There are a handful of writers, thinkers and pundits for whom I will stop what I'm doing and listen to what they have to say. I don’t always agree with them and often I am diametrically opposed to their positions; but they are always interesting, articulate and challenging. John Dean is one of those people.
Of all the Watergate conspirators, John Dean seems most to have learned its lessons best: that the cover-up always makes things worse, not better. And of all of those who were dipped deepest in the scandal, he has been the most forthcoming about teaching its lessons.
Now, he's written an open letter to Barack Obama, urging him to change the way scandals are handled in Washington, urging him to demonstrate that he, Obama, represents the kind of change we need.
There has never been a better moment than now for you to take decisive action by proceeding aggressively, proactively, and in the process change the way presidents deal with scandals.
According to the New York Times transcript of your December 11, 2008 news conference you were again asked a series of questions about Blagojevich. When responding, you stated: "What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that I might -- may have -- that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office. And we'll have those in the next few days, and we'll present them. But what I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I'm absolutely certain of."
Presumably that material is being gathered at this time, and the sooner it is released the better for events are unfolding.
What is not clear is that you have all the information you need, but you should insist that your staff provide it. Following your press conference, the Chicago Sun Times published a story of the refusal of Rahm Emanuel, your designated White House chief of staff, to respond to questions about his involvement with Blagojevich, and a Chicago television station is reporting Emanuel did, in fact, meet with Blagojevich to discuss filling your vacate senate seat.
If true, as I read the transcript of the press conference, you have misspoken; if not true, in a post-Watergate world the burden is on you to prove it is not true - and you can only do this by having information from Emanuel explaining his actions in full. No one would be surprised if Emanuel or others did have discussions with Blagojevich or his office about your successor, but denying that such discussions took place will be the start of a cover-up.
You should place the burden on your staff to give you all the information for cover-ups only compound problems, and if anyone withholds information, they should suffer the consequences.
He goes on to say that the account of each and everyone on Obama's staff who had contact with Blago's office on this matter should be posted in a special section of www.change.gov. In other words, force open the doors and windows and let the sun shine onto, and through, everything about this fiasco now, before it runs away with his presidency.