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President-elect Obama said he has not spoken with Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich (D) about filling his former Senate seat. Obama, at a Thursday news conference in Chicago, pledged to research
who on his staff had been in communication with the governor's office and
promised to report back.
"I was as appalled and disappointed as anybody by the revelations
earlier this week," Obama said of Blagojevich's arrest on federal
corruption charges, including a charge the governor allegedly tried to profit
from filling Obama's seat. "I'm confident that no representative of mine
would have any part of any deals related to this seat. I think the materials
released by the U.S. attorney reflect that fact.
"I've asked my team to gather the facts of any contacts with the
governor's office about this vacancy so that we can share them with you over
the next few days," Obama said.
Obama repeated his call on Blagojevich to resign, saying the governor
cannot effectively serve. "I want to make sure that the next senator from
Illinois ... is not tainted by what has taken place so far," Obama said.
A public servant who came of age in the rough-and-tumble world of
Chicago politics, Obama said Blagojevich's actions were on the "far
end" of "a culture that thinks of politics as a means of
self-aggrandizement."
"There are times when people are not thinking about what's best
for the public good," Obama said. "This Senate seat does not belong
to any politician to trade. It belongs to the people of Illinois, and they
deserve the best possible representation."
The president-elect said neither he nor his transition team have been
contacted by federal officials seeking interviews in the matter, and pointed
out that the affidavit filed on Tuesday makes it clear Obama's team was
hesitant to make any deals.
The president-elect also made light of Blagojevich's frequent
profanity-laced tirades, in which he used various vulgarities to refer to the
president-elect. "I'm not going to repeat back some of the things said
about me," Obama joked. "This is a family program, I know."
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