Barack Obama To Be On Vacation for Release of Staff Contacts Review

There is a saying in Washington about how modern-day presidents should handle an internal crisis and media firestorm.

When in trouble, travel.

Barack Obama is about to test whether that time-honored advice can work for presidents-elect as well. Obama plans on spending Christmas in Hawaii, a trip that was no doubt planned a long time ago. But the trip just happens to coincide with the release of the much-awaited details from the Obama transition team's internal review of staff contacts between the transition and disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Obama has stated that there were no "inappropriate contacts" between members of the transition and the governor. But he has also said that he was "absolutely certain" that there were no contacts between transition staff and Blagojevich involving any dealmaking to fill Obama's old Senate seat. That statement is at least called into question by the revelation that Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was taped 21 separate times by federal investigators in phone conversations with the governor's office.


There will certainly be more questions with the release of the transition's review. But Obama will be far from the regular press corps when those questions come up. If he holds a press conference to discuss the details contained in the report, it will be with the skeleton press crew sent to cover the president-elect's vacation during Christmas week. The Chicago press corps, which has been the most dogged in pursuing potential ties between Obama's staff and Blagojevich, will not be well represented. The result will be that critical questions of Obama and transition team members may not be asked until after the new year. By that time, the questions will be easily dismissed as "old news."

Given the seriousness of the scandal involving Blagojevich and his attempted sale of Obama's old Senate seat, and the potential for high-level contacts between the transition and the governor, President-elect Obama should hold a press conference as soon as possible after returning from Hawaii. He should answer all questions about any details from the report fully and truthfully. Obama thus far has handled this first scandal of his presidency like a seasoned Washington politician, not like the agent of a new kind of politics. That is to say that Obama has been spinning and ducking tough questions. Once all the details are out, Obama should begin to practice a little of the transparancy he promised during the campaign.