Rezko Connections: More Questions for Obama

Just why exactly did Barack Obama suddenly become concerned with providing security for Iraqi reconstruction in April, 2004? I look at the question at Pajamas Media. Here's Obama in April, 2004.

Barack Obama's name could have been invoked more at the corruption trial of his former fund-raiser Tony Rezko.But it appears prosecutors opted against bringing Obama into the mix during the two-month trial.

Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about Rezko's ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The Illinois senator was the recipient of "straw" campaign contributions made by others on behalf of Rezko -- money that Obama has since given to charities.The documents indicate that prosecutors considered offering witnesses to explore why Rezko used others to contribute to Obama and also to Blagojevich, and U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve ruled that they could. But they did not end up offering any such testimony during the trial.St. Eve ruled that Obama references would be allowed into the trial, but prosecutors apparently opted not to invoke Obama's name.

Nothing, in my opinion, is more deplorable than a career politician who exploited African-Americans in low income housing for political and personal gain. And Obama did it again and again in inner city Chicago. Now he has manipulated African-Americans across the country to view his candidacy as the empowerment of the very people Obama ignored in order to line the pockets of his slumlord friends and contributors. Progressives and ostensible Democrats may forget, but those of us who are concerned with social justice will continue to serve as the true muckrakers this election cycle.

Who helped Cecil Butler secure government funds for Woodlawn Restoration? Barack Obama, of course: the same Barack Obama who wrote letters on behalf of Rezko’s slum properties the same year residents of Rezko’s tenements were complaining of lack of heat and sanitation services. For the Executive Vice President of Habitat Co., the company who helped Butler manage his deteriorating warren of slums, was Valerie Jarrett, another Obama contributor who develops low income housing and serves as a top advisor to the Obama for President campaign. The Boston Globe explains how Obama exploited his position as state Senator to assist Jarrett and Cecil Butler. I quote:

Obama is not named in the Dec. 21 court document. But a source familiar with the case confirmed that Obama is the unnamed “political candidate” referred to in a section of the document that accuses Rezko of orchestrating a scheme in which a firm hired to handle state teacher pension investments first had to pay $250,000 in “sham” finder’s fees. From that money, $10,000 was donated to Obama’s successful run for the Senate in the name of a Rezko business associate, according to the court filing and the source.

‘While you hear the rhetoric of change, his campaign is Chicago politics as usual.’ ”

While Barack Obama claims to have distanced himself from Tony Rezko and his associates, it is clearly not the case,” said RNC spokesman Danny Diaz. “This is yet another example of the audacious hypocrisy the Obama campaign is engaged in.Obama was involved in a sweetheart deal with Rezko and it appears his fundraising buddies are now raising money for Obama’s campaign,” said Diaz. “Obama continues to prove he does not have the leadership qualities to serve as president.”

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obama's early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezko's company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama's district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable.

The candidate endorsed subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build low-income units. But, while he garnered support from developers, many projects in his former district have fallen into disrepair.

Chicago chose a more dramatic approach. Under Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was elected in 1989, the city launched a massive plan to let private companies tear down the projects and build mixed-income communities on the same land.

Shortly after becoming a state senator in 1997, Obama told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that his experience working with the development industry had reinforced his belief in subsidizing private developers of affordable housing.

Similar problems also plagued the next generation of affordable housing de velopment in Obama's district, created as part of the Daley administration's efforts to subsidize smaller apartment buildings scattered throughout neighborhoods.One of the largest recipients of the subsidies was Rezmar Corp., founded in 1989 by Tony Rezko, who ran a company that sold snacks at city beaches, and Daniel Mahru, who ran a company that sold ice to Rezko. Neither man had development experience.

After Rezko's assistance in Obama's home purchase became a campaign issue, at a time when the developer was awaiting trial in an unrelated bribery case, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that the deterioration of Rezmar's buildings never came to his attention. He said he would have distanced himself from Rezko if he had known.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
Remember Obama keeps saying he didn't vote for the war,

True, he wasn't there, the vote was taken in 2002 he wasn't senator untill 2004.

I watched a question and answer session on TV last night, Not one person of all the people who were going to vote for Obama could name his accomplishments, they just felt GOOD about him.

People don't want to be burdened with all the facts and details.

According to FEC records Senator Obama received extensive campaign support from executives and board members of Northern Trust during both his 2004 Senatorial Campaign and this year’s presidential campaign. In 2003, during his bid for the Senate, William Osborn the Chairman of Northern Trust (and director of the Federal Reserve) contributed $1,000 to Obama’s Senatorial campaign followed up by a maximum contribution to the Senators primary campaign.

Obama’s rise to power has been a direct result of his ties to a corrupt Chicago Political machine driven by a never-ending pursuit for power. From the onset of his political career Obama has exploited his political connections. In his first Illinois campaign his opponent, a popular female Democrat who lost her congressional election, was forced out of the race after Obama’s campaign successfully challenged her election petition. In 2004 during a heated Senatorial campaign, Obama’s associates obtained and released divorce records of his opponent that led to a public embarrassment and withdrawal from the race.

Obama has been relentless in his attacks upon the “evil” Wall Street executives that he has blamed for the ongoing fallout from the mortgage crisis, positioning himself on a “moral high ground”. The reality is that while Obama has been slapping the mortgage companies and investment banks with one hand, he has had his other hand in their wallet.

Do you remember the Crown family? Do you remember the Crown patriarch who sits on the board of Maytag? Do you recall that Barack Obama, as a U.S. Senate candidate, met with Maytag workers, asked for their donations and promised them he’d help save their jobs, and that he then went to the Crown family and took their large donations, but never said a word to Crown about saving the jobs of the Maytag workers? (Crown confirmed in a newspaper interview that Obama never asked him about saving the Maytag jobs.)

But then came the Chicago Combine: bipartisan corruption you could believe in. Rezko established a typical Chicago 'pay for play' scheme, but one that crossed party lines. You want to build a hospital, you had to pay Rezko, who paid the appropriate people who could help you play. The problem that Rezko faced was the hospital board had fifteen members and that is a lot of people to bribe and a lot of loose ends. But then Rezko had a friend who chaired the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee. Enter State Senator Barack Obama, who is credited as the moving force behind a piece of bipartisan legislation (Il. Senate Bill 1332) that reduced the hospital board to nine people, to be appointed by Governor Rod Blagojevich (know as Governor 'Blago') with advice and consent of the Illinois Senate.Blago immediately appointed three physicians, Rezko cronies with similar Middle Eastern backgrounds, all of whom were coincidentally big contributors to Barack Obama. As they say downtown, Barack knows how to walk the Chicago Way. Rezko became the guy you saw if you wanted to build a health care facility. He controlled the board's votes.

The three appointed physicians have been convicted in the Federal probe and are rumored to be about ready to sing.

Rezko, after all, built part of his fortune by exploiting the black community that Obama had served in the state Senate, and by milking government programs meant to benefit black-owned businesses. But Obama took Rezko's money even after the businessman was sued by the city of Chicago for failing to heat his low-income apartments, and even after Rezko was caught using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside for a fast-food franchise at O'Hare Airport.

It is amazing to those of us who have followed Chicago politics for any length of time that Axelrod’s close connections to Daley are not a part of the story of this campaign. It’s not that this fact is rarely mentioned. It is that it is NEVER mentioned! Axelrod knows full well the stink that emanates from City Hall could tarnish Obama’s Mr. Clean reputation – a rep that has been created out of whole cloth given Obama’s own connections and pandering to the Machine when it would benefit his career. His endorsement last year of Daley (along with most of the corrupt Cook County slate of candidates) shows just how serious Mr. Obama is about “change.” In short, he’s perfectly willing to change you but when it comes to changing Chicago, the candidate is a weak sister.The inclusion of Ms. Jarrett in Gittel’s analysis is surprising. She is the invisible woman of the campaign and, as her resume indicates, is a bridge between Obama and some of the Machine’s moving parts. Her stint on the Planning Commission – one of the most powerful jobs in the city – coincides with Michelle Obama’s service on the same board. They also served together on another powerful board, the Landmarks Commission (try to build almost anything or anywhere in the city without the approval of the Landmarks Commission and you run into big problems).Anyone asking the question how a little known state senator who has served less than half a term as a US Senator could be the Democratic nominee for president only need look at Obama’s friends in very high places in Chicago. This is the story of the campaign. It’s a shame everyone is missing it.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.