Rezko Trial Begins Tomorrow
02 March 2008 8:30 am by Taylor Marsh
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The
New York Times previews the the Rezko trial, which begins tomorrow.
Patrick Fitzgerald is the U.S. attorney on the case.
Nearly three years later, fallout from Mr. Obama’s relationship with
Mr. Rezko, who raised more than $150,000 for Mr. Obama’s campaigns,
continue to dog Mr. Obama on the presidential campaign trail. That distraction
promises to linger as Mr. Rezko goes on trial on corruption charges starting
Monday.… .. But a review of court records, including new details of Mr. Rezko’s
finances that emerged recently, show that the lot purchase occurred as he
was being pursued by creditors seeking more than $10 million, deepening the
mystery of why he would plunge into a real estate investment whose biggest
beneficiary appears to have been Mr. Obama. … ..As Developer
Heads to Trial, Questions Linger Over a Deal With Obama
All the background you need is here.
Whatever you say about this connection, which reveals no wrong doing by Obama
at this point, though he’s mentioned obliquely in the indictment, the one thing
that stands out is lack of judgment. Isn’t that what’s he’s always
harping on Clinton about with regard to Iraq? Obama’s
judgment in allowing someone like Rezko to bankroll his early political beginnings, with a relationship that goes back almost two decades, with Obama then ignoring Rezko’s unraveling until way too late, goes to the very heart
of judgment. Glass houses, stones and hypocrisy come to mind.
The there’s the other thing, you know, the Clinton rules. That is, if this was about Clinton it would be blasted across the U.S. media, whether it had anything to do with Clinton being guilty of anything or not.
To add, since it’s not been aired on the west coast yet, evidently Howard Wolfson confronted David Axelrod today on “This Week”:
How many fund-raisers did Mr. Rezko throw for Senator Obama? What did Senator Obama do for Mr. Rezko? Did he write letters for him? What projects of his did he support? How many business meetings did he attend where Mr. Rezko had business associates there? One more important one – what are the full details of this very unusual real estate transaction that Mr. Rezko and Mr. Obama entered into?
What I would suggest to my friend David – and he is my friend – they should put out all of the information regarding that real estate transaction, all of the e-mails, all of the correspondence, all of the letters, every single piece of information so that the public can really look at this and say, “What’s going on here?”
TM NOTE: I know I broke the “no profanity” homepage rule around here and it no doubt is a bit shocking to some on this fine Sunday March morning, but I just couldn’t resist. The graphic was just too fitting.
