Rahm Emanuel might not have had a legal duty to report Blago to the authorities, but let’s hope he did so. It would be nice to think that the next Chief of Staff didn’t play footsie with an ethical psychopath and understood his obligation to blow the whistle on attempts to shake down the President-elect.

Is Emanuel the next Bert Lance?

Now they tell us: “Many who know the governor well say that as Mr. Blagojevich’s famed fund-raising capability seemed to have shrunk in recent months and as his legal bills mounted after years of federal investigation, he appeared to have evolved from what [Illinois Democrat] John Fritchey considered callous into something closer to panicked or delusional.”

Bernard Madoff, like Blago, is a reminder that ultimately corrupt people will cheat and steal until they are cornered. Rather than spur more regulation, he should be a reminder to follow the Founding Fathers’ advice: disperse power widely.

Shoes don’t hurt people. Journalists with shoes do. (I can see it now — as in airports, the White House press corps will have to check their shoes.)

John McCain may not have intended to be as dismissive as he sounded about Sarah Palin. But the media’s take — that it was a deliberate slight — will only raise the conservative base’s ire and reignite talk about a primary challenger.

Did David Gregory take up the mantle of hard-hitting, adversarial newsman? Actually, I think he’s giving Chris Matthews a run for his money in the Cheerleader-in-chief contest.

Jimmy Carter met again with Hamas and declared, “he intends to continue meeting with Hamas leaders because peace requires dialogue with all sides.” Actually, it requires Hamas to stop killing Jews and seeking the destruction of Israel. No word so far from President-elect Obama. He’s likely “disappointed.”

 Mitt Romney gives an impressive Meet The Press performance — making the argument that we have to help the Big Three and UAW by not giving them a blank check.

And it turns out that writing a blank check is more complicated than it seems.

Professor Bradley Smith sums up the sentiment of many conservatives: “Three cheers for Republicans in the Senate, and three cheers that Cheney and Bush (who have been following Hoover-like interventionist, big government economic policies for years) will be leaving DC. Of course, we can expect even more big government under Obama, but if we’re going to embark on an unprecedented big government spending spree to permanently alter our economic institutions, it’s best we do it under people who at least don’t claim to be free marketers.”

Not since Nixon’s Enemies List has a journalist so reveled in being a political target.

Joe Biden beats the President-elect in the dog acquisition department. Why is it that Obama selected a HUD  Secretary before his kids’ pet? On the relative scale of importance I think the latter ranks higher.

Whoa, weren’t we told that an Obama Presidency would improve relations with our allies, encourage global unity and restore our image? (It is our moment, or something like that, right?) It seems they haven’t all gotten the memo: “Gordon Brown is considering rejecting an expected request from Barack Obama, the US President-elect, to send 2,000 more British troops to Afghanistan to join the surge of US forces confronting the Taleban.” Truth be told, everyone — the President-elect, the media, the Democratic base, other countries — are going to find out the “change” means there is nothing new under the sun.