Although I wrote an article a couple of days ago in which I defended president-elect Barack Obama against growing accusations of involvement in the corruption scandal surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, reports have surfaced since then that cast a different light on Obama’s (or his team’s) potential involvement in the pay to play scheme Blagojevich had in mind for Obama’s seat in the United States Senate.

First Obama denied that he had spoken to Blagojevich about the matter. This, it seems, was either spin or a matter of choosing words extremely carefully, for it became clear one day later that his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had spoken to Blagojevich. The FBI had caught Blagojevich on tape swearing at Obama because the latter would not give the former more than “appreciation.”

Reports also surfaced that Emanuel had provided Blagojevich with a list of “acceptable candidates” for Obama’s seat: these were individuals Obama favored and would support.

But then something interesting was added to the mix: it seems that Emanuel may very well have explained Blagojevich that he would not get involved in a pay to play scheme that would require an immediate financial reward: Blagojevich and his top advisers seem to have believed that Emanuel and Obama would be willing to give the governor a reward two years later because an immediate reward would appear suspicious. If the latter was correct, Emanuel may be more involved in the matter than many initially thought.

Whatever the case, it has become clear that Obama’s carefully chosen words hid the full truth, which was that his chief of staff did talk to Blagojevich and should have been aware of the governor’s plans to act in breach with the law. This means that reporters, and bloggers of course, should persist and demand answers from team Obama. This team has refused to answer most questions recently probably because Obama and his top advisers want to find out who talked to Blagojevich, when, and what they (may have) said. They undoubtedly also wonder whether all or some conversations were caught on tape. In short, team Obama is preparing for a massive PR battle in an attempt to limit the damage. That may be logical, but it only feeds the allegation that the president-elect’s team may be more involved than initially thought.

Feeding these suspicions is the fact that those who are most concerned with pushing Blagojevich off stage by forcing him to resign ASAP are staunch allies of Obama. This once again gives many the impression that Obama and his allies may fear that Blagojevich may do considerable damage to them (and their reputations). Not only that, but the one leading the attack against the Illinois Governor, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, was on the list of “acceptable candidates” of team Obama and she is the daughter of “Chicago ward” and Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan, who has been engaged in a public and private war with the governor for months, years even.

Madigan is one of the high profile candidates for Obama’s Senate seat, but Blagojevich was and is not inclined to give it to her. Instead, sources indicate he favors Jesse Jackson Jr. for the office. Needless to say, forcing Blagojevich out of office ASAP could considerably help Madigan career-wise.

To conclude: some strange things are taking place in Illinois right now. More investigations are certainly called for, for there seems to be far more to the story than the attempt of a governor to ’sell’ a senate seat to the highest bidder.