By Steve Rhodes
A look inside the Obama transition team’s internal report.
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“Emanuel has declined to speak to reporters about his role in Senate succession and left for vacation in Africa before the report’s release,” the Tribune reports. “In a conference call with reporters, Craig characterized Emanuel’s conversations with Blagojevich as ‘completely innocent’ and ‘completely appropriate’.”
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Transparency policy: we’ll post our carefully calibrated positions and failures to comment on our website and make our bullshit transparent!
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“Craig said his investigation should put to rest any suspicion that Obama’s staff was involved in dealmaking, but the timeline of conversations in the report contained apparent inconsistencies that raised new questions about Emanuel’s role on behalf of the president-elect.”
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Ed Genson says his internal report should put to rest an suspicion about his client too!
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“Craig’s report also did not explain why Blagojevich felt he had been rebuffed by Obama’s transition team in trying to cut a deal to name Jarrett to the Senate.”
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“Obama has portrayed himself as taking a hands-off appraach to the governor’s decision about whom to appoint to his Senate seat. But the report noted that he was very interested in who would succeed him in the Senate.”
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Should reporters to whom Emanuel leaked Valerie Jarrett’s name as trial balloons now come clean and reveal him as their source? And is it even remotely possible he was “freelancing” against Obama’s wishes?
Posted on December 31, 2008