Sen. Obama, it's called blowback; those Illinois Combine deals are nipping at your heels (Updated 3x)

Fellow blogger Bill Baar just forwarded a posting from Rich Miller's The Capitol Fax Blog in which Miller informs us that "Congresscritter Rahm Emanuel says Obama helped get Blagojevich elected…"

"I’ve known [Obama] a long time. We used to sit around helping our governor get elected, help those strategy meetings, stuff like that."

"I don’t recall ever hearing about this," Miller wrote, "but the Republicans now have an avenue to directly connect presidential candidate Barack Obama to our embattled, investigated, unpopular and all but humiliated Gov. Rod Blagojevich."

On the Sunday, June 15, 2008, John Batchelor WABC radio show, Evelyn Pringle, chronicler of Operation Board Games and any number of Rezko, Obama, and Illinois Combine misdeeds, speculated that Gov. Blagojevich will be indicted but most likely not until after the August Democratic convention in Denver.

Is it possible that Emanuel's claims and Sen. Obama's involvement in Blagojevich's election success will leave less wiggle room than other Obama entanglements?

There are a few things to keep in mind:

1. It was only last week that the 14-page memo from Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was sent to "Democratic legislative candidates that outlines 'talking points' in favor of launching 'impeachment proceedings' against Gov. Blagojevich.

2. RW pointed out in the March 30, 2008, post DOJ Exhibit: Rezko's Dirty Money—which discussed Prosecution exhibit: FBI analysis of Rezko fundraising for Blagojevich 2001-2004—that many of the same contributors who gave so generously to Blagojevich's campaign via Tony Rezko also contributed to Obama's political campaign coffers.

3. Evelyn Pringle pointed out in her series of articles that when a board deal went down in Illinois, and pay-to-play money exchanged hands, Blagojevich got his cut, and Obama got his.

Updates

#1: And let's not forget about John Thomas, the FBI mole who, in 2004 and 2005, "logged frequent visits" to Rezko's office by both Obama and Blagojevich.

#2: From the Department of Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship comes these interesting tidbits from the Springfield, Ill., May 18, 2008, The State Journal-Register:

Former State Sen. CAROL RONEN, D-Chicago, who left the Senate to join the administration of Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH several weeks ago, has left that job and says she’ll volunteer on the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. BARACK OBAMA, D-Ill. ... In the Senate, Ronen had been one of a handful of Blagojevich allies. If that’s changed, she’s not letting on.

[...]

Another poll, by the way, was a just-for-fun kind of thing done by Ask Illinois, an interview and automated telephone polling firm in Springfield that is owned by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. On Wednesday, 2,301 registered voters statewide were asked by automated calls if they thought imprisoned former governor GEORGE RYAN or Blagojevich would “a better job running our state.” Ryan won with 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent for Blagojevich.

#3: For more on how the Illinois "culture of corruption" works, read Michael Weisskopf's TIME Magazine article Obama: How He Learned to Win.