John Fund has joined a growing chorus of conservative bloggers in asserting that the MSM has not given the Rezko affair the scrutiny it deserves. But is this all because of pro-Obama bias? I’m not so sure that’s the only……

Here, the GOP long ago gave up fighting the Dem/Mob that controls the state, and decided to get a piece of the action.

Jaibones on March 2, 2008 at 3:55 PM

Seriously. Show me an Illinois politician that isn’t knee deep in his or her own self-perpetuating “screw the people” filth, and I’ll gladly produce for you an autographed copied of the Bible.

The fruit of Bam’s “experience” grows from a very dirty, and very visible tree.

McCain just needs to have the balls to point at it.

. . . But sources said that, for more than two years when he was giving information to agents, Thomas provided a fly-on-the-wall look inside Rezko’s real estate operations and his desperate attempts to keep his projects afloat.

Sources said Thomas also logged frequent visits to Rezko from Gov. Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Blagojevich and Obama were among the many politicians for whom Rezko raised campaign cash. Neither has been charged with any wrongdoing.

reliapundit on March 2, 2008 at 9:36 AM

One has to wonder: Does Mr. Thomas have any interesting (read ‘incriminating’) conversations between Rezko and Obambi on his little wire? And if so, will they come to light? Do the Clintons still have friends in the FBI?

McCain better start really talking about substance with this guy and not try the nice guy routine.

ikez78 on March 2, 2008 at 3:13 PM

Not going to happen. McCain is going to treat his opponent, whichever it turns out to be, “with respect.” Maybe he’ll get some help with the details, though. We have to hope. . .

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117851

Jazz Shaw on March 2, 2008 at 10:11 AM

Troll: you kidding? This is one step from catching Obama with Rezko’s schwanz in his rear.

yo on March 2, 2008 at 12:39 PM

Bing. I think you just hit on the best strategy for combatting the Invisible Candidate. No better way to predict the future than to see what he leaves in his wake.

This is the beginning of a brief “see-we-can-be-tough-on-Obama-too” media play. They want to get this out of the way early so that voters will forget it by November.

jgapinoy on March 2, 2008 at 9:28 AM

The beginning and, I suspect, the end. The Tribune got their bona fides in early, last year, and now have bought themselves a free ride for the campaign, to cheer and obfuscate all the way to the end.

The conclusion of the Times piece is remarkably on point, though:

… deepening the mystery of why he would plunge into a real estate investment whose biggest beneficiary appears to have been Mr. Obama.

This is the point that has rarely been made in the analysis of this fraud. Many have noted that in the original deal Obama pays $1.65mm for a property allegedly listed for $1.95mm, and Rezko pays $625m for an adjacent lot listed for the same price. Curious – does anyone know when the seller split the parcel away from the house? Were they really listed separately, or did they apply to split them? The lot is worthless without the house; the only access is through the Obama property.

Bottom line: Obama gets his buddy the crooked fixer to help him pay $1.65 million for a property listed for $2.6 million.

But the Times drops the other shoe: so, what does Rezko get out of the deal? He now owns this lot, which shields Obama’s house from the busy street, but can’t develop it. It’s just junk, unless he gets a favor from the local Alderman to rezone it, or some other accomodation. But now Rezko’s too hot for favors. Even after they further split the lot and give Obama another 10 foot strip for double the appraised value — $104,000 — the fact remains that no reasonable man would make the deal Rezko made, and he will lose his ass on this property, or his creditors will.

Can’t wait to see the scrutiny that will come from the foreclosure sale on the Lot Loan Mrs. Rezko got. That’s when we see the real value in this for Obama — when the final sale of the lot is a dud.

Prediction: to make sure we don’t see that happen, Obama — now flush with cash from his books and his wife’s ghost job — buys the lot from Rezko to “make it all right”.

Who is Tony Rezko? Honestly, I assumed he was Italian, since there seemed to be a Chicago connection. The first link I found in Yahoo carefully described him as an immigrant, without naming his country.

An immigrant from nowhere?

He is Syrian

And now here is an Obama connection with another shady mid east character

If Hillary had her Chinese connection, it seems Obama has his web in the mid-east.

This onion needs to be unpeeled, and quickly

This looks like a warning flare that the easy ride has come to an end.

Don’t hitch your wagon of hope to it.

There is still a huge, huge battle going on ideologically between those who have fallen in love with Obama and/or are tired of defending the Clintons, and those who have stuck it out with Bill and Hillary for 16 years and aren’t going to give up now. For every swooning Maureen Dowd at the New York Times ready to in vetro fertilize herself with Barak’s love-child if given the chance, there’s a Paul Krugman, ready to twist himself into a pretzel to somehow show that Obama is an naive dupe of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy who is usurping the natural order of things and will be destroyed by the racist GOP this fall.

The Krugman types may have been at a low ebb for the past few weeks, but they were never powerless within the big media companies they work for. They always had a chance to make their voices heard, and the lampooning of the media’s infatuation with Obama on last week’s Saturday Night Live (a skit, BTW, written by James Downey, the show’s lone openly Republican-leaning writer), has given them the chance they need to get back in the game, when it’s now or never for Hillary to turn the tide and show she’s not dead with wins in Texas and Ohio.

messiah Mahdi

Heh

The County Commissioner President, Todd Stroger – former alderman and son of the previous County President, was endorsed by Obama. This endorsement put Stoger into office.

If you want to see what Obama will bring to the White House, you need look no further than the train wreck that is Chicago.

This is way too complicated for the Oprah crowd.

I don’t really think so. All the ins and outs and who-knows-whats that may come out of this may get pretty involved. But the house-and-lot purchase thing is simple and easy, it smells, and it’s likely to stick.

And of course as others have alluded, Obama’s problem is that if you’re running as Jesus, you’ve set a pretty high bar for yourself as far as honesty goes.

I have discussed Obama’s land deal hear, here and here. Today, the NYT’s has a great piece of investigative journalism:
Tony Rezko was obviously in trouble. He was a defendant in at least a dozen lawsuits, federal investigators in Chicago…