Politico tried to Win the Morning today with an article frantically hyping the purported danger that the trial of Rod Blagojevich poses to the Obama administration. According to the piece, the trial “could singe” the White House, and the “threat of political damage remains serious” for President Obama and his aides, Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, even though they “haven't been too badly bruised so far, by Chicago standards at least” (whatever that means).

Why is the Obama administration in such danger? According to Politico, it's because of “apparent contradictions between trial testimony and some of the president's own statements about his contact with Blagojevich over the Senate seat.” Unfortunately for Politico, they don't seem to be able to actually find any such contradictions.

Politico is claiming that SEIU Local 1 chapter head Tom Balanoff's testimony at the Blagojevich trial contradicted Obama's December 1, 2008, statement, “I have never spoken to the governor on this subject. I'm confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat.”

That's simply not true.

“Part of any deals related to this seat” has a very specific meaning here. Blagojevich is alleged to have attempted to sell the Senate seat for campaign donations or a job. For Obama's statement to be contradicted, one of his “representatives” would have had to, well, attempt to make a deal with Blagojevich in which the former governor agreed to name someone to the seat in exchange for something of value.

As we noted a week ago when Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin were pushing this falsehood, Balanoff's testimony in no way suggests that such deal-making was taking place. Balanoff testified that he had a conversation with Obama after the election, in which Obama said that Jarrett would fit his criteria for a good successor in the Senate. Balanoff testified that he then spoke to Blagojevich, who said that he would appoint Jarrett if a new advocacy group were set up for him to head. Blagojevich also raised the idea of being named Secretary of Health and Human Services, according to the testimony. Balanoff testified that he told Blagojevich that he would never be named HHS Secretary, and reportedly said in court that he “never intended to pass on the message” about Blagojevich's advocacy group demand to Obama.

If Obama's representatives were trying to put together a deal with Blagojevich, Blagojevich himself seemed unaware of it. On November 11, 2008 -- days after his conversation with Balanoff - Blagojevich said of Obama and his advisors, “they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.”