I just looked over this thread, and I didn't see anyone saying they're voting for him just because he's black.
That's not to say that his "blackness" isn't history-making; because, even if you absolutely hate the man, you can't deny he's making history. But so is Hillary Clinton.
I hadn't heard about the Kucinich "endorsement" (quotes, because I'm not sure how official it is). If it's true - well, that's pretty cool. Always liked that Kucinich fella. And, unless I'm mistaken, I don't think there's ever been any bad-blood between them. Specific issue differences, sure (and I'm with Kucinich on single-payer health care); but no animosity. In fact, they usually have some pretty nice things to say about each other.
In my next post, I clarified who I was referring to. I also quoted him.
Yes, Kucinich has always had a ton of a lot more faith in the Democratic party than I have and he is much more nice when speaking of their short comings than I have been. We can't all be as good as Dennis. I have seen his frustration and extreme distaste of their current direction and policies, however. And what bugs me the most is how they wouldn't dare stand up for him especially on national tv when he's being unfairly treated. Most of the time they'll simply laugh and disregard his points....and that shows a difference in character.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
i vowed to be done with this thread, but it has taken a turn i can't ignore. To suggest, as some have, that Senator Obama is winning by overwhelming margins in states that are about as white as the landing dock of the Mayflower because he is black, and white voters are afraid of being percieved as racist or are trying to balm their conscience and convince themselves they are not, is about the single most retarded thing i have read in this forum in sometime.
Too bad no one suggested it. I was referring to the types the who call others racists for not supporting him as if race should be an issue. Do try to follow along. And the fact that you skipped over my post explaining that to quote RainDog just shows how eager you are to try to make up some bullshit point.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
In my next post, I clarified who I was referring to. I also quoted him.
Yes, Kucinich has always had a ton of a lot more faith in the Democratic party than I have and he is much more nice when speaking of their short coming than I have been. We can't all be as good as Dennis. I have seen his frustration and extreme distaste of their current direction and policies, however. And what bugs me the most is how they wouldn't dare stand up for him especially on national tv when he's being unfairly treated. Most of the time they'll simply laugh and disregard his points....and that shows a difference in character.
You want a president that needs other people to stand up for him?
Bad joke? Anyway, I agree with you - Dennis is a good guy. He's also smart. I remember a few debates ago, when he was asked if he would support the Democratic nominee and he said "only if they disapprove of war as a primary method of foreign relations" or something to that affect. So his faith in the party isn't total - but, and this is just me opining here, if he is supporting Obama, it's likely because he knows that under an Obama administration, Congressmen like himself will get a stronger voice.
And also, I have a great appreciation for RainDog. While we may disagree about Obama and I'm sure my posts aggravate him, he debates rationally and keeps a level head instead of dropping the f bomb or losing his temper any time someone has something to say against Obama.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
You want a president that needs other people to stand up for him?
Bad joke? Anyway, I agree with you - Dennis is a good guy. He's also smart. I remember a few debates ago, when he was asked if he would support the Democratic nominee and he said "only if they disapprove of war as a primary method of foreign relations" or something to that affect. So his faith in the party isn't total - but, and this is just me opining here, if he is supporting Obama, it's likely because he knows that under an Obama administration, Congressmen like himself will get a stronger voice.
I like that trait in people and how they treat their friends.
I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I just find myself so disappointed with the party, I can no longer, in good conscience, vote for them and support the problems I see.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Antoin “Tony” Rezko is a Syrian born businessman who was known in Chicago political circles as “a fixer.” Need to get a waiver of some kind of regulation to close a real estate deal? Call Tony. Want your kid to intern in the office of a United States senator? Call Tony. Are the wheels of government turning too slowly and need to have a legislator or two goose the bureaucracy? Call Tony.
Rezko had a lot of friends and associates because he collected politicians like a kid collects baseball cards. He was a fundraiser with the ability to shake the money tree for his political friends.
Entrepreneur, real estate tycoon, developer, and pal of the powerful, by all accounts Tony Rezko had his fingers in many pies.
He was also, according to Sun Times political reporter Carol Marin, a “staggeringly talented shakedown artist”:
Carol Marin wrote in the January 3, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times that the “feds believe that Rezko was a staggeringly talented shakedown artist who traded plum appointments for large donations” to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, “got massive ‘consulting fees’ for himself and his friends in exchange for state investment business, and, along the way, wiggled his way into all manner of lucrative deals and contracts, some of which came with government tax breaks or subsidies.
“If that was the extent of Rezko’s magic, he would still be just another accomplished but mundane player in the riotous world of Chicago corruption. But that isn’t the end of his story. It seems, today, like it’s only the beginning.
“Rezko, let’s remember, was ‘traveling’ internationally when his indictments were handed down. He has interesting friends the world over. The emir of Qatar is a pal. The former Iraq electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, who resides in west suburban Oak Brook when he’s not on the lam from a Baghdad lockup, is a Rezko business colleague who’s been indicted in connection with $2 billion in missing money meant to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. The feds are investigating what role Rezko may have had in that deal.
The Feds are also looking at Rezko’s long time business relationship with Patti Blagojevich, the governor’s wife, as well as minority contracts won by Rezko’s various businesses.
In short, Tony Rezko is as shady as they come in Chicago politics.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST REZKO?
Rezko was indicted on October 11, 2006 on 24 fraud related counts:
A 24-count indictment unveiled Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald charges Mr. Rezko, 51, in an “extensive” fraud scheme in which he allegedly demanded payments from firms wanting work from a huge state pension fund and favorable rulings from a state board that regulates hospital developments. Mr. Fitzgerald said the illegal activities constituted “a pay-to-play scheme on steroids.
“It was a feeding frenzy. People were feeding at the trough for millions of dollars,” he said.
How extensive was this kickback scheme? After Governor Blagojevich was elected, Rezko handed him a 26 page list of people he was recommending for jobs in the new administration. Contained in that list were people being recommended by Barack Obama. One of those names was the real estate agent who handled the controversial sale of a house to Obama.
How many of the people on that list actually got a job in state government? Jack Lavin, the CFO of Rezko’s company Rezko Enterprises, was named head of the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity. And Kelly King Dibble, who was in charge of business development for Rezko’s real estate development company, got a real plum; executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
Gee. No conflict of interest there.
OBAMA AND THE SLUMLORD
Tony Rezko created a real estate development company in 1989 called Rezmar. Their intent was to purchase decrepit housing, renovate it, and turn it into low income rentals for the poor. At the time, there was a city wide effort to rehab older structures instead of building new low income housing. Over the next 9 years, Rezmar purchased 30 buildings and got $43 million in city funds for rehab.
Eventually, Rezmar turned to a small, left wing law firm Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland to assist in the paperwork associated with government contracts and other real estate legalities. DMB & G employed a young lawyer named Barack Obama. By this time, Rezko was aware of Obama - having offered him a job at Rezmar following Obama’s graduation from Harvard. The only problem was that Rezko didn’t care about maintaining the buildings:
Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience when they created Rezmar in 1989 to rehabilitate apartments for the poor under the Daley administration. Between 1989 and 1998, Rezmar made deals to rehab 30 buildings, a total of 1,025 apartments. The last 15 buildings involved Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland during Obama’s time with the firm.
Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:
Seventeen buildings — many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat — ended up in foreclosure.
Six buildings are currently boarded up.
Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.
Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.
At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings.
This would be a classic definition of a slumlord. And Obama’s involvement with Rezmar during this period? The “Yes we can” man isn’t saying much:
For five weeks, the Sun-Times sought to interview Obama about Rezko and the housing deals. His staff wanted written questions. It responded Sunday but left many questions unanswered. Other answers didn’t directly address the question. Among these: When did Obama learn of Rezmar’s financial problems? “The senator had no special knowledge of any financial problems,” Gibbs wrote.
Did the senator ever complain to anyone — government officials, Rezmar or Rezko — about the conditions of Rezmar’s buildings? “Senator Obama did follow up on constituency complaints about housing as [a] matter of routine,” Gibbs wrote.
Did the senator ever discuss Rezmar’s financial problems with anyone at his law firm? “The firm advises us that it [is] unaware of any such conversations,” Gibbs wrote.
The campaign claims that Obama was a “junior lawyer” whose jobs included “reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions.” But Obama was with the firm for nine years. Are we to believe he was still doing scut work while Rezko was giving the city the runaround regarding the condition of those properties?
WHY WOULD OBAMA GET INVOLVED WITH THIS SLEAZE?
Obviously, Saint Barack wouldn’t be caught dead with a crook like this.
But Obama the ambitious politician? That’s another story.
If you listened to Obama, you would think that he barely knows Rezko. He has told the press he had lunch with him “a couple of times a year” and that he and his wife socialized with the Rezkos “2 to 4 times a year.”
This may be true. But wouldn’t you love to pull his phone records for the last 17 years and find out how many times he spoke with Rezko?
Rezko saw something in Obama right off the bat, donating $2,000 to Obama in his first race for state senate. In fact, he was one of the first donors to that campaign. Through the years, Obama estimates that Rezko donated around $60,000 to his campaigns. That doesn’t include monies the rainmaker made fall from heaven.
At the end of Obama’s failed attempt to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush, he was in desperate need of cash. A quick call to Tony and thousands of dollars showed up as Rezko tapped his business friends for his pal. This is a man Obama described as a “one time fundraiser” who over the years may have raised as much as $150,000 for Obama. (Note: Rezko also raised money for George Bush and a few other Republicans.)
JUST WHAT DID OBAMA DO IN RETURN FOR REZKO’S SUPPORT?
There were small things, such as hiring the son of one of Rezko’s associates as an intern in his senate office. And there were a little larger favors:
As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.
The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama’s former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district.
Obama’s letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko…
The fact that the proposed housing was outside of the district he represented as a state senator is an interesting addendum to the story. With no real political interest of his own or any benefit for his constituents, Obama (playing the oldest and most cherished of political games) rubbed the back of a man who had rubbed his – to the tune of $855,000.
Obama has denied doing any favors for Rezko. He is right. Putting pressure on bureaucrats to give a crony a contract worth $855,000 in personal fees is beyond “favor” and enters the realm of corrupt deal.
Then there was the strange case of Obama intervening with the State Department on behalf of one of Rezko’s business associates who was being denied entry to the US because he was considered an “undesirable alien.”
One of the richest men in the world, Nadhmi Auchi, who Rezko owed more than $27 million in “loans,” was looking to come to Chicago. After receiving another “loan” from Auchi, Rezko told prosecutors that he approached Senator Obama to try and get a visa for the billionaire. Obama denies he was approached and there is no record (yet) of any entreaties he made to the State Department on Auchi’s behalf.
Auchi himself stands convicted in a French court of fraud as part of the most spectacular corporate scandal in Europe since the end of the war; the “Elf Affair” where dozens of executives of the French oil company Elf stole 2 billion francs for houses, yachts, jewelry, and other expensive gewgaws.
It was Auchi who, in the end, probably made it possible for Obama to purchase his current house.
HOW DID REZKO HELP OBAMA PURCHASE HIS HOUSE?
Three weeks prior to Obama’s purchase of a fine, old Georgian mansion in the city’s Kenwood area, Auchi “loaned” Rezko another $3.5 million. The loan came through one of Auchi’s offshore holding companies. All of these loans to Rezko would eventually be “forgiven” when Rezko gave Auchi a bigger stake in a huge 62-acre development near Riverside Park.
The sellers of the house also owned a vacant lot adjacent to the property. But since the lot could only be accessed through the property where the house sat, it would have been pretty worthless to anyone except the owner of the dwelling. Offering price for both: $2.6 million.
This turned out to be a little steep for Obama who had just received a $1.2 million advance on a book. No problem for Mr. Fixit. Obama went in on a deal where Mrs. Rezko plunked down $125,000 for the $625,000 vacant lot. The sellers say that they gave Obama a $300,000 discount because his was the highest bid. The fact that Obama was the only one bidding on the house raises some eyebrows considering the neighborhood and the market at the time. Obama claims the house had been on the market 3 months which is not a long time considering the $2 million asking price and the complication of the vacant lot next door.
By paying full freight for the vacant lot – a lot that could never be developed unless bought by Obama – Rezko got his pal his dream house at a substantial discount.
The sellers have declined to talk directly to the media and have answered questions through Obama campaign headquarters. This might be considered strange in some quarters. But not if you’re considered the new messiah of politics.
The Auchi “loan” could very well have financed the whole deal. Court documents a year later show Mrs. Rezko making a salary of $37,000 with $35,000 in assets. Poor Tony reported that he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations.”
And that brings us to the final finagle; the sale of part of that vacant lot by Rezko to Obama.
It seems that Tony was in dire straits financially. He offered to sell a 10 X 150 foot parcel of the lot, valued at $40,500 dollars to Obama. His long time pal agreed, paying more twice the appraised value – $104,000. Obama claims it was to increase the size of his garden.
Some garden, huh?
For someone he supposedly barely knew, Obama and Rezko sure did each other a lot of favors.
DID OBAMA DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL?
There is no evidence that in any of his dealings with Rezko that Obama broke any law. The question is one of ethics. And judgment, of course. And truthfulness. Obama’s relationship with Rezko is much more extensive than he has ever admitted. Their 17-year relationship went beyond “one fundraiser” as Obama claims, and a few social dates with the gals.
Rezko was a patron, a valued supporter, and a business partner. And almost certainly a close friend as well.
The significance of this relationship is that it proves that Barack Obama is not who he claims to be – a new kind of politician who will lead us all to the Promised Land. Obama can lie like any normal politician. He can do favors for his supporters who give him money. He can do business with scam artists like Rezko whose illegal activities authorities are still trying to unravel.
Given what we know already, there doesn’t seem to be a “bottom” to this story yet. And what we find when we get there may yet prove to be Barack Obama’s undoing as a candidate for President of the United States.
Sorry no slime left.....current administration cornered and now controls the market.
Obama will be the best choice to further humans evolution towards peace.
He's also pretty smart....imagine, a president that can carry on a conversation...damn....that will be fkn sweet.
Yep, Obama has the market cornered on conversational skills.
There's plenty of slime to find all over the political spectrum...it's not exclusive to the Clintons and the Bushs. They are pretty covered, I'll admit. But I'm not going to support someone just because they are less 'slimey'.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
All one has to do is read the hundreds of investigative articles and one realizes Obama had very close ties with Rezko for years.
"An Obama Patron and Friend Until an Indictment
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and MIKE McINTIRE
Published: June 14, 2007
Snip
Mr. Obama has portrayed Mr. Rezko as a one-time fund-raiser whom he had occasionally seen socially. But interviews with more than a dozen political and business associates suggest that the two men were closer than the senator has indicated. "
snip http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/us/politics/14rezko.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
ANd he sure left the press conference fast last Monday when the reporters were asking questions about Rezko again and not getting any answers as usual.
"Obama talks a lot, but answers little
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN | Senator hounded by Rezko questions
March 4, 2008
LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet
SAN ANTONIO -- As Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) closed a combative press conference on Monday, where he was thrown seriously off message being asked about influence peddler Tony Rezko and why his campaign at first denied his economic adviser Austan Goolsbee met the Canadian consul in Chicago and talked about NAFTA, some reporters -- me included -- wanted him to take more questions.
"Guys," said Obama, who is campaigning on a platform that there should be more government transparency. "I mean come on. I just answered like eight questions," he said as he waved and left to a chorus of shouted questions. "
snip
Obama added as the press conference progressed, "If there are specific requests in terms of information that you feel that you don't yet have, we will be happy to talk about that."
And then there was the fourth happy. "If there is a specific question that you have, I am happy to respond to it."
For all the happy talk, nothing was forthcoming on Monday.
If you read these replies people were claiming he only had five hours or work with him implying that he barely knew him. Obama has claimed that he couldn't remember details about the guy, and that he didn't know him. Better yet read the first paragraph of the OP.
I grew up right down the street from where he owned these properties. I voted for him for Senate. What has he done for the people of Illinois? Nothing.
Of course you make your point well when you find the need to drop the F-Bomb to guide your way.
May I ask where the properties were on 63rd Street? They were near what intersection(s) ?
As Ralph Nader mentioned a few weeks ago, Obama did basically nothing for years for the people in his district.
snip
"In an interview with CNN on Monday, Nader accused Illinois Sen. Barack Obama of name-calling and challenged him to "address the issues."
"Above all, explain why you don't come down hard on the economic crimes against minorities in city ghettos: payday loans, predatory lending, rent-to-own rackets, landlord abuses, lead contamination, asbestos," Nader said.
"There's an unseemly silence by you, Barack -- a community organizer in poor areas in Chicago many years ago -- on this issue," he said." snip
Comments
In my next post, I clarified who I was referring to. I also quoted him.
Yes, Kucinich has always had a ton of a lot more faith in the Democratic party than I have and he is much more nice when speaking of their short comings than I have been. We can't all be as good as Dennis.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Too bad no one suggested it. I was referring to the types the who call others racists for not supporting him as if race should be an issue. Do try to follow along. And the fact that you skipped over my post explaining that to quote RainDog just shows how eager you are to try to make up some bullshit point.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Bad joke? Anyway, I agree with you - Dennis is a good guy. He's also smart. I remember a few debates ago, when he was asked if he would support the Democratic nominee and he said "only if they disapprove of war as a primary method of foreign relations" or something to that affect. So his faith in the party isn't total - but, and this is just me opining here, if he is supporting Obama, it's likely because he knows that under an Obama administration, Congressmen like himself will get a stronger voice.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
I like that trait in people and how they treat their friends.
I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I just find myself so disappointed with the party, I can no longer, in good conscience, vote for them and support the problems I see.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/6/123948/7839/356/470517
Antoin “Tony” Rezko is a Syrian born businessman who was known in Chicago political circles as “a fixer.” Need to get a waiver of some kind of regulation to close a real estate deal? Call Tony. Want your kid to intern in the office of a United States senator? Call Tony. Are the wheels of government turning too slowly and need to have a legislator or two goose the bureaucracy? Call Tony.
Rezko had a lot of friends and associates because he collected politicians like a kid collects baseball cards. He was a fundraiser with the ability to shake the money tree for his political friends.
Entrepreneur, real estate tycoon, developer, and pal of the powerful, by all accounts Tony Rezko had his fingers in many pies.
He was also, according to Sun Times political reporter Carol Marin, a “staggeringly talented shakedown artist”:
Carol Marin wrote in the January 3, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times that the “feds believe that Rezko was a staggeringly talented shakedown artist who traded plum appointments for large donations” to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, “got massive ‘consulting fees’ for himself and his friends in exchange for state investment business, and, along the way, wiggled his way into all manner of lucrative deals and contracts, some of which came with government tax breaks or subsidies.
“If that was the extent of Rezko’s magic, he would still be just another accomplished but mundane player in the riotous world of Chicago corruption. But that isn’t the end of his story. It seems, today, like it’s only the beginning.
“Rezko, let’s remember, was ‘traveling’ internationally when his indictments were handed down. He has interesting friends the world over. The emir of Qatar is a pal. The former Iraq electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, who resides in west suburban Oak Brook when he’s not on the lam from a Baghdad lockup, is a Rezko business colleague who’s been indicted in connection with $2 billion in missing money meant to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. The feds are investigating what role Rezko may have had in that deal.
The Feds are also looking at Rezko’s long time business relationship with Patti Blagojevich, the governor’s wife, as well as minority contracts won by Rezko’s various businesses.
In short, Tony Rezko is as shady as they come in Chicago politics.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST REZKO?
Rezko was indicted on October 11, 2006 on 24 fraud related counts:
A 24-count indictment unveiled Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald charges Mr. Rezko, 51, in an “extensive” fraud scheme in which he allegedly demanded payments from firms wanting work from a huge state pension fund and favorable rulings from a state board that regulates hospital developments. Mr. Fitzgerald said the illegal activities constituted “a pay-to-play scheme on steroids.
“It was a feeding frenzy. People were feeding at the trough for millions of dollars,” he said.
How extensive was this kickback scheme? After Governor Blagojevich was elected, Rezko handed him a 26 page list of people he was recommending for jobs in the new administration. Contained in that list were people being recommended by Barack Obama. One of those names was the real estate agent who handled the controversial sale of a house to Obama.
How many of the people on that list actually got a job in state government? Jack Lavin, the CFO of Rezko’s company Rezko Enterprises, was named head of the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity. And Kelly King Dibble, who was in charge of business development for Rezko’s real estate development company, got a real plum; executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
Gee. No conflict of interest there.
OBAMA AND THE SLUMLORD
Tony Rezko created a real estate development company in 1989 called Rezmar. Their intent was to purchase decrepit housing, renovate it, and turn it into low income rentals for the poor. At the time, there was a city wide effort to rehab older structures instead of building new low income housing. Over the next 9 years, Rezmar purchased 30 buildings and got $43 million in city funds for rehab.
Eventually, Rezmar turned to a small, left wing law firm Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland to assist in the paperwork associated with government contracts and other real estate legalities. DMB & G employed a young lawyer named Barack Obama. By this time, Rezko was aware of Obama - having offered him a job at Rezmar following Obama’s graduation from Harvard. The only problem was that Rezko didn’t care about maintaining the buildings:
Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience when they created Rezmar in 1989 to rehabilitate apartments for the poor under the Daley administration. Between 1989 and 1998, Rezmar made deals to rehab 30 buildings, a total of 1,025 apartments. The last 15 buildings involved Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland during Obama’s time with the firm.
Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:
Seventeen buildings — many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat — ended up in foreclosure.
Six buildings are currently boarded up.
Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.
Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.
At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings.
This would be a classic definition of a slumlord. And Obama’s involvement with Rezmar during this period? The “Yes we can” man isn’t saying much:
For five weeks, the Sun-Times sought to interview Obama about Rezko and the housing deals. His staff wanted written questions. It responded Sunday but left many questions unanswered. Other answers didn’t directly address the question. Among these: When did Obama learn of Rezmar’s financial problems? “The senator had no special knowledge of any financial problems,” Gibbs wrote.
Did the senator ever complain to anyone — government officials, Rezmar or Rezko — about the conditions of Rezmar’s buildings? “Senator Obama did follow up on constituency complaints about housing as [a] matter of routine,” Gibbs wrote.
Did the senator ever discuss Rezmar’s financial problems with anyone at his law firm? “The firm advises us that it [is] unaware of any such conversations,” Gibbs wrote.
The campaign claims that Obama was a “junior lawyer” whose jobs included “reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions.” But Obama was with the firm for nine years. Are we to believe he was still doing scut work while Rezko was giving the city the runaround regarding the condition of those properties?
WHY WOULD OBAMA GET INVOLVED WITH THIS SLEAZE?
Obviously, Saint Barack wouldn’t be caught dead with a crook like this.
But Obama the ambitious politician? That’s another story.
If you listened to Obama, you would think that he barely knows Rezko. He has told the press he had lunch with him “a couple of times a year” and that he and his wife socialized with the Rezkos “2 to 4 times a year.”
This may be true. But wouldn’t you love to pull his phone records for the last 17 years and find out how many times he spoke with Rezko?
Rezko saw something in Obama right off the bat, donating $2,000 to Obama in his first race for state senate. In fact, he was one of the first donors to that campaign. Through the years, Obama estimates that Rezko donated around $60,000 to his campaigns. That doesn’t include monies the rainmaker made fall from heaven.
At the end of Obama’s failed attempt to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush, he was in desperate need of cash. A quick call to Tony and thousands of dollars showed up as Rezko tapped his business friends for his pal. This is a man Obama described as a “one time fundraiser” who over the years may have raised as much as $150,000 for Obama. (Note: Rezko also raised money for George Bush and a few other Republicans.)
JUST WHAT DID OBAMA DO IN RETURN FOR REZKO’S SUPPORT?
There were small things, such as hiring the son of one of Rezko’s associates as an intern in his senate office. And there were a little larger favors:
As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.
The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama’s former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district.
Obama’s letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko…
The fact that the proposed housing was outside of the district he represented as a state senator is an interesting addendum to the story. With no real political interest of his own or any benefit for his constituents, Obama (playing the oldest and most cherished of political games) rubbed the back of a man who had rubbed his – to the tune of $855,000.
Obama has denied doing any favors for Rezko. He is right. Putting pressure on bureaucrats to give a crony a contract worth $855,000 in personal fees is beyond “favor” and enters the realm of corrupt deal.
Then there was the strange case of Obama intervening with the State Department on behalf of one of Rezko’s business associates who was being denied entry to the US because he was considered an “undesirable alien.”
One of the richest men in the world, Nadhmi Auchi, who Rezko owed more than $27 million in “loans,” was looking to come to Chicago. After receiving another “loan” from Auchi, Rezko told prosecutors that he approached Senator Obama to try and get a visa for the billionaire. Obama denies he was approached and there is no record (yet) of any entreaties he made to the State Department on Auchi’s behalf.
Auchi himself stands convicted in a French court of fraud as part of the most spectacular corporate scandal in Europe since the end of the war; the “Elf Affair” where dozens of executives of the French oil company Elf stole 2 billion francs for houses, yachts, jewelry, and other expensive gewgaws.
It was Auchi who, in the end, probably made it possible for Obama to purchase his current house.
HOW DID REZKO HELP OBAMA PURCHASE HIS HOUSE?
Three weeks prior to Obama’s purchase of a fine, old Georgian mansion in the city’s Kenwood area, Auchi “loaned” Rezko another $3.5 million. The loan came through one of Auchi’s offshore holding companies. All of these loans to Rezko would eventually be “forgiven” when Rezko gave Auchi a bigger stake in a huge 62-acre development near Riverside Park.
The sellers of the house also owned a vacant lot adjacent to the property. But since the lot could only be accessed through the property where the house sat, it would have been pretty worthless to anyone except the owner of the dwelling. Offering price for both: $2.6 million.
This turned out to be a little steep for Obama who had just received a $1.2 million advance on a book. No problem for Mr. Fixit. Obama went in on a deal where Mrs. Rezko plunked down $125,000 for the $625,000 vacant lot. The sellers say that they gave Obama a $300,000 discount because his was the highest bid. The fact that Obama was the only one bidding on the house raises some eyebrows considering the neighborhood and the market at the time. Obama claims the house had been on the market 3 months which is not a long time considering the $2 million asking price and the complication of the vacant lot next door.
By paying full freight for the vacant lot – a lot that could never be developed unless bought by Obama – Rezko got his pal his dream house at a substantial discount.
The sellers have declined to talk directly to the media and have answered questions through Obama campaign headquarters. This might be considered strange in some quarters. But not if you’re considered the new messiah of politics.
The Auchi “loan” could very well have financed the whole deal. Court documents a year later show Mrs. Rezko making a salary of $37,000 with $35,000 in assets. Poor Tony reported that he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations.”
And that brings us to the final finagle; the sale of part of that vacant lot by Rezko to Obama.
It seems that Tony was in dire straits financially. He offered to sell a 10 X 150 foot parcel of the lot, valued at $40,500 dollars to Obama. His long time pal agreed, paying more twice the appraised value – $104,000. Obama claims it was to increase the size of his garden.
Some garden, huh?
For someone he supposedly barely knew, Obama and Rezko sure did each other a lot of favors.
DID OBAMA DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL?
There is no evidence that in any of his dealings with Rezko that Obama broke any law. The question is one of ethics. And judgment, of course. And truthfulness. Obama’s relationship with Rezko is much more extensive than he has ever admitted. Their 17-year relationship went beyond “one fundraiser” as Obama claims, and a few social dates with the gals.
Rezko was a patron, a valued supporter, and a business partner. And almost certainly a close friend as well.
The significance of this relationship is that it proves that Barack Obama is not who he claims to be – a new kind of politician who will lead us all to the Promised Land. Obama can lie like any normal politician. He can do favors for his supporters who give him money. He can do business with scam artists like Rezko whose illegal activities authorities are still trying to unravel.
Given what we know already, there doesn’t seem to be a “bottom” to this story yet. And what we find when we get there may yet prove to be Barack Obama’s undoing as a candidate for President of the United States.
http://www.pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/what_you_didnt_know_about_obam.php
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Sorry no slime left.....current administration cornered and now controls the market.
Obama will be the best choice to further humans evolution towards peace.
He's also pretty smart....imagine, a president that can carry on a conversation...damn....that will be fkn sweet.
Yep, Obama has the market cornered on conversational skills.
There's plenty of slime to find all over the political spectrum...it's not exclusive to the Clintons and the Bushs. They are pretty covered, I'll admit. But I'm not going to support someone just because they are less 'slimey'.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
"An Obama Patron and Friend Until an Indictment
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and MIKE McINTIRE
Published: June 14, 2007
Snip
Mr. Obama has portrayed Mr. Rezko as a one-time fund-raiser whom he had occasionally seen socially. But interviews with more than a dozen political and business associates suggest that the two men were closer than the senator has indicated. "
snip
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/us/politics/14rezko.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
ANd he sure left the press conference fast last Monday when the reporters were asking questions about Rezko again and not getting any answers as usual.
"Obama talks a lot, but answers little
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN | Senator hounded by Rezko questions
March 4, 2008
LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet
SAN ANTONIO -- As Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) closed a combative press conference on Monday, where he was thrown seriously off message being asked about influence peddler Tony Rezko and why his campaign at first denied his economic adviser Austan Goolsbee met the Canadian consul in Chicago and talked about NAFTA, some reporters -- me included -- wanted him to take more questions.
"Guys," said Obama, who is campaigning on a platform that there should be more government transparency. "I mean come on. I just answered like eight questions," he said as he waved and left to a chorus of shouted questions. "
snip
Obama added as the press conference progressed, "If there are specific requests in terms of information that you feel that you don't yet have, we will be happy to talk about that."
And then there was the fourth happy. "If there is a specific question that you have, I am happy to respond to it."
For all the happy talk, nothing was forthcoming on Monday.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/823939,CST-NWS-sweet04.article
May I ask where the properties were on 63rd Street? They were near what intersection(s) ?
As Ralph Nader mentioned a few weeks ago, Obama did basically nothing for years for the people in his district.
snip
"In an interview with CNN on Monday, Nader accused Illinois Sen. Barack Obama of name-calling and challenged him to "address the issues."
"Above all, explain why you don't come down hard on the economic crimes against minorities in city ghettos: payday loans, predatory lending, rent-to-own rackets, landlord abuses, lead contamination, asbestos," Nader said.
"There's an unseemly silence by you, Barack -- a community organizer in poor areas in Chicago many years ago -- on this issue," he said." snip
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/25/nader/