Barack Obama’s associations with questionable characters continue to vex him.
CHICAGO - A prominent fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted Wednesday of fraud and money laundering after a high-profile federal trial provided an unusually detailed glimpse of the pay-to-play politics that has made Illinois infamous.
Antoin “Tony” Rezko, 52, showed no emotion as the jury delivered a mixed verdict that found him guilty of scheming with the government’s star witness to get kickbacks out of money management firms wanting state business, but acquitted him of charges that included attempted extortion.
The jury delivered its guilty verdict on 16 of 24 counts after a nine-week trial.
Rezko has known Obama since he entered politics and was involved in a 2005 real estate deal with the Democratic presidential candidate, although testimony barely touched on their relationship. Most of the focus was on shakedowns prosecutors said Rezko arranged when he was a top adviser to Blagojevich.
Neither Blagojevich nor Obama has been accused of wrongdoing.
Obama backers have been defending him by claiming opponents can’t find chinks in the Obama armor, so they are attaching his minister, his wife, his supporters.
But that begs the question: When do Obama’s associations with unsavory characters establish a pattern proving Obama’s judgment cannot be trusted?
Add William Ayers to the equation, and I believe we are there.
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Before anyone says so, let me say this will not stop Karl Marx from taking the presidency.
I agree with Darren. This is typical Chicago.
So, when certain people were saying the same things about Tom DeLay and the criminals he was close to, most folks here defended DeLay vigorously.
Why the Double Standard with Obama?
“That’s the Chicago way.” (Sean Connery as Malone, The Untouchables)
We liked Delay.
3. shakey
I wasn’t even blogging here during those years, so I will except myself from your statement regarding Delay.
Nonetheless, I think Obama’s bad associations are suggesting a pattern, and he’s running for President. I don’t know what Delay has to do with that.
When a candidate is shown to have ties to scam artists, domestic terrorists and race-baiting clergy, and whose wife has expressed how she was never proud of this country in the past, it is fair to examine the candidate, his views and his judgment.
But you do raise an interesting point. Delay was hounded out of office over a number of things (including allegations about his own misconduct), and his “associations” were among them. We’ll see if Obama gets anything close to similar treatment, or if the fawning media and fainting voters give him a free ride.
Obama will make JimmaCarter look like a genius, much to our own harms.
The Big O is soooooo dreamy.
#5 RickG
I don’t include you in “the usual suspects”.
I’m actually surprised Obama’s association with Rezko didn’t already do him in.
I’m all for taking down scumbag politicians, no matter which party they belong to, and I hope Obama’s associations cost him the election because he’s going to be worse than Boosh if elected.
What a load of horse manure. Delay didn’t have many friends here once he announced there was no more fat left to trim in the budget. You’re inventing controversy where none exists…a-gain.
Btw, what ever happened to those indictments against Tom Delay by Ronnie Earl. You know, the ones it took him three or four juries to get because they kept no-billing Delay? If there were any evidence don’t you think he would have proceeded?
#10 hamous
I didn’t post the thread. Obama hasn’t even been indicted and here we go.
And DeLay still has plenty of friends around here, trust me.
I thought the Constitution guaranteed the right to a speedy trial. What’s taking so long w/DeLay? He’s been outta office for a couple of years already.
Can anyone say “Keating 5″?
Actually it was EIGHT separate grand juries that Ronnie Earl shopped to get his indictment. And you may recall, in an ON THE AIR INTERVIEW with the jury foreman, the jury foreman ACTUALLY SAID, ON THE AIR, he was going to indict Tom Delay no matter what because Tom Delay helped defeat a friend of his running for office.
The Washington Times had this:
the foreman of the first grand jury, which returned the campaign-finance conspiracy indictment, said yesterday that his vote to indict was based on TV commercials that he disliked and were run by a Texas business group in 2002 and not on any evidence presented to the grand jury. “My decision was based upon those, not based upon what happened in the grand jury room,” William Gibson told Austin radio station KLBJ. “They were stating their positions, and I could state my position by saying I don’t like that.”
Mr. DeLay’s supporters e-mailed the transcript and an audio clip of the radio interview to journalists and others yesterday as evidence that something was wrong with the process. [emphasis added]
The Huston Chronicle adds some new info into the mix, that William Gibson worked with a Democrat candidate that was defeated as a result of these same ads that he considered unfair:
William Gibson, the foreman of the grand jury that returned the first indictment against DeLay, said in an interview with Austin radio station KLBJ on Wednesday that he was friends with a Democratic candidate who had been defeated by the corporately funded ad campaign run by the Texas Association of Business in 2002.
James Sylvester, one of the losing Democratic candidates who has sued the business group, worked at the Travis County sheriff’s office. Gibson is retired from that same office.
Gibson said newspaper stories about the TAB’s activities, which were coordinated with TRMPAC, convinced him that improper political activity had occurred before he ever was on the grand jury.
Here’s the transcript Shakey.
http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/archives/002223.html
Now Shakey, what say you?
I say you just proved my point.
Thanks.
My ex’s family is from the south side of Chicago. His sister lives in a suburb to this day. She worked in ” politics” till she retired. You have no idea…… this Rezko thing is just a minor blip. It won’t phase his popularity, or his ability to be elected.
Now, if Michelle my belle is screaming ” pale person” from the pulpit……. that may do him in.
gadboy, let me give you a bit of information since you seem to be totally clueless:
The attorney, a Democrat, who was in charge of defending Bill Clinton in the Monica investigation, was also in charge of the investigation into Keating 5. That man has now written a book and in it he states, without reservation, that he advised the investigation committee that John McCain was totally innocent of any wrongdoing in Keating Five and recommended that McCain’s name be removed from the investigation. He also states, without reservation, that because the committee was lead by Democrats, and there were four others beside McCain being investigated, that they would not drop McCain’s name because the other four were ALL Democrats.
Now toddle on off and see if you can learn the name of the man who represented Bill Clinton. At least you will finally have a clue to the truth.
Yeah, where is that Whitey video? I want reparations if it’s true!
#15 That you’re clueless.
Shakey, would you be so kind as to address the information provided in substance regarding Tom Delay an the jury foreman, please?
In addition to Rezko:
Jeremiah Wright
Bill Ayers
Bernadine Dohrn
Father Phleger
James Meeks
Sam Graham-Felsen
Rashid Khalidi
Ali Abunimah
Samantha Power
Robert Malley
Hatem El-Hady
hamous and shakey,
I don’t know if Delay was a crook or not. To be fair he has not been indicted yet by the Feds, which was the bigger worry for him.
A casual observer might opine that Mr Delay is innocent because the Feds have not indicted him. By the strictest definintion he is innocent. That does not mean his actions pass the smell test.
I would also point out that it took the Feds a long long time to indict William Jefferson.
Simple
#21 Bigs
I don’t do substance.
I leave that up to guys like Simple.
Shakey, come on now. You’ve got 7 grand juries that refused to indict. You’ve got a grand jury foreman that says he was going to indict regardless of what the evidence showed. You also have an obvious conflict of interest in who the grand jury foreman was.
Would you say that justice was done by Ronnie Earl and the grand jury foreman? It’s a simple question.
Tom DeLay associated with scumbag criminals.
Period, end of story™
Can’t argue with a thing you said, Simple. But as RickG pointed out, this is a thread about Obama’s questionable associations, not Tom Delay’s. This is yet another example of Shakey’s habit of trying to turn every single thread anyone ever posts into something totally unrelated to the subject at hand so he can blather “Double standards!”. RickG wasn’t even around during the Delay fiasco yet its somehow a double standard because he dares to post a thread about Obama? Smells fishy to me.
#27 Hamous
You don’t know me! You should be kissing Benzene’s derriere for making you important around here!
I’m important? News to me. To quote BB King, Nobody loves me, but my mother, And she could be jivin’ too.
You don’t really want me to go get a count of the number of times you’ve whined these terms do you?
double standard
PODS
DOTI
Simple, Delay took the matter to the House Ethics panel and got their okay. He didn’t try and hide it. As far as his wife and daughter working for him, they were paid a total of $500,000 over 4.3 years. That’s $60,000 a year. That’s chicken fee salary in Washington, DC, and it was out of campaign funds, which is not illegal. No problem there. Now you have 7 grand juries who refuse to indict. You have one grand jury with a foreman who says he was going to indict no matter what, and who clearly has an employment conflict of interest. Shakey, that isn’t justice. That’s railroading. You know it, even if you refuse to extract your head and admit it.
Pardon me Simple. That was for Shakey, not you.
Hamous, you were right.
Halmous, you know I’m just busting your Hamchops. You’re relevant, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Does this news imply that up until now you thought everything was OK with Sen Obama - I mean does it really have any effect on his policies that he runs with a bunch of hooligans? How dare you try to impune the character of the Messiah. Jesus didn’t spend his time working on the faithful - no, he worked the hookers and low life that needed to find salvation. You guys better get this stuff straightened out about being critical of the Messiah before Judgment Day (it’s the second Tuesday in November I think), or you’ll find out about the fairness doctrine the hard way. Criticize the Messiah, good grief. What will you knuckleheads think of next.
The only miracle I’ve seen Obama perform so far is making gullible people enjoy swallowing BS.
If Obama’s hands are dirty, Rezko will do some plea bargaining which could turn REAL ugly for Obama. If you missed it on the OC thread, William Jefferson’s sister was just indicted.
#36 Bigs
That’s what they said about Delay and Abramoff.
Call me when DeLay (who left office and was rendered completely irrelevant by both his unsavory associations and his stupid statement that there was no fat left to cut in the budget) is indicted.
If you want to see DOTI (no tm thingy) just wait until the dirt starts coming out on The Blessed One.
For just a minute, it was like old times here!
/wipes a single tear from his left eye
Maybe BHO will take a page from the Clinton Book of Dirty Politics and that list will start having “accidents”. I mean, Barry and Hilly are all huggy and kissy now, right?
One thing we conservatives could learn from the other guys: bury your bodies deeply.
34. Rastus
Yeah, but Jesus didn’t ask the hookers to buy a house and then sell it to him for hundreds of thousands of dollars less!