Clinton Got Money From Rezko Codefendants

Daily Kos:

The vetting of the Clinton's is just beginning. This was a risky strategy by the Clinton's in the first place, because the boomerang effect will expose much more of their shenanigans to the American people....

...Since the name of Chicago defendant Antoin 'Tony' Rezko has come up in national debate, it seems fair to look at donations from other defendants in Chicago's "Operation Board Games."

Of the other five defendants, three have donated to the Clintons or to Clinton supporters, three have donated mostly to Republicans, and at least two have donated to Obama's political opponents. None have donated to Obama.

Read the whole story: Daily Kos

Comments

[Susan1968]

Obama: Just another mug-slinging politician:

Quote:

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign "scored a significant hit" against chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "by helping to place" a story about tainted Democratic donor Norman Hsu ...
The story, titled Teacher and Apprentice by associate editor Marc Ambinder, describes how Obama campaign staffers were "frustrated" because the press was not covering Clinton "in the way they expected it would."

"…And at a campaign event in Iowa, one of Obama’s aides plopped down next to me and spoke even more bluntly. He wanted to know when reporters would begin to look into Bill Clinton’s postpresidential sex life," Ambinder writes. ...

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Norman_Hsu

[Shelly1970]

Unfortunately, he still has a LONG way to go to be the expert mud-slinger our Hillary is!

Yes, maybe he needs more experience.

Throwing mud.

:-)

[uglybetty]

....Or maybe he needs more experience in ...Life !!

[nepat]

Mud-slingi­ng...vetti­ng. Tough to know what's what in the Clinton rule book.

[Mikeblackbear]

To anyone reading this post, you need to go to you tube and search out "The Hillary Movie" and watch all 9 segments and then ask yourself if you could vote for her .

[Roose]

Susan seriously you ought to do something more constructive with your life, spreading lies and innuendo is not a productive way to support your candidate.

BTW: your posts are too long and tedious for anyone to bother reading in their entirety.

[kevenhussienseven]

Obama slings mug! Film at eleven!

[dutchess2]

Oh - this is just too funny!

Last week we discovered that Hillary had a staffer at the Rezko trial, we all assume it was to be there when anything they could use on Obama came up...

Turns out she was only worried about her and Bill.

Bet she's sorry she pulled on this particular string.... its like she's handing stuff out to the McSame supporters­... McSame, will, of course, be too gentlemanly to use them, but Rove will not.

Rove has joined the McSame campaign..­..

Get ready!

[Shelly1970]

Interesting tactic though...

Sort of like when you've been caught red-handed by someone. You say, "Look behind you!" Then, RUN!

It's a cute distraction.

Classic campaigning.

Doesn't disqualify her for president.

If anything, it shows she is cunning.

[hank48188]

If you can read Shelly go to a blogsite called "NO QUARTER" and look in the Feb. Archives for a story called "How to Buy a Mansion You Can't Afford" and read the story about Rezko helping Obama buy his House by purchasing a vacant lot for $625,000, go read the story!

[StephenS]

Excuse me, but last week we discovered that Obama, not Clinton, had a staffer at the Rezko trial.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/04/woman-at-tony-rezko-trial_n_89764.html

After finding that out, Clinton's campaign considered also sending an observer.

"Pointing out that Obama sent a staffer to observe to the opening session of Rezko's trial, the Clinton camp is considering sending a representative of its own to watch out for Obama dirt during the proceeding­s."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Clinton_camp_keeping_eye_on_Rezko_0304.html

[Susan1968]

Good catch Stephen.

[RobertHewson]

Re: Perhaps we should remove that plate from the "kitchen sink":

From "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-obama-can-win.html

"Saturday, March 08, 2008
How Obama Can Win and Win Strong

I am aware of the delegate math.

I know that, unless the Clinton team runs roughshod with regard to superdelegates, the numbers are unassailable.

However, for Obama to not only win, but to win strong, and thus to be in the best position for the general, he must step outside of the box created when Clinton tactics were applied to his own admirable stance.

By declaring himself the candidate of the new politics, putting the politics of Rove et al. aside for a politics of honesty, straight-forward decency, and strength, he has putatively left the field open for Clinton et al. to lob innuendo after innuendo. If he responds, he is in violation of his commitment to the new; if he continues with his current path of non-response, he will be taken down by a series of attacks, that however false or fantastic, will eventually raises doubts in the mind of the electorate as to the validity of his new politics, and will, in the great viscera of the electorate, so responsive and so easily changed, appear "weak."

If he attacks, it is said, he betrays himself; if he continues on the same path, he is whittled down by rumor and insinuation.

Clinton's current strength is her ability to attack, however true the nature and content of the attacks. Obama must turn this very behavior into its own negative. To do so, Obama must relentlessly name what she is doing and anchor it--calling for an "end to the era of 'kitchen sink' politics, i.e.:

"It's about time that we left the era of "kitchen sink" politics, of distortion and insinuation, behind us. We have all seen it before this--a period where it was often difficult to tell falsehood, rumor, and misinformation from truth. It was this type of politics that contributed to a war in which we have lost the best of our national treasure, our nation's men and women. It is this type of politics that our opponents not so long ago decried. And it is this type of politics that, more than anything else, signals weakness--the inability to base one's statements and actions on the firm ground of truth, on our collective and honest dedication to the construction of a new and positive future--and instead, on a retreat into the politics of personal destruction.

It's time to take out the dirty dishes; It's time to empty the kitchen sink. After an era where it was often difficult to distinguish fantasy from truth, it's time to put that era behind us, to base our future efforts on a strong and honest desire to build a new and better future."

What Obama can create is his own "There you go again" moment--one that will both define Clinton (after all, someone has to do it), and place the Clinton camp in their very own box, of their own making: A box where any attack will immediately be associated in the voter's mind, and will be accompanied by a roll of the voter's eyes, as another example of Clinton's "kitchen sink" politics--of the chaotic, inconsistent, contradictory and frantic willingness to say or do anything to be elected, be it the changing of one's personality, tone, degree of honesty--or one's degree of tolerance or gusto for the politics of personal destruction.

Without a single attack, this demonstrates the nature of the Clinton camp: in a moment of crisis, and in danger of loss, rather than respond with strength, principle and authority, they throw the "kitchen sink" at the issue, abandoning principles and frantically strewing innuendo as they do so.

With powerful moral force, it names exactly what the Clinton camp is doing, and anchors it both to the politics of the past Administration, and to the very political tactics that Clinton herself has denounced and disavowed. It provides direct evidence--thus far, the only direct evidence--of how a Clinton Administration would likely govern in times of chaos, crisis, and other "3 a.m. moments" (thus disempowering her already shaky claims to superior foreign policy judgment): With a "kitchen sink" approach of tumultuous, changing, disorganized and contradictory attack, rather than with consistent purpose and moral authority.

Obama must persistently name what the Clinton camp is doing rather than complain, and he must then link it to the very essence of an old politics that has been lived through by all of us, and denigrated by most, over the past 8 years.

Thus named, and thus defined, Obama can then invite Clinton up to the higher ground--to a debate based on policy and principle--or she can choose to stay in the box that she and her camp have created.

Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-obama-can-win.html

[Mikeblackbear]

To anyone reading this post, you need to go to you tube and search out "The Hillary Movie" and watch all 9 segments and then ask yourself if you could vote for her .

[uglybetty]

You obviously spend your most valuable time on [ U-TUBE ] .
Sorry .

[Susan1968]

Obama & Norman Hsu

QUOTE:

... disgraced Democratic donor Norman Hsu helped host a 2005 California event for Barack Obama's political action committee and introduced the senator from Illinois to one of the biggest fundraisers for his presidential bid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090703047.html

[ibsteve2u]

What is your goal here, exactly?

Repeat enough of the story often enough to scroll all of the poop (literally) on the Clintons off the first page of comments and replace them with "allegations" repeated so often that you hope they will give the illusion of truth?

Dang - I hope Hillary thinks the same way!

Wanting something to be true so bad that you click your heels together thousands of times won't bring anyone home to the White House - it'll just wear out their ruby slippers..­.

[Shelly1970]

Tell me this....

Say you were President, and you were advised that a war would be necessary during an unpopular time. Iran, for example.

How do you convince the public that we should go to war?

Obama would go off on all the academic reasons: spread of democracy, stablizing the middle east blah blah blah.

NEWS FLASH: America doesn't want academic.

That's why Hillary is better for the job. Yes, it's no fun to be scared into war, but it works.

So, yes. Hillary thinks the same way. But this is not a fun park.

This is politics.

[Susan1968]

My goal is to challenge misleading headlines on Huffington Roast which Obama supporters then speculate about without reading.

Especially when the entire artcle from which they've edited one paragraph reveals that Rezko's co-defendents donated to dozens of politicians.

My ultimate goals is to show that Obama is just another shady polititian. Which he is.

[DRHoen]

spam

[TruthBeTold4us]

Ooops! Forgot Mauricio Celis of the Lippo Group with ties to a brutal dictatorship in Indonesia, Juan Jose Cabrerra (drug smuggler), Yah Lin Trie from Taiwan.

Trump card: Hillary is the #1 recepient of lobbyist cash in 2007 with $823,000 AND number 1 recipient of donations from the defense industry. (Can you really believe she wants to end the war in Iraq? Apparently THEY don't.)

[DRHoen]

Is there some way to collapse all posts from a particular user, like a censor function? That would be such a nice feature.

[TruthBeTold4us]

Political poker? I love this game! Ok, I raise you:

Oscar Wyatt, Peter Paul, Keith Raniere (NXIVM), International Profit Associates, Mehmet Celebi, Marc Rich's wife, then there's the New York, Chinese dishwashers that don't have addresses or names don't check out.

[uglybetty]

That sound ,oddly like those Obama supporters who '"don't check out "!!

[mrJJ]

A tiny glimpse of history may be in order; for those too young too remember:

Charle Trie
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/op080397.htm

Norman Hsu's Boss Chan Tse-Chiu aka Eddie Chan
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D6173AF931A3575AC0A966958260

Norman
The return Of Dollar Bill's magic money men ... err pass it on to Hillary please...$­850 Thousand Dollars
Norman
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5643329

[Susan1968]

MORE from the same article linked above.

The Huffington Roast headline should read: Kerry, Keendy, Clinton and a host of other democrats received donations form Rezko codefendents.

Here's more from the same Daily Kos article:

* Stuart Levine: 210 donations for federal candidates, totaling $255,350, mostly to Republicans. Biggest contributions to Illinois Republican Party and to National PAC. One $5000 donation to the Illinois Democratic Party. Most individual donations to GOP candidates from GWBush on down, except for a few $2000 donations to Joe Lieberman, Mark Green of NY, who now appears frequently on MSNBC as a Clinton supporter, and Illinois State Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes, whose father, Thomas C. Hynes, was formerly a Cook County Assessor. Dan Hynes was among Barack Obama’s primary opponents in the Illinois U.S. Senate race in 2003. Levine donated $1000 to Bill Clinton in 1995. Levine has not donated to Obama.

* Joseph Cari, Jr: pulled out his checkbook 137 times from 1993 on, giving $193,836 under Joseph and $8958 under Joe to candidates for federal office, mostly to Dems. Further donations from family members incl $1000 to Bill Clinton in 1995. Biggest Cari donations went to the DNC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Individual donations, usually $1000 apiece, to Dem candidates across the country incl the natl figures—Gore, Kerry, Kennedys—and others incl Robert Torricelli in NJ, Chuck Robb in VA, and even the late Paul Wellstone in MN ($250). Cari donated $2000 to Bill Clinton in 1995, another $1000 to Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm, $500 and $1000 to Hillary Clinton in 2000 and 2003, and donated twice to HILLPAC in 2002. The Hillary Clinton campaign has apparently returned the $1000 but not the other donations.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/6/123948/7839/356/470517

[Shelly1970]

Hey, the Clinton campaign is good at slinging mud.

What can we say? :-)

Let's hope these ties to Clinton get buried soon.

This is not a good time to be a Hillary supporter.

But I'm not changing my mind.

(plus, I already voted).

Hillary '08

[DRHoen]

Let's just drag everyone down into the mud. If I can't be happy, why should anyone else. Nice sentiments. Bodes well for the future of America.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

When you live by the sword, it's a fair bet you'll die by the sword... Hillary hasn't learned that yet, so she's going to get hoisted on her own petard.

Poetic justice.

[Susan1968]

Once again Obama people get all worked up about a Huffington ROAST headline an do not read the ENTIRE linked article.

Did you go read the entire text of the Daily KOS article headlined above? No you say?

Okay, I read it for you.

Here are the "DONATIONS" Rezko's co-defendants gave to the Clintons - this is from the the article linked above, QUOTE:

Levine donated $1000 to Bill Clinton in 1995. Cari donated $2000 to Bill Clinton in 1995, another $1000 to Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm, $500 and $1000 to Hillary Clinton in 2000 and 2003, and donated twice to HILLPAC in 2002.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/6/123948/7839/356/470517

I'm laughing. This compared to 17 years worth of Rezko contributions to Oabam, some of them made through starwmen who Rezko later reimbursed.

Quote:

U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve, who is presiding over Rezko's trial, told prosecutors they could introduce evidence to support allegations that Rezko used straw men to make political contributions to Obama on his behalf.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/26/obama-likely-to-come-up-i_n_88498.html

[ibsteve2u]

How "SwiftBoat­tie"....re­peat, repeat, repeat - not truth, but "allegations" - until they become "conventional wisdom".

Yawn.

[Mikeblackbear]

To anyone reading this post, you need to go to you tube and search out "The Hillary Movie" and watch all 9 segments and then ask yourself if you could vote for her .

[mcfried]

You Clinton supporters crack me up. The thread is about Clintons connection to the Rezko trial, but since you can't defend her you guys are pulling rabbits out to try and implicate Obama in something even though there has been NO evidence of wrong doing. Hillarious.

[Susan1968]

Clinton's connection to REZKO trial?

Now I know you didn't read the Kos article. See above - I read it for you.

[mcfried]

What part of co-defendant don't you understand ?

[KaAp]

Went over to the Daily Kos Susan and it seems you are reading it rather selectively as always ... rather than accusing others of having cognitive problems I think I would check out your own ... which reading a myriad of your posts seems to be just part of the difficulty you are having ... mostly your posts are just histrionics without substance to back them up linking to blogs without proper documentation or selectively skewing what blogs say --- I do not need you to read for me ... I can read for myself thank you

[Susan1968]

Dream on Obama people. The RezkoWatch site references reputable news articles with links to every report they quote.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times has been covering Rezko fo YEARS. Obama has had a 17-year relationship with Rezko in CHICAGO -- known as Corruption-World when it comes to politics..

Obama has wriiten letters on Rezko's behalf for big projects. Obama has recommended Rezko to get a lucrative contract in Iraq to build a nuclear plant. Obama teamed with Rezko to buy his house just 4 months before Rezko was indicted. And it's clear there's a $300,000 FAVOR embedded in that house deal. A favor Obama owes Rezko.

And you're going to try to use a meet-n-greet photo taken in the 1990s to PROVE something about Hillary and Rezko? You know how many people ask to take photos with the president? 100s of thousands.

One photo verses 17 years of Obama dealings of Rezko with a paper trail. Dream on.

There is a paper trail of Obama's connections and dealings with Rezko. Even Huffington ROAST has reported on it:

QUOTE:

U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve, who is presiding over Rezko's trial, told prosecutors they could introduce evidence to support allegations that Rezko used straw men to make political contributions to Obama on his behalf.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/26/obama-likely-to-come-up-i_n_88498.html

AND THERE'S MORE - Obama's old law partner & campaign contributer also caught up in Rezko money dealings:

QUOTE"

Now, Davis finds himself in the glare of an unwanted spotlight.

One of his business partners, William Moorehead, recently began serving a four-year prison sentence for stealing more than $600,000 from at least 13 federally funded housing projects he managed -- including two buildings that he and Davis co-own. During the period Moorehead has admitted he was stealing the money, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned, he lent Davis $100,000 -- a loan that has drawn scrutiny from federal investigators, though Davis hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing.

Davis serves on a separate state pension board -- the Illinois State Board of Investment -- that also has been under federal investigation. Davis was appointed by Blagojevich, on Rezko's recommendation.

As Davis has become one of City Hall's favored developers in the last 10 years, he also has become a major political player. He has donated more than $400,000 to dozens of political campaign funds. His top beneficiaries include Daley, Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama, who worked for several years as an attorney in Davis' law firm.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/644511,CST-NWS-davis11.article


Sun-Times Staff Reports

Hillary Clinton said she did not remember taking the picture and said she doesn't even remember meeting Rezko.

"I've probably taken hundreds of thousands of pictures," Clinton said. "I don't know the man, I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door, I don't have a 17-year-re­lationship with him."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/759420,012508clinton.article

Obama & Norman Hsu

Disgraced Democratic donor Norman Hsu helped host a 2005 California event for Barack Obama's political action committee and introduced the senator from Illinois to one of the biggest fundraisers for his presidential bid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090703047.html

[ibsteve2u]

" told prosecutors they could introduce evidence to support allegations that Rezko used straw men to make political contributions to Obama on his behalf."

lolll...yo­u're a little skimpy on the details of the Clinton involvment with Hsu. More is available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/15/AR2007091501386_pf.html.

And gee - ya forgot to mention the Clinton's involvement with people like Vinod Gupta, some details of which can be read at http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2576.

Now since India is a primary receiver of the jobs Clinton Version 1.0 offshored, you might understand why this quote disturbs me:

(Begin Quote)

According to the New York Times, Mr. Gupta's company...

paid $146,866 to ferry the Clintons, Mr. Gupta and others to Acapulco and back, court records show. During the next four years, infoUSA paid Mr. Clinton more than $2 million for consulting services, and spent almost $900,000 to fly him around the world for his presidential foundation work and to fly Mrs. Clinton to campaign events. (Read article here)

Here's a quote from the New York Times article that has the Bush ring to it:

"An entrepreneur from India, Mr. Gupta, 60, founded infoUSA in Omaha in 1972 and built it into a publicly traded company with more than $400 million in revenue. Along the way, he nurtured a taste for politics, becoming a major Democratic fund-raiser and a Lincoln Bedroom guest in the Clinton White House.

Before leaving office, Mr. Clinton appointed Mr. Gupta to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Earlier, Mr. Clinton had nominated him for two minor ambassadorships, which Mr. Gupta declined because of business commitments.


Even if infoUSA was a pristine pure company operating at the highest level of ethics, and all Gupta did was open his wallet for the Clintons to dip into so he could bask in the afterglow of power, and get a chance to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom (which he did), the Clinton's behavior looks so ..... Bush Republican.

(End Quote)

[Shelly1970]

SSShhhhhh.­...

We can't lose any more Hillary voters as it is!

Ugh..

[nepat]

There is nothing new here, Susan1968, in spite of your excitable style - as though imparting something new and undiscovered, right here in the Huffington Post's comments' section. Obama himself has admitted to being a friend of Rezko's (see this interview of Obama w/ Tim Russert; Rezko stuff starts at about 2:42). That's why he was involved in the real estate deal in the first place.

I repeat, though, is this really where you want your candidate to take her campaign? Obama and Rezko are bush-leaguers when it comes to dirty fundraising when compared to the decades-long record of Clinton fundraising scandals. Here's a sampling of records the Clintons have set:

- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions

- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad

- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates

- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation

- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify

I think you Clinton supporters need to doubleback on this stuff. All you're going to do is dredge up all this and a whole lotta new stuff (Peter Paul) by insisting on this kind of campaigning.

[Lalo]

So is this the Obama Swiftboat or the Huffington Post Swiftboat for Obama?

Either way, let's watch it explode before it hits the target. The longer Rezko name is in the public mind, the better.

[fullkelly]

Triangulation ------ Obama + Rezko + Nadhmi Auchi -- are the three points of two sides with the last dot to be connected is back to Obama. Obama wants the house, Rezko talks to Auchi, Auchi pays Rezko partial payment for joint venture which in turn provides $1.65 mil to Obama.

[TruthBeTold4us]

This is why Clinton should release her tax returns for the past 7 years, what have the Clintons been doing and how did they earn enough to create a $50 million fortune in that time period?

Are donations to Hillary's senate campaign tied in any way to donations to Bill's library?

What about the pardons Bill made just before leaving office? We know Marc Rich's wife made donations to both Hillary's campaign and Bill's library - what about others? Ties?

By the way, I just read a story in the DailyTexanonline.com dated 3/7/08 which states some strange things happened at the Texas caucuses last week. Turns out a bunch of Democrats were told to leave the line empty for candidate chosen and Hillary Clinton's name ended up on the final sheets. It caught the eye of officials because the handwriting appeared similar on several ballots. When checked, the voters said they did not prefer Hillary Clinton. WHO WAS BEHIND THAT?

[RISEUPAMERICA]

Guess it's time for Obama Truths....

http://www.rezkowatch.blogspot.com/

[mcfried]

Not reputable.

[Susan1968]

Yes it is.

[EvoMan]

Guess it's time for this again:

http://prorev.com/2008/01/so-you-want-to-talk-about-obamas-pals.html

Want to bet there are a few more entries under her and no more under him in the next month?

[mcfried]

What the hell have the Clintons been up too the last 7 1/2 years. Seriously I am starting to really worry about what they are hiding. Given Bills pardons and her refusal to release their tax returns and white house papers you know it has got to be bad.

[RISEUPAMERICA]

what is Obama hiding when he REFUSES to disclose his financials with anything connected to REZKO????

so he has a double standard???

[mcfried]

You are an idiot. There is nothing there re Rezko I have done the research and read all the articles. No double standard. If you like Slick Willy fine, I personally prefer to vote for someone who's biggest sin is getting a deal on his back yard. Slick Willy's crap is a million times worse.

[snowcat]

It doesn't matter how much Clinton corruption surfaces, her followers refuse to open their eyes. Just how Bush got in....

[Katco]

Tax Returns!!!! Where are they?????