EMBARRASSMENT

Posted at 7:40 a.m. ET

No doubt the president-elect didn't want 2008 to end this way - with the ghosts of politics past lurking at his doorstep.  For Barack Obama, 2008 was a momentous year.  He was the first person of his background to be elected president.  But now some of those who helped get him there are involved in an unseemly series of maneuvers that remind voters that Mr. Obama's rise the highest office was fueled, partially at least, by the high-pollutant engine of Illinois politics.  The Washington Post tells the story:

President-elect Barack Obama spent yesterday afternoon in Honolulu, going to the zoo with his daughters and visiting his high school campus. And yet, he couldn't escape the political melodrama unfolding more than 4,000 miles away...

...First to the lectern was embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this month on federal corruption charges, and from whom Obama has worked to distance himself. Blagojevich then introduced Roland Burris, his appointment to fill Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate. Burris once held a fundraiser at his house for Obama and calls the president-elect "somebody whose career I really helped launch...

...Then, near the end of the news conference, Rep. Bobby L. Rush was beckoned to the front of the room, where he asked the public not to "lynch" Burris because of the charges against Blagojevich. Rush defeated Obama in a 2000 House race and chided him as an "educated fool" before eventually endorsing him for president and asserting that "I helped teach him."

Just a great group of regular guys.  What's wrong with that?  A man's got to have friends.

...if nothing else, the image of all three standing together in front of flashing cameras served as a reminder of the political environment in which Obama developed: Blagojevich is awaiting an indictment; Burris may be blocked from claiming the Senate seat by leaders in Illinois and Washington; and Rush pushed for a black senator to replace Obama, who prefers not to participate in "the politics of race."

At least the Rev. Jeremiah Wright didn't deliver the invocation.

After the news conference, Obama released a statement commending Burris as a "good man and a fine public servant," before arguing that he should not be given the Senate seat. Illinois, he said, is "entitled to . . . major decisions free of taint and controversy." Obama avoided mentioning race.

A good statement, and inevitable considering the embarrassing circumstances.

Yet the men giving yesterday's news conference served as important components in Obama's career.

Obama endorsed Burris in the Democratic primary for governor in 2002, which Blagojevich won. Burris said in an interview this month that he "probably introduced [Obama] to Blagojevich after that" and persuaded Obama to join him in endorsing their fellow Democrat. In 2004, Burris endorsed Obama for the U.S. Senate and held a fundraiser.

There has been friction among the amigos:

It wasn't the first time race had come up between Rush and Obama. Rush, a former Black Panther who represents Chicago's South Side, defeated Obama in 2000 because he dominated the black vote. During the campaign, he collected the endorsements of almost every major black politician in Chicago -- including Burris -- and depicted Obama as a foreigner to black culture. "Barack is a person who read about the civil rights protests and thinks he knows all about it," Rush said.

Finally...

Activist Al Sharpton said yesterday: "I think that Governor Blagojevich is trying to save himself and cynically trying to draw the president-elect into this. But President-elect Obama should stay out of this. The worst thing that he could do is be drawn back into Illinois politics."

First time I've ever agreed with Sharpton.

Now President-elect Obama must go further.  Whether appropriate or not, the mess in Illinois is tainting him because it's his Senate seat that's involved.  He has got to start pumping for some change we can believe in.  And his first step should be to have a little chat with Caroline Kennedy here in New York - the same Caroline Kennedy whose family gave him such a big boost toward the Democratic nomination for president, the same Caroline Kennedy who headed his vice-presidential search team.  He should gently advise Kennedy to withdraw her name for consideration for the U.S. Senate.  Her candidacy for the appointment to succeed Hillary Clinton has been embarrassing and amateurish, and, as in Illinois, her name is linked with Obama's.

The president elect must show decisively that he's above old-time machine politics.  He is, isn't he?

December 31, 2008.