A pleasant beginning to the week, no?

First it was President Barack Obama, then White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, now U.S. Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias is joining the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial subpoena list.

Giannoulias is in the middle of a hard fought campaign against Congressman Mark Kirk for the right to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Obama.

So there’s no doubt that being dragged into the Blagojevich trial is not welcome news for the Democratic candidate’s campaign.

Giannoulias, of course, says he doesn’t know anything about Blagojevich’s shenanigans about trying to sell the Senate seat that Alexi Giannoulias (D CAND, IL-SEN) is now trying to win; he’s just… OK, this is complicated. Let me bullet point.

• Supposedly, the White House wanted to put Valerie Jarrett in that Senate seat.
• Governor Blagojevich had a SEIU guy who was allegedly Blago’s mouthpiece.
• Mouthpiece goes to Illinois state Treasurer Giannoulias for an introduction to Jarrett.
• Yeah, supposedly the treasurer of Illinois has a personal connection with Jarrett and the White House, but the then-governor of Illinois didn’t.  Then again, the former isn’t under indictment and the latter is.
• Anything that went on after that?  Giannoulias was not involved.  Well, except for that meeting between Jarrett and the SEIU guy.  He was there, but he doesn’t remember anything about it.

And that last bit is probably going to be the place where Giannoulias sweats the most in all of this.  Giannoulias seems to have a habit of being around places where things went down, then claiming that he wasn’t involved in them.  Blagojevich is going to have his lawyers hammer at this habit; I’m not expecting a meltdown or an implosion or Giannoulias leaving the courtroom under arrest, but there could be some entertainment here.  Right now no Illinois politician wants to have his name associated with the… stickiness… that is the Blagojevich trial.  Particularly the ones running for an office so intimately connected to the trial…

Moe Lane

PS: Mark Kirk for Senate.  Trying for Obama’s seat the old-fashioned way; by earning it.