What’s at issue here is not just whether Obama’s aides had inappropriate contact with Blagojevich. There is lots of evidence from the complaint that they did not. What I’ll be looking for when Obama tells all, as he’s promised, is the distance between what the president-elect and his aides said on Dec. 9, after Blago was arrested, and what we learn on Dec. 22. The difference will give us a sense of the incoming group’s dissembling index—how easily they veer from the truth when questioned. After taking that first measurement, it will be easier to put their future remarks in context and to know whether this benefit of the doubt is warranted…

Whatever we ultimately learn about what Obama did know, we’ll be able to measure it against that initial statement. And that will give us a sense of how much lawyer there is in the president-elect’s answers. If Obama ducks all these questions, then my faith was misplaced. Until then, I say, let’s give the new guy a break.