The Serpent in The Land of Lincoln
I hate to admit this, but I haven't been able to decide which of the two eminently qualified Illinoisans now running for president I support. They both have their flaws and their strong points. The best thing about them, though, is that they both sprout from the mighty loins of the Land of Lincoln. How great is it to hear that twanging Midwestern "a", "that glaciated accent" as the writer Richard Ford has called it, filling the airwaves, instead of that god-awful, unctuous southern drawl we've been subjected to for lo these many years?
So, Go Illini! I'll take either of them, hoping they'll do my home state proud.
I just got back from a little book-flogging business in Chicago, my hometown, and was glad to beat a hasty retreat from the ice-crusted tundra, since years in the temperate zones of the mid-Atlantic have eroded my native hardiness. While I was in the frozen zone, I happened to run across an old political source, from when I was a cub reporter in the state Capitol, a lobbyist-wormy little haven nestled in the middle of downstate's corn fields that we former denizens fondly know as "Springpatch."
This source was someone I know to have informational tentacles into the darkest reaches of the state's power apparatus, down numerous levels of venality into the basest depths of the state's smoke-filled rooms where the most brazen public-till fleecing schemes and scams are hatched and executed, where no-bid pockets are lined, favors granted for favors, revenge plotted and so on. He's watched many of his political associates over the years do -- ahem -- actual time. Jail stripes, or I guess nowadays, orange jumpsuits, are a must-have in the closets of just about every Illinois politician worth his or her salt.
Anyway, I digress. In other words, he was great source.
What this source rattled off to me, about a man named Rezko, and his ties to Lebanese banks (right-wing code: Hezbollah!) and his links to one of my two favorite Illini made my blood run cold.
I've always suspected that should Barack Obama get the nomination, we are in for a mean Summer Surprise. Call me paranoid, but his ride has been just a little too smooth. And now I have a glimpse of what it's going to be. Anyone who followed the Clintons during the 1990s will recognize this name: Jim MacDougal. Put it this way: Antoin "Tony" Rezko will make MacDougal look like what he was, a small-town criminal chump. And Barack Obama's problems with this man could make Whitewater look like what it was, a low-level scam puffed up for right-wing prosecutorial purposes.
Anyone supporting Obama now needs to read up on this guy and think about how to burst the boil before it turns into a rumor tumor, with apologies for the mixed medical metaphors. Check Lynn Sweet's columns in the Sun-Times, and the investigative work underway by David Jackson at the Chicago Tribune. There is a lot online, including the indictment.
Given how business is conducted in Springpatch, and given the recent-ness of our Democratic front-runner's residence down there, and his clear and provable links to one of Illinois' latest indictment-worthy political rogues -- including involving the financing of his own house (oh yikes!) and even -- according to this source -- some distant connection to Michelle Obama's hospital work -- I suggest that every Obama supporter with church-going inclinations get down on his or her hands and knees and pray that his advisor David Axelrod -- himself a former Chicago journalist and therefore no stranger to the slime-pit from whence these stories come -- has researched the Rezko real estate deal and every other aspect of his client's interaction with "the Syrian" and has his answers ready when the Republicans roll out their Summer Surprise.
Because they've got some material to work with. And that lulling white noise we hear coming from over yonder on their side? It's the sound of rat-weasel Republicans in Oxford cloth and penny-loafers, riffling through reams of court documents with the name Rezko on the file box.
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boy i sure love a secret source that is so secret that it cannot be verified or questioned!
my secret source tells me that if hillary wins the presidency, we will all be saying "if i only knew then what i know now!"
Obama Rezko Part 2.
The biggest problem for Obama is Rezko's facilitating the purchase of his mansion. The Obamas wanted to buy a mansion. The mansion sat on property which had a large undeveloped lot next to the house. The owner wanted to sell the house and adjacent lot together and he set one price for both. Obama went to Rezko for help. At this time it was becoming known that Rezko was under investigation by the US Attorney and might be indicted.
Rezko was happy to oblige. Here is how the deal came down. Obama would buy the house and Rezko, through his wife, would buy the lot. First, Rezko and Obama got the seller to reduce the overall price by $325,000 because the property had been on the market for a long time. Normally, this discount would be allocated across the entire property; when it was divided it would go proportionally to the prices on the house and the lot. Rezko and Obama agreed, however, and the seller consented to allocate the discount just to the lot on which the house stands, while Rezko agreed to pay the full asking price of the vacant lot ($650,000). Rezko had no need for the undeveloped lot and never built on it. He bought the lot simply to accommodate Obama's desire to purchase the mansion. Rezko put the deal in his wife's name. This arrangement (1) gave Obama a lower price on the house than he would have paid had the discount been spread proportionally between the two lots and (2) allowed Obama to buy the house separately even though the seller wanted to sell the two parcels together for one price. The two sales closed simultaneously. Not long after, Rezko was indicted.
Obama said it was "boneheaded" to have dealt with Rezko. Oh? It was a smart move: Rezko gave him a significant financial advantage.
Why did Rezko act so generously towards Obama? Well, if you are in deep trouble with the federal authorities, it may help to have a grateful US senator on your side.
rblackbird:P
Succinctly, your response to the post has not shown that Obama either misused his legislative position, in his relationship with pre-indictment Rezko, or that he exercised undue influence on the property owner to bring about or "facilitate the purchase of his mansion." Additionally, you have not stated any basis for your notion that "[n]ormally, . . . (the) discount would be allocated across the entire property." According to the respective parties, the contracts of sale between the owner and Obama and the owner and Rezko's wife were at 'arms length,' which satisfied the law.
Maybe you haven't heard that the US Attorney was privy to all of the facts, but concluded that there was not even colorable wrongdoing by Obama. Therefore, any use of it by any detractor to impugn Obama would be nothing more than being scurrilous and small.
WintonyMay.
First, you miss the point of the article: the Republicans will turn Obama's close relationship with the slumlord rezko into a full-blown attack on Obama. They will make him look like a hypocrite and in bed with a crook. The actual facts of the matter do not count. Do you remember the Willie Horton ad? It came out shortly after Dukakis was nominated. He finished the convention with a double-digit lead. Then the Horton ad hit. Dukakis's lead began to diminish quickly, and he never regained footing. It was the same thing with the Swiftboaters. The Republicans will turn Obama inside-out with this story, mainly because they fear they may not be able to defeat him straight-up and honestly. I hope you remember this when the Republicans attack Obama after the convention should he be nominated, so you won't be surprised.
Second, the mansion transaction may have been "arms length" as far as their dealings with the seller. But it was not arm's length between Rezko and Obama.
Rezko had a right to allocate some of the discount to the lot. Instead, he gave the whole discount to Obama, about an extra $75-100,000 benefit. Further, the US attorney has not concluded that there was no colorable wrongdoing by Obama (where do you get this stuff?). He has not said anything about Obama other than to designate him as the recipient of the illegal $10,000 campaign contribution which Rezko directed to Obama through one of his bagmen.
I am not scurrilous and small as you infer. I am telling the truth. You are so heavily invested in Obama, that you do not want to look at the hard facts as the author warned. You just can't stand the truth.
Reading these posts, I see that the Obamacists are ignoring Ms. Burleigh's advice to them to read up on the Rezko matter. So, here is a summary in two parts.
Part I.
Rezko is under indictment for fraud and related crimes arising out of his contracts with public housing authorities to build low-income housing projects.
In addition to Rezko being a long-time acquaintance and Obama's principal fundraiser for his US Senate campaign, Rezko formed partnerships with community groups to get contracts to build low-income housing. Obama was the lawyer for these groups, Rezko's partners. Many of these deals eventually collapsed and went into foreclosure.
State Senator Obama wrote to the Chicago housing board to encourage it to grant a contract to Rezko for a public housing project. The board granted the several million dollar contract to Rezko. This project went into default as well.
In one Rezko project located in Obama's senatorial district, the property quickly deteriorated, and the tenants (Obama's constituents) went without heat for five MONTHS. Obama said he never heard about this problem. Could this be that Obama was out of touch with his constituents, even though he had organized them and got them registered in his voter registration drive? Could it be that his constituents never thought of going to their state senator who had been their community organizer for help?
Ms. Burleigh:
I congratulate you on your writing skills. However, you really cannot be insinuating that, even after all this time, your "source" knows more about the so-called Obama/Rezko connection than the US Attorney or the Illinois State Attorney General. Similarly, you cannot be further insinuating that the Clinton campaign 'dropped the ball' by not ferreting out that information to embarrass Obama before Super Tuesday. Therefore, Obama's response to the Republicans' negativity, this Summer, could be no more than this response to your post: 'Where's the beef?'
WintonyMay.
Ah yes, the land of Lincoln.
And back then, Illinois amended the state constitution to prohibit the emigration of blacks into the state. By a 2-1 referendum. As the illustrious Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull said that "there is a very great aversion in the West -- I know it to be so in my State -- against having free Negroes come among us. Our people want nothing to do with the Negro."
And of course, Lincoln said he knew "his was the superior race." Real history is so gnarly.
it's scary the venom between each candidate's supporters. i know it is mild compared to the repubs but we will have our hands full in the fall and constant infighting and smearing is the ideology of republicans like rove. it will make it much harder to unite the party. WE MUST WIN CONGRESS with a large majority to institute any type of reform. if obama has long coat tails, there might be a year or so where some good ligislatiion will be passed. after that, all the newbies in d.c. will have been corrupted by special interests, yes even mr. obama. is this cynical or just realistic?
Methinks the Republicans will have more 'juice' with the Clintons.
http://tin
notice the media hasn't evenmentioned anything about the rezko connection? Well, ABC did a little piece. Never before have I seen such blatant bias political coverage and blackouts.
No one knows what evidence the federal prosecutor has. The prosecuter
When is somebody going to talk about what Obama did to Alice Palmer in order to get her seat in the Illinois State Senate?
Some diligent - really diligent - posters here have tried to get a response from Obama supporters on the Rezko matter, only to be ignored - really ignored.
Not normally giving antecdotes such as "oh, my friends say they're voting for_____" much weight, etc., I *will* say that when I read the Palmer (et al) reporting to my husband, the very first words out of his mouth were, "Sounds like something a Republican would do."
It has been discussed in comments on HuffPost. Palmer decided not to run for re-election in order to seek higher office, and told Obama to go for it. She was defeated in the election for the new position. She then decided she wanted her old position back. Obama would not step aside. Is there more to the story than this?
God knows I've posted enough about his shady dealing with Rezko, but Obama's supporters are really deep "in their own heads" and nothing will tarnish that halo they have projected upon his head.
But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.
Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.
"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differentl
"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differentl
And he says that allowing Rezko to help him buy his house was "boneheade
How could the Palmer business have played out differently when Obama so aggressively prevented her from trying to win her seat back.
What would have been a "better" way for Barry to have shoved her aside?
Here's a link to some of that history:
http://www
But don't expect the Obama-ites to bother reading it. They would rather bow down at his highness instead of doing their homework so our nation doesn't end up with another Republican president.
In it only to win it, not govern it. 'Cos per Michelle, Obama will never run again for president as it is "not practical.
And Iraq could make Vietnam look like child's play.
As far as I know, Rezco, didn't kill anyone. Did he? I do wish we could go back to 1992 and worry about the simple things like whitewater and Chinese spies. oops they are still around, and they donating to the Clinton campaign.
Nina Burleigh, I think we're concerned with killing the terrorist and saving our economic asses at this time. Oh, and if we're going to let those fraudulent mortgage officials get away with housing crisis?
Nina Burleigh, step away from the darkness and step into the 21st century.
Well, as usual the Obamaites are out in force & all too ready to shout everyone down. In this case, they're missing the point of the post. The poster isn't saying that Obama is dirty, he's saying that's what the Republicans are going to say and they have enough ammunition to work with to make a pretty loud noise. A loud enough noise to distract from the real things that Obama might like to have as the discussion. Think Kerry -- before he could even start his campaign he was on his heels from the SwiftBoaters. And, since this won't be a racial thing that the media might feel uncomfortable carrying on about, it will probably get a LOT of play. What will the Faithful do when they're man isn't just totally kowtowed to? Have a temper tantrum as always, I suppose. Oh, and don't go off on me as a Hillary supporter, because I'm not.
Well, you have certainly given us some great reasons not to vote for Rezko. Barack Obama, on the other hand...
Barack Obama need to explain to his adoring public just why it was worth Rezko's while to contribute so heavily to his political endeavors. What did Rezko get for his hundreds of thousands of dollars?
"sprung from the mighty loins of the land of lincoln" ? eeeek.
This is nothing new, I've been reading about the Rezko connection for months. Here's my question - wouldn't this be more of a comparison with Hillary Clinton's connection with Norman Hsu, instead of reaching back into history and pulling out White Water?
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