Emanuel on tape about Obama’s Senate seat

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the incoming White House
chief of staff, spoke with members of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration
about potential replacements for President-elect Obama’s vacant Senate seat,
according to the Chicago Tribune, which cites wiretaps of the conversations.

Emanuel is not and has not been accused of wrongdoing,
but unlike the president-elect, he has refused to discuss whether he talked
with the administration about the appointment. Obama said on Thursday he had
not spoken with members of the Blagojevich administration about his replacement
in the Senate.

{mosads}The wiretaps show Emanuel called John Harris,
Blagojevich’s chief of staff, the Saturday before the election to give him a
list of Obama-approved nominees, the Chicago
Tribune reported this morning. Harris, like Blagojevich, was arrested
Tuesday morning on fraud and conspiracy charges and has since resigned from his
post.

Those Emanuel characterized as having Obama’s backing
included top adviser Valerie Jarrett, former congressional candidate and state
Veterans Affairs director Tammy Duckworth, Dan Hynes, the state Comptroller,
and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Later, Emanuel called Harris again to include
Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney General.

Jarrett appears in the 76-page criminal complaint filed
against Blagojevich and Harris as “Senate Candidate 1,” referred to several
times as a close adviser to the president-elect. In the complaint, Blagojevich
appears to be actively trying to cut deals in exchange for naming Senate Candidate
1 to the post.

Schakowsky has said she believes she is either “Senate
Candidate 3” — whose name is mentioned in an off-hand fashion only once — or
that she is not contained within the complaint at all.

Hynes and Madigan, both of whom have won multiple terms
statewide, are seen as potential candidates for governor in 2010. Had
Blagojevich decided to seek a third term, both would have considered primary
challenges, a factor Blagojevich no doubt considered as he thought about the
pick. Madigan is likely “Senate Candidate 2” in the complaint.

Duckworth, who lost a bid for an open congressional seat
in 2006 to Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), is an Iraq war veteran who serves in
Blagojevich’s administration. The 40-year-old Duckworth was one of Emanuel’s
favorite candidates when he headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, and she spoke this summer at the Democratic National Convention.

Many believe Emanuel makes his own appearance in the
criminal complaint, showing up as an unnamed adviser to Obama. Blagojevich
curses the unnamed adviser in conversations with aides because, he says, the
adviser seems unwilling to meet the governor’s demands.

“He asks me for the Fifth CD thing. I want to be in his
head,” Blagojevich is heard saying with regard to the unnamed adviser. Emanuel
succeeded Blagojevich in representing Illinois’ Fifth Congressional District.
It is not clear to what Blagojevich is referring.