David Axelrod Endorsed Trading Jobs for Political Favors in 2005 Op-Ed

President-elect Barack Obama's top adviser and chief political strategist, David Axelrod, penned an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune in 2005 that could come back to haunt Obama as the investigation into disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich goes ahead. In the article, Axelrod, who was a political adviser to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley before becoming the architect of Obama's presidential campaign, wrote that trading political jobs for favors is a perfectly acceptable practice and part of the way American democracy works.

"The democratic process is often messy. Diverse constituencies fight fiercely for their priorities. Their elected representatives use the influence they have to meet those needs, including sometimes the exchange of favors--consideration for jobs being just one."

At the time the piece was written, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had just indicted aides to Axelrod's boss, Mayor Daley, for conspiring to award city jobs as payback for favors done on the Mayor's behalf. Now, Axelrod finds himself up against Fitzgerald yet again, as his new boss, President-elect Obama, is at least tangentially involved in a very similar scandal. Fitzgerald indicted Blagojevich in part for conspiring to auction off an appointment to the United States Senate, to fill Obama's vacated seat, to the person who would do the biggest political favor for the governor.

After Blagojevich's arrest yesterday, Obama said that he knew nothing about the scheme and had not spoken to the govrrnor or anyone on his staff about the Senate seat. But that statement directly contradicts comments made by Axelrod on a local Chicago television show less than three weeks ago. Axelrod said he knew that Obama, "has spoken to the governor," about the vacancy, and added that Obama approved of some of the names of potential successors on the governor's list. Axelrod hastily put out a statement yesterday retracting those remarks, calling them "mistaken." But that explanation hardly seems credible. Axelrod surely would have known the basic fact of whether a meeting had taken place betwen the Governor of Illinois and the President-elect. The retraction also goes against Axelrod's stated belief from his 2005 Tribune op-ed that there is nothing wrong with trading jobs for political favors. By Axelrod's reckoning, there would be no reason why Obama would not meet with Blagojevich about the vacancy.

Obama has not been directly implicated in any of Blagojevich's corrupt dealings, but the Axelrod article is a prime example of how this scandal could become focused on Obama and his aides very quickly if it is not handled properly. Obama's brief statement on the matter from yesterday was lacking. If the president-elect wants to keep hmself from getting further embroiled in the media frenzy that is sure to follow this monumental political scandal, he should hold a press conference immediately and answer questions about his relationship with Blagojevich, his conversations with him, and the role he or anyone on his staff has played in the investigation thus far.