Three months ago, while Barack Obama was running for president and his rival John McCain kept kinda-sorta threatening to bring up corrupt Chicago politics, Obama called up his good friend in the Illinois State Senate, Emil Jones, Jr, and convinced him to change his mind on an important upcoming vote. The formerly doomed bill suddenly passed! Man, that Chicago machine. So dirty! Of course, it was the ethics bill. The one that forced Governor Blagojevich to get all his corruption in before it went into effect in January, leading to his convenient pre-inauguration downfall.

The AP's "analysis" piece about how this will be very damaging for Obama is short on evidence that supports the headline, but it does point out that Emil Jones is still a connector between Blago and Obama, with both still considering the Senate President an ally. But there's this little nugget too:

Court documents say they don't include all calls dealing with the governor's efforts regarding the Senate appointment. And many people in the documents are referred to by aliases; there's little doubt their identities will eventually surface.

If it's true that Rahm Emanuel, or someone else close to Obama, helped ensure that this particular arrest happened at this particular time, that person's cooperatoin with the investigation certainly might lead prosecutors to remove Obama's friends from the criminal complaint, right? If, say, there wasn't really anything illegal or relevant involved anyway. Just something to think about!