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It seems a grand jury is investigating the fact that some of his political donors won a state contract. So for pay-to-play it likes like the tally is now up to 2, and for the nomination process the first failure with Emanuel still in the Republican barrel.
And yet so far Obama has remained above the fray. He's not Teflon but nothing has stuck so far because the press is running blocks for him. And so far they've been able to depict politics-as-usual as real change. And clearly corrupt politics as usual, at that. And he's probably going to remain arm's length from the Franken negotiations with Harry Reid, so he'll stay clean there too. But clearly partisanship won't be put aside due to an Obama dictum, and by allowing it to happen politics-as-usual will be allowed to continue. Yet Obama is still clean. What will happen with the seating of Obama's Senate replacement Burris? My gut instinct is politics-as-usual too.
As a trend for Republicans to capitalize on, this corruption won't hold up forever - at least in the visible realm. Somewhere somebody is going to be able to get a lid on it. Republicans have to start vocalizing on this stuff because the Big 3 bailout is sliding off the front page now, and they are missing an opportunity to portray all this politics-as-usual as just that. Standing back and letting the Democrats eat each other has run it,s course. It's time to step into the fray. Lay the ground work for 2012,and even 2010 by pointing out the corruption for what it is. At least that's what I would do.
