Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[EZ2]

Biggest puzzler is Valeria Jarrett


As Obama continues to show a political tin ear on the oil spill -- having a nice Saturday of golf while his spokesman mocks BP CEO Tony Hayward for going yachting -- the role of this clique in advising the president becomes a bigger question, with Jarrett the biggest question mark of all.

What qualifies this lawyer who spent her career in Chicago politics and managing a local real estate development company to advise the president, by his own admission, on virtually every important decision he makes? A woman who was never elected and who first met Obama in 1991 when she interviewed his future wife for a job takes on a Rasputin-like quality in a mistake-prone administration.

It emerged this week in the corruption trial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich that Emanuel was in touch with Blagojevich aide John Harris just before the 2008 presidential election, according to Harris's testimony, seeking to get Jarrett appointed to Obama's soon-to-be-empty Senate seat. It was, we can now see, an early indication of the heavy-handed methods Emanuel would employ in interfering with Pennsylvania and Colorado contests this year.

There have been those from the beginning who warned that Obama's election would bring Chicago-style politics to the White House, but it was easy to overhear those warnings amid the ceaseless talk of change.

The Obama White House is adept at deflecting blame. Remember it was Obama himself who said he is ultimately responsible for handling the Gulf oil spill and then just days later expressed his frustration on national television at not knowing whose "ass to kick" at BP.

So it's not likely that the inner core of advisers will volunteer to go, or that the president, who prizes them precisely for their loyalty, will volunteer them to go.

Breaking up that old Obama mob
Will midterm losses chase away Chicago aides?


http://www.marketwatch.com