President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday kept a public distance from his state’s consuming political corruption scandal, calling Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest “a sad day for Illinois.”
“I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening,” Obama told reporters after a meeting with former Vice President Al Gore in Chicago. “Beyond that I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”
Federal investigators, armed with taped phone calls detailing what one called “a corruption crime spree,” nabbed the Democratic governor for, among other things, allegedly trying to auction Obama’s vacant Senate seat for money and favors.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who headed up the government’s probe of the Valerie Plame leak case, said “the complaint makes no allegations about the president-elect whatsoever.”
It was unclear when Obama learned of the investigation, which Fitzgerald described as going back many years but heating up significantly in the past eight weeks. During much of that time, members of Obama’s transition team have been meeting with high-level Justice Department officials.
“I’m not going to speak for what the president-elect was aware of,” Fitzgerald said. “We make no allegations that he’s aware of anything, and that’s as simply as I can put it.”
Obama’s claim of no contact with Blagojevich was called into question by an interview senior adviser David Axelrod gave the local Fox affiliate Nov. 23, in which he said, “I know he’s talked to the governor” about possible Senate successors.
ABC News reported late Tuesday that Obama’s transition office claimed Axelrod misspoke.
During his brief appearance before the news media with Gore and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Obama made a brief statement and took a single, shouted question on the matter. Otherwise, he remained largely out of sight.
“I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney’s office today,” Obama said.
Republican political consultant Allen Blakemore praised Obama’s low-profile strategy, saying that getting out in front of the Blagojevich story with a news conference or lengthier statement would not be “presidential.”
“The president-elect needs to stay above all this and doesn’t need to get mired in it,” Blakemore said. “Somebody does something stupid in this country every day. And yes, it’s his party, his governor, his state — but you have to draw the line.”
Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, disagreed — saying Obama needs to step up to protect himself and the party from being sullied by even remote association.
“This is so egregious that a call for Blagojevich’s resignation is an inoculation against the idea that both parties are given to corruption,” Jillson said. “This is like T-ball in second grade — they tee it up, and if you can’t hit it, this is not your game.”
