Hillary is not going anywhere for at least 2 months and in the meantime they are pulling out all the stops to put him down.
If he's not careful he may end up off the ticket altogether.
Posted on 03/09/2008 1:00:17 PM PDT by jdm
When attempting to defuse an embarrassing situation, the best strategies rely on early and full disclosure in the hope that the eventual revelations prove anti-climactic. Barack Obama apparently hasn’t learned this yet, but the Tony Rezko trial may wind up schooling Obama on the principle. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rezko and his associates provided three times as much money for Obama than the presidential candidate has admitted:
During his 12 years in politics, Sen. Barack Obama has received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted businessman Tony Rezko and his associates than he has publicly acknowledged, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.
Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle. Obama also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s.
But seven months ago, Obama told the Sun-Times his “best estimate” was that Rezko raised “between $50,000 and $60,000″ during Obama’s political career.
Obama, who wants to be the nation’s next president, has been purging some of those donations — giving charities more than $30,000 he got from Rezko and three of his business partners referenced in Rezko’s federal indictments. All three attended a lavish fund-raiser Rezko hosted for Obama four years ago.
Obama, however, has kept $6,850 from others who also are referenced in Rezko’s indictments. Obama also has hung on to contributions from doctors whom Rezko helped appoint to a state-government panel involved in some of Rezko’s alleged fraud schemes.
The connections to Obama have received more attention, thanks to the local Chicago media rather than their national counterparts. One of Rezko’s associates turns out to be Ali D. Ata, who worked in Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s administration. Ata now faces fraud charges for writing a letter on state letterhead on behalf of Rezko that lied well enough to get millions of dollars in loans. Rezko brought Ata into Obama’s camp as a contributor.
There is also Joseph Aramanda. He faces no charges in the Rezko scandals, but Aramanda allegedly played a role in a scheme Rezko used to exploit the Illinois state teachers fund. Aramanda also had a son who worked on Obama’s staff, and he also contributed to Obama’s campaign.
All of this — and more — centers on the Rezko-Obama relationship. Obama has tried to minimize his connections to Rezko, understandably, as Rezko sinks deeper into his federal trial. The Sun-Times and other Chicago newspapers keep finding more and more connections and showing that Rezko was more than just a contributor to an election campaign. Obama and Rezko have significant ties, and at the very least it calls into question how Obama could have remained ignorant of his friend’s corruption while at least indirectly benefiting from it.
He might convince people he had no knowledge of it. However, as more connections come to the light, the best he can argue is that he is so naive and unschooled that he couldn’t see corruption where it obviously exists. If so, how can he argue that he’s sophisticated enough to run the nation?
UPDATE: This story comes from June 2007. I didn’t notice that when I first read the story. It’s interesting, though, that no one has thought to follow this up since then, at least not in the national media. I think this shows why the Chicago media displayed such frustration in last week’s press conference in Texas in that their national colleagues haven’t exactly lit up the wires in picking up on their work.
Hillary is not going anywhere for at least 2 months and in the meantime they are pulling out all the stops to put him down.
If he's not careful he may end up off the ticket altogether.
I’m sorry but I’m just having a hard time getting worked up about this Rezko thing. If I understand this right, he accepted some favors from this sleazy real estate guy and accepted political contributions from him and some of his sleazy friends. Is that it? Why is this even news? He’s running against the Clintons, for petes sake. He’s a piker compared to them.
PLA stands for the People Liberation Army. Yes those same delightful people that said the would nuke us. Is the Chicago Sun Times the least bit curious what the Chinese Army was buying with those millions of dollars they gave the Clintons. I do not think it was a night in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House.
Patrick Fitzgerald, HUGE DEMOCRAT THAT HE IS, has NOT gone after the DEMOCRAT Governor Blago for his corrupt dealings with Rezko.....now WHY NOT????????
So is Hillary's!!! Where are these poor poor Democrats getting the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS to send to these crooks???? Other crooks???
AND the enemdia is ignoring the corruption of Rezko and Gov. Blago!!! Why hasn’t the UBER DEMOCRAT PROSECUTOR, PAtrick FITZGERALD gone after the Dem. Governor??? hmmmmm?
WOW!! That ENQUIRER front page is really something.....and the Enquirer is owned by Clinton’s crony Roger ALtman!!!
Right now, 100% of what Barry O has to offer is his "I'm not like everybody else" schtick. Hillary badly needed to win Ohio and Texas in order to not be pressured out of the race, so that the Rezko stuff could all tumble out before Pennsylvania.
Will the average Rat voter be able to ascertain any visible difference between whatever the 'Toons have done, and what Obama has done in relation to Rezko and his pals? Probably not, but the damage will be done, he'll be lumped back in the "just like any other politician" category that the Beest is already a full dues-paying member of. That's all the Witch needs in order to get the superdelegates to vote her way. Right now, they want to hitch their wagon to the star of his fuzzy "change" crap, but if she can destroy that, she can remove their rationale for breaking his way.
I knew this Rezko thing would become significant the minute Her Thighness mentioned it at a debate. She's careful, cool, collected in that forum, she wouldn't have wasted half a breath on Rezko's name if she didn't think it was terribly important to her game plan.
We have not heard how much Hillary got.
For those that say none, I call bull shit.
No Clinton has ever been around where money is flying without getting their cut/share.
Amish? Or should we just ignore the obvious elephant in the room just like we do with Obama's other "contributors"?
It appears the Religion Of Peace community is playing both sides of the Democrat aisle. Hillary has Huma, but she is an equal opportunity grifter with her pockets full of Chinese money as well.
None of this, of course, will ever see the light of day except on a few VRWC web sites. Certainly Honest Johnny McEgo and the hapless GOP will continue to ignore it so they can insist they are running a "clean" campaign and nobody will get mad at them.
Well, I guess we private citizens will just have suck it up and gather some money to buy some ads exposing it all before the election. Oh, wait a minute. That's now illegal 60 days out, thanks to McCain/Feingold. Never mind!
The Empire Strikes Back!
Obviously not.
Suck-ups are not going to work to hard.
His eyes got wide. "Really?" he looked shocked.
There is so much negativity on Obama just under the surface, he'll sink like a rock once he gets the nomination.
Chilling. I’ll take the run of the mill corrupt politician any day over these people. They scare me.
Ah-hah! will this be a “Gotcha” moment for ‘Bama?
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