Obama team faces test in weathering storm surrounding governor

WASHINGTON - When Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, began exploring whether she might fill Barack Obama's seat in the US Senate, she called Rahm Emanuel. They served in the House together and, more important, he had just become chief of staff to the newly elected president.

But Emanuel was uncharacteristically circumspect. If Obama had a favorite, Emanuel was not saying. And to Schakowsky, he seemed wary about Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, who would be making the appointment. "Rahm always has good intelligence," Schakowsky recalled. "In this case, he really didn't. It was not clear to him what the governor was going to do, or at least he didn't share it with me."

For the Obama team in the days after his election to the presidency, the question of who would succeed him in the Senate was a sensitive one. With a new administration to build and a financial crisis worsening by the day, Obama and his advisers had bigger issues on their plate. Moreover, they wanted to keep their distance from Blagojevich, who was already known to be under federal investigation into possible corruption. But many still assumed that Obama's voice would be critical if he chose to weigh in.

Exactly what role he or his team played will be a focus of intense scrutiny in the weeks to come after the arrest of Blagojevich on accusations that he was plotting to trade or sell the Senate appointment. In that sense, the furor could be the first test of the Obama team's ability to manage a burgeoning scandal in an era when intense media scrutiny and partisan attack machinery can escalate almost any incident into a serious political problem.

Obama said on Tuesday that he never spoke with the governor about the seat, and prosecutors said neither Obama nor his advisers have been implicated. At the same time, Obama's team has declined for two days to answer questions about what discussions they had about the seat and whether intermediaries had any contacts with Blagojevich's advisers.

Republicans have already raised questions about Obama's refusal to say more and about his past ties with the main characters.

Even if Obama remains untouched by the investigation, it shines a light on the corrupt political environment of the state he emerged from and takes attention away from the agenda of change he would rather emphasize.

"This is a huge distraction at the worst possible moment," said Lanny J. Davis, a former White House special counsel who did damage control for President Bill Clinton. "You definitely want to get out in front of this to put it to bed. The only way to do that is to defy the conventional wisdom and the lawyers in the room and the more conservative political advisers in the room who will say, 'Why should we say anything?' "

Not everyone agrees with that approach. Chris Lehane, another veteran of the Clinton scandal defense teams, said the worst thing would be to put out information that later proves questionable.

"It's like the whirlwind," he said. "You get pulled into the vortex more and more, and that's why he has to be enormously disciplined in terms of sticking to your basic points and not putting out information that creates more trouble for you."

That became clear Tuesday after Obama said flatly that he had not talked with Blagojevich about the Senate seat. Within minutes, reporters and Republicans were circulating a two-week-old quote from one of his senior advisers, David Axelrod, saying Obama had spoken with the governor about the seat. Only hours later did Obama's office release a statement in Axelrod's name saying he had misspoken.

Obama stayed out of sight Wednesday, calling for Blagojevich's resignation through an aide and only after other Democrats had already done so.