An Obama payoff?
posted at 10:54 am on April 27, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Did Barack Obama make a payoff to a campaign contributor with a state grant? The Los Angeles Times reports on a one-hand-washing-the-other relationship with Robert Blackwell Jr, who employed Obama as an advisor while he served in the Illinois state senate. In return, Obama pushed the state tourism board to send a $50,000 grant to Blackwell’s company (via Rick Moran):
After an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2000, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama faced serious financial pressure: numerous debts, limited cash and a law practice he had neglected for a year. Help arrived in early 2001 from a significant new legal client — a longtime political supporter.
Chicago entrepreneur Robert Blackwell Jr. paid Obama an $8,000-a-month retainer to give legal advice to his growing technology firm, Electronic Knowledge Interchange. It allowed Obama to supplement his $58,000 part-time state Senate salary for over a year with regular payments from Blackwell’s firm that eventually totaled $112,000.
A few months after receiving his final payment from EKI, Obama sent a request on state Senate letterhead urging Illinois officials to provide a $50,000 tourism promotion grant to another Blackwell company, Killerspin.
Killerspin specializes in table tennis, running tournaments nationwide and selling its own line of equipment and apparel and DVD recordings of the competitions. With support from Obama, other state officials and an Obama aide who went to work part time for Killerspin, the company eventually obtained $320,000 in state grants between 2002 and 2004 to subsidize its tournaments.
Obama’s staff said the senator advocated only for the first year’s grant — which ended up being $20,000, not $50,000. The day after Obama wrote his letter urging the awarding of the state funds, Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign received a $1,000 donation from Blackwell.
This looks like a rather obvious quid pro quo. Coming from someone who casts himself as a representative of a new brand of politics, the Blackwell connection — especially the campaign donation — reveals something much less new and much more Chicago about Obama’s politics. In exchange for $118,000 in salary, Blackwell received $320,000 in state taxpayer money and influence at the highest level of state politics.
And it recalls another Chicago connection for Obama, his relationship with Tony Rezko and the purchase of his house. When Obama wanted to buy his current residence, he needed another buyer to come in with him to purchase an adjoining lot. Enter indicted fixer Rezko, who despite having all sorts of legal and financial problems at the time, comes up with $125,000 in a down payment and qualifies for a $500,000 mortgage in order for the Obamas to get their home. It turns out that Rezko got the money from shady Iraqi financier Nadmhi Auchi, after meeting Obama at a reception thrown by Rezko for Auchi to meet the power clique in Illinois.
The media has apparently just decided to start vetting Obama, fifteen months after his entry into the presidential campaign as a neophyte and a political cipher. Better late than never, but unfortunately for Obama, they have plenty of time to keep digging into his political connections.
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A couple more of these stories and barry will be out of the race before the convention.
peacenprosperity on April 27, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Killerspin? Perfect.
mikeyboss on April 27, 2008 at 11:08 AM
If Obama was a Republican, he’d have been hounded out of politics years ago.
jgapinoy on April 27, 2008 at 11:09 AM
If Jesus was a republican he would be hounded out of politics!
peacenprosperity on April 27, 2008 at 11:12 AM
The problem is, the public thinks this is how everybody in politics does it. People are not going to pay much attention to these things until they add up to a million bucks or so. What hurts Obama much more is the evidence that he doesn’t respect or understand blue-collar Middle America. That, people worry about. But financial perks, even some shady ones, are seen as just the unfortunate status quo. That’s the perception.
RBMN on April 27, 2008 at 11:20 AM
The race will be about character. Once the McCain narrative is learned by the American public Obama will compare quite poorly.
Why are the Dhimmicrats so stupid as to nominate this bozo? I’m glad they did ’cause he doesn’t stand a chance. But really, HOW can somebody who is a loser to this level even get a second look in the Dhimmi party?
Mojave Mark on April 27, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Wouldn’t it be funny to watch Obama be perp walked after having just accepted the Democratic nomination?
TheBigOldDog on April 27, 2008 at 11:27 AM
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid!!!!!
The issue here is that Obama personally profited from this relationship. This is not your garden varity earmark for a well-connected constituent or project. This is payola!
rockmom on April 27, 2008 at 11:27 AM
As I have said before, McCain wins by a landslide in November
Corey Wayne on April 27, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Here’s the problem with Obama….
All of this stuff was known about him and talked about years ago. The method’s he’s used to win the elections he’s won, by digging up personal dirt on his opponent’s to get them to withdraw and by attacking them with legal actions that froze them off the ballot. He’s run against no one his entire political career, all while being an audacious money changer. This is what too many democrats use their positions for. Change. From our pockets to the fixers.
Beto Ochoa on April 27, 2008 at 11:32 AM
The MSM and the hard left fell in love with the Lamb like a lovestruck schoolgirl.
Well, the storybook stuff , like in real life, has worn off and their knight on horseback has become a hack on a donkey.
jjshaka on April 27, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Oh dear. The LA Times is of all papers is going after Obama? And going after him this early?
That does not bode well for his candidacy.
Ares on April 27, 2008 at 11:48 AM
The media and Democrats have been searching for years for an attractive African-American candidate to run for president. Obama in their minds fit that bill when he was tagged as a “rising star” in 2004, even though he came out of a Chicago political system that no one in the media will pretend is not corrupt.
They just didn’t want to see the fact that Obama had become part of the status quo in order to get elected, after losing the first time out in 1996, while at the other end, many of the Democrats who touted Obama in 2004 didn’t really believe he would actually challenge Hillary in 2008, without waiting to get a little more experience before running in 2012 or 2016. So one side covered up the dirt because they were in love with the idea of Obama, while the Clinton backers on the other side said nothing until now because Barak was hyped originally as being a national hopeful after Hillary’s turn (and later, term) was over.
jon1979 on April 27, 2008 at 11:51 AM
The politics of you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
SoulGlo on April 27, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Distractions! All distractions. You people are just trying to divert attention from the REAL issues. I don’t know what the REAL issues are, but you’re distracting from them!
Brad on April 27, 2008 at 11:56 AM
When I was active in the DEM party in the 70s, one of our MANTRAS was, “the American voting public has the shortest memory on record”. WATERGATE happened before the election in 72. FLOWERS and LEWINSKY happened before BUBBA was elected. It was true than, it is true now!!!
pueblo1032 on April 27, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Wait, am I given to understand that a Chicago politician may have done something unethical, let alone illegal?
Truly shocking.
rbj on April 27, 2008 at 12:01 PM
RBMN on April 27, 2008 at 11:20 AM
What bothers me the most about Obama is his close ties with mafia type’s, terrorists, and people of middle eastern decent. Begs the question “who owns this man”… The deeper we dig into this man’s past; the deeper we dig into the past of his wife; the more it appears that these people are the investment of many very dangerous people!
Mojave Mark on April 27, 2008 at 11:26 AM
I agree Mark. Look at the list of people the Dems put out as their choices for President this cycle. Complete nut jobs every one of them. On the GOP side, the only real nut job we had was Ron Paul.
Keemo on April 27, 2008 at 12:08 PM
The problem is the press will bury this and even if they don’t NO ONE WILL CARE. They love their Messiah… spare us the details, it only makes him human.
stenwin77 on April 27, 2008 at 12:09 PM
No one here is upset that a state government pissed away $320K on PING PONG? How many potholes would that would money have fixed? Or how many more drug counseling centers could have been supported? That is the moral tragedy of it all.
Ob1stogie on April 27, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Lewinsky actually happened in the Oval Office, during Clinton’s second term. Flowers came out in ‘92, it’s true, but the MSM were complicit in Bubba’s denial strategy. Have you forgotten “It’s the economy, stupid?”
sondiehl on April 27, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Obama gave Blackwell’s company some hope and in return Obama received some change.
So what’s wrong with that?
Cicero43 on April 27, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Ping-Pong-Gate!
DelD on April 27, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Illinois politics is nothing but a moral tragedy.
yo on April 27, 2008 at 12:21 PM
So it will be Hillary, after all. Sorry Obama, the media’s always been in Hillary’s barn, the last few months were just a false front to lull you into a false sense of security. Nice knowin’ ya, kid.
Seixon on April 27, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Excellent points, Captain Ed and Beto Ochoa!
Allow me to add my own conclusion here this morning.
We just watched Obama’s encore projection of his incarnation as only BHO would have himself be recognized this morning on Fox with Chris Wallace, Obama’s polished and rehearsed “outreach” to white bitter crackers. As the nonchallant nonaggressive man who realizes he must listen more than he should allow himself to speak (hence his excuse that 21 is the magic number alotted for “debate”), Obama presents on camera his pretty picture of what he would have the world see. Wasn’t that sweet? He loves his little girls and is determined “to be with them” after sewing up the campaign. Sigh, he neglects to admit Michelle’s determination NOT to move into the White House with her husband, keeping her life with her daughters IN CHICAGO regardless of the election results. Her life’s epiphany is the destruction of white America, aka, the destruction of anything that is not Michelle Obama.
The Obamas share more in common with the Clintons than Barack dare admit: it’s the women behind their male front politician spouse designing and making the power plays. More so than BHO, Michelle owes her ENTIRE existence to the SDS whom she serves and to whom she has committed Barack to serve.
Last week the pun was that the DNC Superdelegates would align with BHO because they fear the angry black voter more than they fear the wrath of a woman voter scorned.
This week, as Barack’s “professional” sh*t continues to hit the fan (LA Times), the “Gestalt” as Sunday Morning DNC Pundits put it via Tim Russert on NBC is in favor of Hillary. The onlooker should realize that “Gestalt” is more than mere “feeling” as Russert would have one think; GESTALT has more to do with the amalgam of ethos&eros, of feeling at one with intellectual rigorous thought, HERE as a hideous example providing Hillary a political option, her victorious “atonement” over death.
MY gestalt observation this morning is that Hillary will get the DNC ticket. Along with that, the victory belongs to whomever champions the stay-at-home-mothers/wives with security, be that Hillary having her cookies and eating them too, or McCain who takes EVERYTHING for granted, not just conservatives, but women, and particularly those women who stay at home and sacrifice power, prestige and financial security in order to provide for the perpetuation of traditional values and emotional well being of families.
Now there’s a gestalt worth contemplating while chewing a homemade cookie.
BTW, Rush Limbaugh had better STFU at this point and get down to work with the unsettled business of forcing McCain’s hand into the conservative arena! Truly, without the conservative vote, this election belongs to Hillary who may after all make the deal breaker to unify ALL women, Reagan Democrats and all. Whatever deals McCain has made have always backfired on conservatives; there is no REASON to trust squishy McCain on anything except being betrayed in his legislation. Other than low taxes, McCain has nothing to offer women voters. Hillary on the other hand, is the PROGRAM user and abuser extraordinaire. Just watch as she will manipulate women at home with her CARING motives.
$.02
maverick muse on April 27, 2008 at 12:35 PM
I QUESTION THE TIMING! (Heh. Haven’t done that in a while.)
Pass the popcorn. I can’t wait to find out what other shady business the Marxiah has been involved in.
ReubenJCogburn on April 27, 2008 at 12:35 PM
They really, really hate us. Michael Hirsh let’s his hair down at Newspeak:
“Anatol Lieven, in his 2005 book “America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism,” describes how the “radical nationalism” that has so dominated the nation’s discourse since 9/11 traces its origins to the demographic makeup and mores of the South and much of the West and Southern Midwest–in other words, what we know today as Red State America. This region was heavily settled by Scots-Irish immigrants–the same ethnic mix King James I sent to Northern Ireland to clear out the native Celtic Catholics. After succeeding at that, they then settled the American Frontier, suffering Indian raids and fighting for their lives every step of the way. And the Southern frontiersmen never got over their hatred of the East Coast elites and a belief in the morality and nobility of defying them. Their champion was the Indian-fighter Andrew Jackson. The outcome was that a substantial portion of the new nation developed, over many generations, a rather savage, unsophisticated set of mores. Traditionally, it has been balanced by a more diplomatic, communitarian Yankee sensibility from the Northeast and upper Midwest.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/134116
Kalapana on April 27, 2008 at 12:44 PM
I bet Obama got in bed with Killerspin because the 1st Church of Hate Whitey and Damn America supports ping pong. Probably because it involves smacking white balls with a wooden paddle.
ReubenJCogburn on April 27, 2008 at 12:49 PM
But I thought the Messiah lashed out at the Money-changers and chased them out of the Temple?
DANEgerus on April 27, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Heh. Not only is he FOR SALE, but also he goes CHEAP.
petefrt on April 27, 2008 at 12:53 PM
Black-water-well-gate!!! dun..dun..dunnnnn
The hits just a-keep on a-commin’
29Victor on April 27, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Maybe this is what he means by “change.” Any “change” will do.
29Victor on April 27, 2008 at 12:55 PM
I’d be surprised it this goes anywhere. Most of the msm won’t care to cover it, most of his supporters won’t care.
They would be very upset if a government agency investigated and slapped the cuffs on him and hauled him to jail. If there is an investigation, will most likely end after the election anyway, but may be another nail in his much deserved coffin.
2theright on April 27, 2008 at 1:01 PM
That’s funny. You win.
Maxx on April 27, 2008 at 1:12 PM
Apparently Dean gets ‘the telephone call’ and suddenly he is telling the super delegates its all about electability. Meanwhile there is a steady stream of new stories smearing Obama.
Then there was that Michael Hirsch story in Newsweek. Who does Hirsch support? Hillary or Clinton? That piece sounded like confirmation of Obama’s bitter clingers observation. Is this the evidence that Obama is directing his loyal followers attention to ‘those guys, the ones who have oppressed our people’?
Sharpton is on the march, recreate68 targets the democrat convention, and is suggesting that democrat direct action counselors go one on one with republican delegates to the republican convention to help those delegates get their minds right.
In case you are having trouble with this rant, the bottom line is this; we’re beyond politics here. This is about gangland, tribalism. This is about mob rule, and power mad thugs doing a power grab. They know exactly just how far they can push this with lawyers explaining to the activists just exactly where they cross the line from political protest into street violence.
This is only one or two steps removed from Robert Mugabe taking control of Rhodesia.
rockhauler on April 27, 2008 at 1:20 PM
I found myself mentally begging Wallace to follow up Obama’s explanation of Mr. Wright’s comments as a result from being from another time how his wife also had similar comments. Oh well, keep talking Barry!
trs on April 27, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Hope and change. Yes, indeed.
SouthernGent on April 27, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Michael Hirsch via Kalpana”
Talk about elitist. What Mr. Hirsch neglects to mention is that ‘rather savage, unsophisticated set of mores’ were centered upon the Individual and not Community. The Scots-Irish immigration also build The Center of the Universe® (aka Washington D.C.), and a great deal of this country’s infrastructure.
We’ll leave issues like the Highland Clearances, Potato Famine, Norther Ireland and the Celtic Church for later. I don’t think Mr. Hirsch is ready for that.
SeniorD on April 27, 2008 at 2:33 PM
This story is racist because it’s critical of Obama. The reporter who wrote it is racist, the editor is racist, you people reading it are racist, your cats and dogs are racist, the man in the moon - racist!
Django on April 27, 2008 at 2:38 PM
That article gave me the creeps. I hate to use the Nazi comparison, but, with a few changes of names and places, that article could have been published by Streicher in “Der Sturmer”. Same sort of hate-drenched arrogance.
Django on April 27, 2008 at 3:04 PM
You mean he’s not?? (Sidebar to trolls: kidding!)
Captain Scarlet on April 27, 2008 at 3:52 PM
There is not a single thing Barry could do to change the minds of the devoted! Caught on video in a park bathroom with… Videotaped taking bribe money from… Filmed doing drugs while… - Hey, no problem, they’ll still vote for him.
It’s like the Global Warming religion - no facts or contradictions will sway the devotees.
rockbend on April 27, 2008 at 4:09 PM
Hey, shut up: he’s
blacka Chicago Democrat, and you don’t understand that payoffs are part of their culture!!landlines on April 27, 2008 at 8:29 PM
You know, I was about to call “oh bullshit” on that, rocker, but then I remembered how the Dems are gaming the Federal Electoral Commission to prevent it from functioning or giving McCain federal funding, and…
well, there is some potentially dangerous stuff going down here folks.
drunyan8315 on April 27, 2008 at 8:44 PM