The Note, 12/16/08: Fierce Urgency of Patience

December 16, 2008 8:41 AM

BY RICK KLEIN

When do a “few days” feel like a really long time? When does a really long time get longer?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year -- to bury a storyline. Team Obama announced Monday that no one in the Obama orbit did anything wrong in contacts with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill. -- but no proof will be forthcoming until Christmas week.

So the Blagojevich matter stretches to a week -- and then will stretch on to a second week -- without any specific answers from President-elect Barack Obama to the questions we’re all curious about.

And so it is that the new game looks a whole lot like the old one.

(Caroline Kennedy for Senate? What better time to see your friends fill Senate seats?)

(No special election in Illinois? Better to make sure someone friendly winds up there, too.)

(And friendly Dick Cheney likes the new Obama national security team? Who believes in that kind of change anyway?)

Obama may be fully vindicated when the investigation of Blagojevich ends (though a new lawyer and new questions about the charges mean it’s not looking likely to end any time soon). It still seems likely that no member of his team made any contact with the governor’s office that could in any way be deemed inappropriate.

Yet has Obama lost something already in this scandal? Where can he go to get his narrative back?

Obama’s real danger here is that he winds up looking like another politician -- one who plays the old Washington game, alongside the old Washington players.

That’s the real price Blagojevich may yet extract from the president-elect -- payable in political capital.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll show that, in one sense, Obama may never fly higher: 76 percent of respondents approve of the way he’s handling his transition -- up substantially from three weeks ago.

But only 51 percent say he’s done enough to explain himself in the Blagojevich matter -- just a hint of the political problem (partly of Obama’s own making) that lingers still.

Obama can blame the delay on somebody else, yet: “The move [to delay the report’s release] comes as Mr. Obama tries to keep the news of his home state's disgraced governor from overshadowing his transition, and highlights the challenges of dispensing with the controversy in the face of a live investigation involving Mr. Obama's Senate seat,” Jonathan Weisman reports in The Wall Street Journal. “By delaying the release, Mr. Obama has virtually guaranteed another week of speculation about who in the Obama team discussed what with Blagojevich aides.”

A choice, not a requirement: “There is absolutely no legal impediment or injunction that Fitzgerald could put on them,” said Stanley M. Brand, a Democratic lawyer with experience in politically charged scandals. “They've decided not to talk.”

“They could just as easily have decided that assuring the public about their actions is more important than acceding to the prosecutor's request,” Weisman writes.

Who could have taught them this trick? “That's Christmas week [for the release], when most Americans will be distracted and the President-elect plans to be celebrating the holiday in Hawaii -- not Chicago, the focal point of the federal investigation,” David Saltonstall writes in the New York Daily News.

Or this trick: “Obama clears himself and staff in Blagojevich case,” reads the headline in the Los Angeles Times.

(Imagine the response to a headline like this: “Bush clears himself and staff in Plame case.”)

At least now the lack of details can be Patrick Fitzgerald’s fault (why wasn’t this the answer a week ago?).

“That does give him cover, and the prosecutor himself has said the Obama team has done nothing wrong,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reported on “Good Morning America” Tuesday.

Why Obama’s plea for “patience” may not be rewarded: “Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, is among a handful of Obama advisers -- and the highest-ranking one -- who had contact with the Illinois governor’s office about potential candidates to succeed Mr. Obama in the Senate. Mr. Emanuel has retained a lawyer and agreed to meet with federal prosecutors who are investigating accusations that Mr. Blagojevich was looking for a kickback in exchange for filling the Senate vacancy,” Jeff Zeleny writes in The New York Times.

Continues Zeleny: “Mr. Emanuel declined to answer reporters’ questions after the late-afternoon news conference in Chicago. He told associates that he believed he was captured on a court-approved wiretap discussing the Senate seat, but he also told them that he had not engaged in any deal-making with Mr. Blagojevich.”

“My guess is that the transcripts will demonstrate that Emanuel's love for an expletive is as abiding as the governor's -- and nothing more damning than that,” E.J. Dionne Jr. writes in his Washington Post column. “The prosecutor needs to facilitate as much disclosure as he can, because the quicker all this comes out, the better. And then Obama can help the Democrats figure out how to save a Senate seat they should never have put at risk.”

Gear up: Says new Blagojevich attorney Ed Genson: “This is another one of those cases where the press has just taken control and the media has taken control and I think the case is not what it seems and I think that when it comes to pass, you'll see it's not what it seems and you'll find that he's not guilty.”

Says Blagojevich himself, per ABC’s Matt Jaffe: “I can't wait to talk to you guys and to have a chance to be able to say the things I'm looking forward to saying.”

What Genson wants you to read Tuesday morning: “Now some lawyers are beginning to suggest that the juiciest part of the case against Mr. Blagojevich, the part involving the Senate seat, may be less than airtight. There is no evidence, at least none that has been disclosed, that the governor actually received anything of value -- and the Senate appointment has yet to be made,” David Johnston writes in his New York Times analysis.

This could take a while: “The Illinois House launched its first-ever impeachment probe of a governor Monday, promising weeks of hearings detailing Gov. Rod Blagojevich's alleged abuse of power, from enacting massive programs without legislative approval to seeking to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama,” Ray Long and Rick Pearson report in the Chicago Tribune.

“But the House also held off on calls to strip the disgraced governor of his power to appoint Obama's successor, angering Republicans who accused Democrats of a power play aimed at protecting their dominance of state politics,” they write.

Look for Republicans to push: “Republicans were irate that the special election wasn't acted on,” The Wall Street Journal’s Douglas Belkin and Thomas M. Burton report.

“I think it was a huge mistake,” said House Republican leader Tom Cross. “I think we have to avoid the appearance of impropriety and the way to do that is through a special election. It's one way to erase some of the cynicism.”

One of the three questions Obama faced Monday were Blago-related -- what will Tuesday’s ratio be?

The president-elect holds an 11:45 am ET press conference, to announce his pick of Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education, per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan, who over seven years maintained a positive story line for the troubled district, will join longtime basketball buddy Barack Obama's Cabinet as secretary of education, a transition source said,” per the Chicago Tribune’s James Janega and Carlos Sadovi. “Obama's appointment, which will be announced Tuesday in a joint appearance at Dodge Renaissance Academy on the West Side, comes as the nation turns a jaundiced eye toward Chicago leaders and the city's oft-criticized political machine."

“The appointment . . . adds Duncan to an Obama White House lineup that already includes a bevy from Obama's Chicago inner circle: Valerie Jarrett, incoming senior advisor; Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chief of staff designate; Desiree Rogers, social secretary; David Axelrod, another advisor; Tina Tchen, public liaison chief and Michael Stratumanis, Jarretts's chief of staff,” Lynn Sweet writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. “Obama shares with Duncan a Harvard education and a passion for basketball--he was a player on Obama's Election Day pick-up game. He also was raised in Hyde Park-Kenwood community where Obama now lives.”

Business as usual for Obama team: “President-elect Barack Obama will hold a press conference at the Dodge Renaissance Academy in Chicago,” Nick Shapiro of the Obama-Biden transition office advises.

“In addition, the President-elect will hold a meeting with key members of his economic team. Attendees will include: Vice President-elect Biden, Secretary of Treasury designee Timothy Geithner, National Economic Council Director designee Lawrence Summers, Office of Management and Budget designee Peter Orszag, Council of Economic Advisors Chair designee Christina Romer, Domestic Policy Council Director designee Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner, Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice-President designee Jared Bernstein, President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Chair Paul Volcker, Member designee of the Council of Economic Advisers and Staff Director designee of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Austan Goolsbee, and White House Chief of Staff designee Rahm Emanuel.”

More on the Cabinet: “President-elect Obama will tap Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., for Interior secretary, in an announcement to come later this week,” ABC’s Sunlen Miller and David Chalian report. “The move of Salazar to the Cabinet will also ensure that Mark Udall will now become Colorado's senior senator, despite his having been elected just six weeks ago.”

The Denver Post’s Christopher N. Osher and Karen E. Crummy, “Names floated as possible successors include [Denver Mayor John] Hickenlooper, U.S. Rep. John Salazar of Manassa, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Golden, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver, former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland, outgoing state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and [Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael] Bennet.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe’s going to love this guy: “Barack Obama's pick for Department of Energy secretary backs higher gasoline taxes, a position which puts him at odds with the president-elect,” per ABC’s Teddy Davis. “ ‘Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,’ Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told the Wall Street Journal in September.”

“Chu said he favors gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to nudge consumers into buying cars that are more fuel efficient and homes which are closer to work. Chu spoke with The Wall Street Journal in September but the newspaper did not publish the gas tax comments until last seek, shortly after the Nobel-prize winning physicist had been identified as Obama's nominee for Energy secretary,” Davis writes.

Poor timing: “A federal grand jury is investigating whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D),” Carol D. Leonnig reports in The Washington Post. “The probe focuses on whether the governor's office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The probe is in a highly active stage at a time when President-elect  Barack Obama has chosen Richardson as his nominee for secretary of commerce, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.”

Good reviews: “Barack Obama has moved faster than any modern president-elect in selecting his Cabinet, scouring Wall Street, academia and the Senate to assemble a diverse team that has won bipartisan praise,” Hans Nichols and Julianna Goldman write for Bloomberg News. “Still, the Democrat’s star-studded roster lacks representatives from two groups: Southerners and the Republicans that he vowed to appoint during the campaign.”

Then there’s Caroline Kennedy, suddenly very much campaigning for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate seat (and what do the Clinton folks make of that?).

“Several people who have counseled the governor on the pending vacancy said that Ms. Kennedy has emerged as a clear front-runner, if she proves able to withstand the intense scrutiny and criticism that her decision to seek the seat is likely to provoke,” writes The New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore, who first reported Kennedy’s decision to seek the seat Monday.

“Ms. Kennedy is now launching a public effort to demonstrate that she has both the ability and the stomach to perform the job, with plans to visit parts of the upstate region. The governor, who has expressed frustration with other elected officials for campaigning too openly, has done nothing to discourage her, said a person who has spoken with Ms. Kennedy,” Confessore writes.

Said a Paterson adviser: “The upside of her candidacy is that the 2010 ballot will read Kennedy -- Paterson. . . . David craves national attention and money. If you connect the dots, it leads to her.”

Confessore, on a relationship that matters: “Through spokesmen, Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Kennedy declined to say whether or not they had spoken.”

George Stephanopoulos: “Top New York Democrats I have spoken with say it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the governor to say no. . . . She can raise an awful lot of money; Paterson himself will be on the ticket in 2010 and he will want a strong pick to get out the vote; and it gets him off the hook -- he won't have to pick among all of those other elected officials in New York.”

Nobody knows how to lobby like a Kennedy: “After a week of coy courtship and low-key feelers, Kennedy began working the phones in earnest Monday -- and signed up major Democratic fixer Josh Isay, who has deep connections to New York powerhouses Sen. Charles Schumer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Rev. Al Sharpton,” Ben Smith and Glenn Thrush write for Politico.

“It signals her seriousness to Gov. David Paterson, who has been cool to her weeklong whisper campaign; it initiates her courtship of state power brokers who know her only through the media and the History Channel; and it ‘scares the s--- out of lesser-known Democrats actively pursuing the appointment, the New York Democrat said.”

Sharpton and Bloomberg are on board -- but not everyone’s gotten the talking points.

“We don't know if Caroline has that fire in the belly," Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., told the New York Daily News outside a Clinton fund-raiser Monday night. “Being senator of New York is a 2-4/7, 365-day-a-year endeavor.”

“Americans have been saying ‘Senator Kennedy’ for 55 years. But the always reserved Caroline Kennedy has never been seen as a shoo-in for the family business,” ABC’s John Berman reports.

The Boston Globe’s Peter Canellos: “Caroline Kennedy is casting her own plans aside and entering the fray. And there are far worse credentials for leadership than the ability to achieve balance amid chaos. But it's painful to think that she may be trading her hard-earned right to a normal life for a birthright that may not be as gratifying.”

Don’t miss ABC’s Jonathan Karl’s exclusive first exit interview with Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Vice President Dick Cheney issued an unapologetic defense of the Bush administration's anti-terror policies, including the use of waterboarding, and said the prison at Guantanamo Bay should remain open as long as there's a war on terror,” Karl reports. “In his first exit interview and first television interview since the November election, Cheney held fast to his views on coercing information out of alleged terrorists, saying waterboarding was an appropriate means of getting information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”

On whether he authorized the tactics used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. “I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. . . . And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.”

And Cheney disagrees with Karl Rove, who said he did not believe the administration would have gone to war had intelligence revealed Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

"I disagree with that," the vice president said. "As I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren't any stockpiles."

Regrets? “Not a lot, at this stage.”

“Maybe I’ll write a book -- we’ll see. There’s a few stories,” Cheney said.

On the Obama national-security team (the left will love this): “I must say, I think it’s a pretty good team.”

(The next vice president, Joe Biden, is George Stephanopoulos’ exclusive headliner on “This Week” Sunday.)

And the Real Clear Politics guys talk politics with President Bush: “I don't think we got overwhelmed at the ballot box like previous elections," President Bush said about the November 4th results, contrasting this year's “defeat” to the “shellacking” Republicans suffered in 1964. "On the other hand," the President said, "I think we should learn some lessons from it."

“I still think we're a right-of-center country,” he said. “I've got confidence we'll come back, so long as we don't abandon the core principles that enable us to win when we're winning -- which is low taxes, strong national defense.”

On Jeb Bush for Senate: “He would be an awesome U.S. Senator,” the president said.

Checking in on Minnesota -- could they be getting close? “With thousands of frivolous challenges discarded, the state Canvassing Board is expected to begin today the serious business of ruling on ballot disputes that could decide the U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken,” Pat Doyle reports in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Prodded by the board, the campaigns have abandoned most of the challenges they've made during the recount, allowing the panel to focus on perhaps fewer than 1,500.”

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