Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 8:41 am CST
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), still playing the role of chief Democratic salesman for ethics and lobbying reform, has accepted a spot in the weekend's biggest political venue: NBC's "Meet The Press."
Agreeing to appear on the Sunday talk show underscores the point that Obama's approach to year No. 2 will be markedly different than his first year in the Senate when he purposefully laid low to let others speak on the party's behalf.
So while Obama is technically performing an assignment for his boss - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) - the platform plays along perfectly with his 2006 plan to be more visible. It's his first appearance since being sworn into office.
One thing to watch will be how closely Obama hues the Democratic line. When party leaders stood in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress two days ago to tout their reform plans, Obama was the only speaker to suggest that Democrats have not always been models of virtue.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee noticed and quickly issed a response entitled: Obama vs. Reid.
Obama told the Tribune this week that Americans were right to be skeptical of all this talk of reforming how Washington works.
"The question is," Obama said, "is there sufficient shame that's been generated out of this that people start changing their practices?"
Stay tuned.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
I'm happy to see Sen. Obama get more free publicity from the Tribune and more specifically from Jeff Zeleny. Since June 22, 2004, Zeleny has mentioned Obama in 58 articles, compared to only 16 for Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, and only 14 for Illinois' highest ranking pol, House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Keep up the cheerleading, Jeff!
Posted by: Bruce | January 20, 2006 9:58 AM
Why any Democrat agrees to be on Meet the Press with ethically challenged GOP shill Tim Russert is beyond me. I'm still waiting for Russert's full explanation of his role in the Valerie Plame scandal--which, amazingly, he has discussed numerous times on his show without acknowledging his role in the incident.
Posted by: chicagojason | January 20, 2006 10:01 AM
I too am confused on why there is so much interest in Obama. I don't see him outshining any other politician. Could it be his race?
Is he the guilty white liberal's "great black hope?"
Not to rain on your parade, but he is 1/2 white and was raised by the white side of his family in Hawaii, where he would have experienced just as much racism for being white as being black.
I'm not saying I don't like him, but the term "overrated" keeps popping up in my mind.
Posted by: JD | January 20, 2006 10:35 AM
"Overrated" or otherwise, until he proves to be actually incompetent or more than trivially hypocritical, leave him to succeed or fail on his own. He may just fill the breadth and depth of the shoes his admirers have fitted him in.
Posted by: rwilymz | January 20, 2006 11:32 AM