As Jake Tapper noted, Obama claim to not be involved in Blagojevich’s search for a replacement Senator:

Asked what contact he’d had with the governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”

…was a direct contradiction of what David Axelrod said earlier: “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

As Allahpundit notes, Tapper’s promotion was well-deserved.

They’re claiming that Axelrod misspoke, which makes you wonder what he was actually trying to say in the first place. Because (H/T: Instapundit) Left-blogger Katie Allison Granju ain’t buying this:

Ummmm….I have to say that this statement is pretty hard to believe. Of course the outgoing Senator and his staff would speak to the governor of the same party and his staff about which individuals might be shortlisted for the vacant seat. There would be nothing wrong with such conversations, as long as no quid pro quo scenario was discussed or suggested. That would simply be a reasonable and prudent conversation for Obama to have had with Blagojevich, and it’s hard to believe that he did not.

I’m still currently taking the position that Obama’s not directly involved in this scandal, mostly because it’d be a really dumb thing for him to do. However, I must note that the more I read of this mess, the more I get the impression that somebody baked a Stupid Pie recently, and a lot of Illinois politicians lined up to get a slice…

Moe Lane

PS: Because God loves us and wishes us to be happy: Blagojevich has no plans of resigning.