First Axelrod, now Emanuel, misremembered

It's getting so crowded under the bus with Wright, Grandma, Rezko, etc. The blog at ABC, also dancing around what is fast becoming obvious to everyone who is not on Obama's payroll

According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich's campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm, were the top strategists of Blagojevich's 2002 gubernatorial victory.

Emanuel told the New Yorker earlier this year that he and Obama "participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two."

Wilhelm said that Emanuel had overstated Obama's role. "There was an advisory council that was inclusive of Rahm and Barack but not limited to them," Wilhelm said, and he disputed the notion that Obama was "an architect or one of the principal strategists."

(An Obama Transition Team aide emails to note that Emanuel later changed his recollection of this story to Rich Miller's "CAPITOL FAX," saying, "David [Wilhelm] and I have worked together on campaigns for decades. Like always, he's right and I'm wrong.")

And have you seen the NYT chart of influence? Almost funny with the blank spaces.

Update: And now an Illinois a news source is not only pulling the story, but denying the meeting took place. "KHQA TV wishes to offer clarification regarding a story that appeared last month. . ." Funny they didn't correct it until today. And Jesse Jr. says he absolutely had no input. Personally, I think Blagojevich will really sing in order to get the charges reduced. You can't trust a guy with hair like that.