In this case, they were — and are — faced with a challenge the true extent of which only Patrick Fitzgerald knows, and he’s not telling.

The question Obama had to ask himself, first, was who among my staff, my high-profile Chicago and union supporters might have done something wrong, and who among them might have done or said something that might appear to be wrong (or “inappropriate”) to others.

That’s not an easy question to ask or answer. Obama and his team are, to a large extent, flying blind.

There was no reason for anyone in the Obama camp to obscure the fact that the campaign had been in contact with the guy, because it was to be expected under the circumstances. The campaign and the candidate focused too much on framing their statements to put distance between them and Blago. Eventually they got around to the right answer, which is that of course there was contact because there had to be under the circumstances, and they are confident that no one on the team was involved in the illegal dealings.

Now that Obama is going to be President, the staff (and Obama) need to do better than to come up with the right answer on their 2nd or 3rd swing. If they can’t put out most of the fires with the 1st squirt, they’ll get gobbled up once Obama’s @ss sits on the throne.

Substantively, I don’ there’s anything to this…I don’t think Obama and his folks were involved in the sale of the seat, unless they got wind of it and actually helped to put the hammer down on Blago. But the reason the story lingered is because they failed to be clear and forthcoming from the get-go. So for me the story is not about Team Obama’s alleged involvement. The story is that they fumbled a chipshot.

Yeah, that transition from hourly, tag-team fallatio to ‘once-a-day’ is a bitch, ain’t it?

Thank God Donklephant will be there ask the hard *cough* questions no one else has the courage to ask.