Kurtz writes [emphasis added]:

Still, Obama is exonerated on the tapes by none other than F-bomb Rod, who calls him a “mother [expletive]” and complains that the only thing O will offer for having his person picked for the Senate is gratitude. Obama, it turns out, won't pay to play. That's not how things are done in bleeping Chicago!

The facts, of course, didn't stop some conservative pundits from arguing that Obama has now been tainted by association with the Chicago machine.

As much as I hate coming to the defense of “conservative pundits,” they're hardly the only ones making the “tainted” claim, despite the fact Obama was “exonerated” on the tapes. It's pretty much the entire Beltway press corps that's been playing up that angle.