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But Emanuel apparently has been willing to swap favors before with Blagojevich. Newly disclosed e-mails show Emanuel, then an Illinois congressman, agreed in 2006 to sign a letter to a newspaper supporting the embattled governor. Then his staff urged Blagojevich to release a delayed $2 million grant to a school in his district. Emanuel's conversations about the Senate seat have been called "totally appropriate and acceptable" by former White House counsel Greg Craig, who conducted an internal inquiry for Obama shortly after the election about contacts between the presidential transition team and Blagojevich. The then-governor ultimately appointed Democrat Roland Burris, who later opted not to run for a full term of his own. Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and the Green Party's LeAlan Jones are now vying for the seat. Blagojevich's trial will expose the underside of Illinois politics and that won't jibe with the reformist image that helped Obama get elected, said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a former campaign aide to presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "The major concern for those watching in the White House is that this ... is like an old, worn sweater with a loose thread and then when you pull the thread it all unravels and it reveals kind of the Chicago machine of Democrat politics," Madden said. Obama's swift rise, though, did not come from the Chicago political machine. While he couldn't ignore it, he tried to keep himself apart from it. Madden said the White House will work feverishly to distance itself from the trial. "I'd expect that they're going to say that this is owned and operated by Blagojevich himself," he said. But Blagojevich and his attorneys are doing what they can to draw in Obama. In asking that the president be subpoenaed to testify, Blagojevich claimed Obama has "direct knowledge of the Senate seat allegation." While the judge isn't allowing it, he says he might revisit the issue if evidence emerges that Obama would have meaningful testimony. Blagojevich's attorneys reiterated that claim in their request for the interview summaries, saying testimony from the ousted governor's former chief of staff and tapes played in court "raise the issue of President Obama's direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding appointment to his Senate seat." Obama also won't be able to avoid the embarrassing connections between himself and Rezko, the Blagojevich confidante who could testify. Rezko, who was convicted of shaking down people who wanted to do business with the state of Illinois, had previously raised money for Obama and even did a real estate deal with him. Rezko owned a vacant lot next door to Obama's South Side home and ended up selling him a strip of land. But Obama's connections to Rezko aren't new and they haven't hurt him politically.
[Associated
Press;
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