Hold the presses: Rahm talked to Blago's office!
This should send conspiracy theorists and gotcha journalists into orbit: Rahm talked to Blago's office about Obama’s senate seat, the Chicago Tribune is reporting. ... A couple days ago, I would have responded, "So what? Didn't we already know that Blago didn't appreciate the motherf***er's appreciation?" But Obama made a tactical mistake: Perhaps to protect his saintly image, he implied no one on his staff talked to Blago's staff. It was a silly assertion. But it was enough to set off the hounds in search of a scrawny fox, i.e., Can Obama's assertion be disproved? Never mind that it's normal for an outgoing senator to try to pick and/or influence his or her successor. Never mind there's no evidence Obama's office agreed to a pay-to-play deal. It's now about the thrill-of-the-chase game of tripping up Obama with his own words. That's the scrawny little fox now being hunted into the ground. Dan rightly has been pounding into this non-story 'story' here, here and here. ...

As I noted to someone yesterday, the outline of Obama critics' attacks is now coming into focus. I initially thought it was a two-pronged attack. It's now a three-pronged attack (or soon will be): 1.) The simplistic guilt-by-association argument 2.) The Obama-misspoke argument and 3.) The He-didn't-inform-the-prosecutors argument (to be deployed after the second point is thoroughly exhausted). ... Reader BK writes in about my 'Mr. Obama's reticence' post:

Re: 'Mr. Obama's reticence' Questions for Hub Blog: Who is Obama? SNL's Mr. Cool? Or is he a diffident dancer -- always gliding just above or away from past associations and/or issue positions when they become inconvenient for him to stand by them?

Gee, do I get any other choices? Guess not. I'll pass on the quiz. ... BK also calls in an armchair psychiatrist to bolster the case that Obama's exhibited an "odd emotional reaction" to the auto-industry/Blago affairs and that its "vagueness perpetuates the moral equivalence that dominates his thinking and suggests that bad actors are really just misunderstood," thus he's probably unfit to deal with the North Koreans and Hamas. ... Okaaaaaay ... The Chicago Tribune's John Kass has been on a roll. He's looking into Rahm's connection to Chicago pol Jimmy DeLeo:

Jimmy didn't return my call to his office, so we checked other joints. "DeLeo?" said Glenn, the manager at Carmine's. "I've never heard of the name. Who?"

At Tavern on Rush, a hostess said, "I haven't seen him today." A woman at Cafe Bionda simply said, "No, he's not here."

So I phoned the Excelsior Casino in Aruba, where Jimmy takes politicians to gamble, including Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. I figured Jimmy might be there.

"Who's calling please?" asked a secretary in the office of Michael Posner, the casino boss who has Chicago connections.

Tell him John from Chicago is calling, I said. Posner picked up and was quite chirpy, for about three seconds, until he realized I was a newspaper guy.

"If you want to find him, call him yourself,” Posner said. Click.

Good stuff. ... Doesn't it seem that every Legislature has to have a member named DeLeo in order to make life interesting and complete? It's almost a prerequisite for hard-ball politics: Sen. DeLeo or Rep. DeLeo, whatever etc.  ¶ 6:47 AM