Blagojevich and Obama: No Contact?

Captain Ed raises some interesting questions:

Barack Obama has gone out of his way to make his incoming administration Clintonesque. Not only has he built 63% of his transition team from Clinton administration officials, he even picked Hillary Clinton for a Cabinet post. Now Obama appears to have restored another Clinton tradition — in word parsing. Ace has this picture from the December 2nd meeting with the National Governors Association ....

That image belies Obama’s statement from Tuesday, following the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:

“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”

Is this anything like parsing the meaning of the word “is”? Obviously, Obama made contact with Blagojevich a week before the statement at the December 2nd NGA conference. Did they discuss the Senate succession? Probably not, but it’s not necessarily out of the question, either.

Barack Obama had better learn precision in the future

More post-election Blago/Obama photos at the link.

Recall my post from last night, "Browner Proves It: The Second Clinton Administration!" That essay concluded by noting that Obama's administrative appointments suggest we won't have "a 'team of rivals' but a team of cronies from the previous Democratic era of Whitewater, Troopergate, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, and the last presidential impeachment."

It looks like Obama's "parsing" is providing some confirmation of the point.