Is there an Obama-Blagojevich connection?

Is there an Obama-Blagojevich connection?
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow -

A former Republican presidential candidate says the political corruption scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich could result in top advisors to Barack Obama being called to testify before a grand jury very early in his administration.

President-elect Obama has called on Governor Rod Blagojevich to resign for allegedly trying to trade favors for Obama's vacant Illinois senate seat. Although Obama says he had no contact with the governor or his office on the matter, in an interview last month on Fox News Chicago, top Obama advisor David Axelrod said otherwise. "I know he [Obama] has 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," said Axelrod. Yesterday, Axelrod issued a retraction, saying "I was mistaken....They did not then or at any time discuss the subject."
Gary Bauer, president of American Values, says as more details of the Blagojevich case unfold, Obama could be facing a public-relations nightmare because of his strong connection to Democratic Party politics in Chicago. "Certainly this is an astonishing indictment," Bauer offers. "On its face it shows a tremendous degree of illegality and of corruption. We just have to wait and see whether that corruption extended or in any way touched the incoming president." According to Bauer, "it requires the willing suspension of disbelief to suggest that Mr. Obama, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, and Governor Blagojevich have not talked since the election."