Official: Obama sought seat for Jarrett

Illinois SEIU chief Tom Balanoff, testifying under oath, provides a clear narrative of something the White House has flatly denied in the past: That Obama sought to have Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the Senate.

Tom Balanoff, head of the SEIU in Illinois, testified today that Obama called him the night before the 2008 election to say that while he would not be taking a public position, he believed Valerie Jarrett would fit his standards of being good for Illinois and able to hold the seat in 2010. Balanoff quoted Obama as saying: "I would much prefer she [serve in the White House] but she does want to be Senator and she does meet those criteria."

The White House does not seem to have denied this sequence, but certainly offered extremely evasive answers when asked about it, as in this apparent denial from David Axelrod soon after Blagojevich was indicted.

"[Obama] always – his preference was ... always that she serve in the White House," he said.

An official report also avoided this rather relevant narrative, and Jarrett also brushed off the story by, essentially, focusing on the definition of the word "is."

There's no suggestion of an illegal quid pro quo in the new testimony, but the slippery apparent denials are a good reminder about taking things politicians and their aides say at face value.