alleges they were doing—Emanuel might have heard about them, directly or indirectly. And that knowledge might be reflected on the tapes, or in testimony Fitz may or may not have accumulated.

Neither Fitz nor anyone I have heard about or spoken to suggests that Emanuel did anything illegal or even untoward. It's not even clear if he heard anything incriminating about anybody.