Obama and Blagojevich ties to Rezko Chicago corruption, Why Justice Dept has been covering for Obama
“Why did the Illinois Senate Health & Human Services Committee, with Obama as chairman, create and push Bill 1332, “Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act,” early in 2003, which reduced the number of members on the Board from 15 to 9, just prior to rigging by Tony Rezko and Rod Blagojevich?”…Citizen Wells
“I believe I’m more pristine on Rezko than him.”…Rod Blagojevich
Before I continue on with my case against the US Justice Department in their ongoing efforts to protect Obama, here is an article from the LA Times, April 7, 2008. American public, you were warned.
“Under cross-examination by Rezko attorney Joseph Duffy, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine, a Chicago-area lawyer, is admitting to conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud and other bad acts while he “served” at the Illinois public school teachers pension fund board.
At Duffy’s urging, Levine is detailing 30 years of drug usage including sordid day-long binges with other men at a Chicago inn called the Purple Hotel. Rezko’s attorney Duffy is wondering whether all that cocaine, crystal meth and other drug use has perhaps fogged Levine’s memory.
That aside, much of the trial’s focus is on money — much of it given in the form of campaign money in the careers of Obama and Blagojevich.
It’s an unfolding, seemingly local political story that’s fascinating in its revealing details about the subterranean world of business, financial and family connections in Illinois and Chicago politics that helped take a virtually unknown black Chicago attorney, nurtured him politically and financially and turned him into…. the polished candidate who today thrills crowds of thousands across the country with his eloquence.
Obama currently leads in delegates for the Democratic nomination for president.
This tale is long by Ticket standards. We’ll do this rarely. But for those interested in delving into details it provides important background about the early political connections of a little-known newcomer to the national political scene.
This story concerns two men, neither of whom face any legal charges today. They are two of Illinois’ top Democratic politicians — Gov. Blagojevich, who’s been mentioned often in court, and Sen. Obama, who’s received only passing mentions. They’re entwined in the Rezko saga, particularly through the bounteous campaign money he raised for them both.
Get used to that name. Rezko’s currently in a long-running Chicago trial on federal extortion and bribery charges. Few campaign donors were more responsible than Rezko for the rise of Blagojevich (Blah-goy-ah-vitch) and Obama. Both politicians came to rely on him for political and personal advice — and lots of campaign money.
Their intimate relationship is coming into focus through Rezko, a Syrian-born businessman who made his money in real estate and restaurant franchises and now sits daily in the federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve. The trial’s daily events are covered in this Tribune Rezko court blog.
So far, Blagojevich, reelected in 2006, is more deeply enmeshed in the scandal than Obama, who’s not been implicated in any wrongdoing.
But all three operated in the murky world of Illinois Democratic politics, where money, family relationships and long business associations provide the invisible glue of the local political world.
Witnesses in Rezko’s trial have testified that Rezko recommended friends and associates for government jobs and posts on Illinois state boards when Blagojevich took office in 2003, and some of those friends were generous donors to Blagojevich.
An early trial exhibit from prosecutors was a spreadsheet. Prepared by an FBI agent , the spreadsheet identifies Rezko-related donors who supplied $1.43 million between 2001 and 2004 to Blagojevich, who was first elected governor in 2002.
Using Federal Election Commission and Illinois state records, The Times’ Dan Morain compared donors on the FBI spreadsheet to Obama’s contributors. Guess what.
Sen. Obama received $222,000 during the same 2001-2004 period from Rezko-related Blagojevich donors.
And Obama received at least another $32,000 from them for this presidential run — although Rezko, indicted in 2006, has not been involved in Obama’s current campaign.
Those Obama-Blagojevich donors include Rezko himself, along with his family members, employees and associates of his various business enterprises. There’s also the head of a major Chicago investment firm that received Illinois public teachers’ pension money to invest.
Jay Stewart, of the nonprofit government watchdog Better Government Assn. in Chicago, called the overlapping list of donors a “who’s who of the inner circle” of Democratic politics in the Land of Lincoln.
“Did they come from the same general political environment?” Stewart said of Blagojevich and Obama. “Yes. They’re Chicago pols. They both knew Tony Rezko. Tony Rezko raised money.”
In his presidential race, Obama increasingly has relied on small donations delivered via the Internet from more than a million individuals. But when he started in Illinois politics, Stewart noted, “if you wanted money, you needed to ask the big boys.”
Rezko was a big boy. He was, for instance, a link between Obama and Santa Monica developer Jay Wilton of Wilton Partners. On July 16, 2003, Wilton gave $5,000 to Obama’s first U.S. Senate run. A few days later, Wilton gave $50,000 to Blagojevich, Illinois state records show.
Unlike the federal system, Illinois state campaign finance law permits donors to give as much as they want to state candidates. So, in Illinois they do.”
Read more:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/obamarezko.html
This commenter was paying attention.
“this TOP OF THE TICKET Special Report on Obama & Rezko & illinois gov blagojevich is a topnotch reportage. it’s an expose, in a great way, on obama’s hidden character.
how in Christ’s name was obama able to stand–for quite a time–a drug addict like rezko, and an opportunist of a poltician like blagojevich without batting an eyelash, or, worse, without experiencing any qualm of conscience?
the answer is very obvious: obama is a “user” himself who, in his machiavellian politics, will take in anybody, just anybody, who can help him (obama) advance his political career, and push his selfish agenda.
if obama “operated” this way in the “murky world of illinois politics,” as your writer put it, then what could you expect of him to be, what do you think he’s doing now in his bid to win the democratic presidential nomination?
what’s clear by now is that obama has pulled everybody’s legs so successfully that no one, not even the reputedly “perceptive” PRESS, has noticed it. it’s pretty obvious he’s been deadpanning his posture as a self-proclaimed “agent of change.”
given this damning expose by the LOS ANGELES TIMES TOP OF THE TICKET Section, IT BEHOOVES OBAMA TO RESIGN, IN A JIFFY, HIS SENATE POST & QUIT THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING CONTEST NOW–IF ONLY FOR DELICADEZA (but really for more serious reasons). in like manner, it is incumbent upon blagojevich to resign as illinois gov.
the great american people deserve no less, even as they should demand of obama–who touts himself as a presidential candidate of impeccable character–the strictest code of conduct as a politician.
obama has been throughly vetted–and has been found wanting. it’s time for him (obama) to cut, and cut cleanly NOW!
Posted by: jennifer potenciano | April 07, 2008 at 07:52 AM”
Citizen WElls 