This is part II in a series of two posts that detail some of the more troubling associations of Presidential candidate Barack Obama. In my previous post I highlighted his relationships with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the activist group known as ACORN.
Interestingly enough, in the day since I published the first post, news has broken that ACORN voter fraud may have occurred in yet another state. In what I hope is an isolated incident, a 7 year old girl has shown up on the voter registration rolls in Connecticut. The form that registered the girl to vote was fraudulently submitted by ACORN workers.
It is very clear that Senator Obama cultivated his associations with Wright and ACORN in order to gain acceptance and trust in the local community in Chicago. Entry into Chicago politics required further assistance and more money. Senator Obama was able to find the assistance he needed, financial and otherwise, via friendships with Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers.
Tony Rezko
Tony Rezko is a very powerful man in the world of Chicago politics with the ability to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for political campaigns. Tony Rezko has been a longtime friend and associate of Barack Obama. In a story published today by the Associated Press the link between Obama and Rezko is confirmed.
"Rezko also was friendly with Obama -- offering him a job when he finished law school, funding his earliest political campaigns and purchasing a lot next to his house."
Mr. Rezko did a little more than just purchase the lot next to Senator Obama's house. When Senator Obama purchased his million dollar mansion in the Hyde Park section of Chicago, the sale price was for $300,000 less than the asking price. The lot next door was purchased by Tony Rezko's wife at full asking price. Later on Senator Obama purchased a parcel of the lot next door back from Mrs. Rezko in order to expand his own yard. Call the situation what you like, but the whole deal looks like a favor. This favor occurred while Mr. Rezko was under investigation for the crimes he would eventually be convicted for.
Tony Rezko is now a convicted felon. He was convicted in June 2008 of fraud in attempting to get millions of dollars in kickbacks on state funded real estate deals. Tony Rezko is also a slumlord. And Barack Obama was connected to some of the housing deals whose costs were forced onto the backs of taxpayers when Mr. Rezko stopped making payments on the projects.
An investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times titled, "Obama and His Rezko Ties" makes the connection between Obama and Rezko's real estate deals.
"Obama was an attorney with a small Chicago law firm -- Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- that helped Rezmar get more than $43 million in government funding to rehab 15 of their 30 apartment buildings for the poor."
The same Sun-Times report also reveals that while residents of Rezko's buildings were freezing without heat in the winter of 1997, Tony Rezko somehow scraped up $1000 to donate to the campaign fund of a new State Senator named Barack Obama.
Another report by the Sun-Times titled, "
8 Things You Need To Know About Obama and Rezko," details a relationship between Obama and Rezko that lasted for years, long after everyone knew Tony Rezko was using state money to refurbish and then neglect Chicago housing for the poor for his own personal gain.
How could someone with good judgment maintain such a long relationship with an individual who not only wasted taxpayer money but also engaged in criminal behavior? How could a U.S. Senator do a real estate deal with a man under deep investigation for crimes that were well known in the Chicago community? It's a question of judgment.
I think it's more accurate to say that it's a reflection of poor judgment by Senator Obama who aligned himself with a slumlord that wasted the state taxpayers money in order to forward his own political career. Senator Obama should have denounced Tony Rezko and demanded that he make restitution to the citizens of Rezko's slums as well as to the taxpayers of the state. Instead, after years of devastating results in Rezko's housing projects, Senator Obama allowed Rezko to raise funds for his campaign for U.S. Senate.
"While I was a state senator, he had buildings in my district that apparently were not managed properly. I had no knowledge of that at the time.''
As a state Senator Barack Obama could not keep track of neglected housing projects in his own district. And now he wants people to believe that he can keep track of the entire United States. An even more troubling question is this one. What favors does Barack Obama owe to Tony Rezko? And what would a President Obama do to repay those favors?
