I am not sure you've thought through the political ramifications of how you expect this great downfall of Obama to go. I am sure like any other sleaze, Rezko will talk to avoid prison, but what do you think he's going to say about Obama? Do you think he's going to claim that Obama helped Rezko get contracts while Obama was a state senator? Fitzgerald is prosecuting Rezko for specific crimes -- this ain't Ken Starr using any angle he can find to get Clinton. Fitz doesn't have a partisan vendetta against Obama, so far as I know. Why do you think his prosecution of Rezko will show wrongdoing by Obama?
PG, You don't need criminal wrong doing for a political downfall.
First off, please download the proffer and read it. Dan Curry wrote this about it,
The proffer is devastating to the Governor and his cronies because it is backed by many recorded phone conversations and public records and certainly is buttressed by revealed and unrevealed informants. Even if Kelly and Rezko don’t flip on Blagojevich, there appears to be plenty of others who already have or will fill in the blanks on this scheme.We're going to hear blunt recordings from man who was Obama's mentor for over 17 years with guys who called themselves "The Pope" (Bob Cellini) and "The Rabbi" (Stuart Levin). They're going to sound like players out of the Sopranos raising money for Obama: the unamed Political Candidate in the proffer. (A connection leaked to the Sun Times by maybe Levine or Rezko themselves? I doubt Fitz's office did that.)
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s track record on corruption prosecutions in Illinois is nearly spotless. This document, if read carefully, leads to the inescapable conclusion that Blagojevich, Kelly and a handful of other Illinois insiders will ultimately be indicted. It also portends, in the short-term, the indictment of Blagojevich’s campaign fund, which has been receptacle of much of the corruption.
All it takes is for Oama's name to pop up a few more times in these documents and recordings and I think Obama will be finished politically. Won't matter if Obama knew about the wrongdoing or not.
Add in the Iraq reconstruction connection when Rezko goes on trial for that, and I think it will be a very damaging picture of Obama's character and judgement. He won't survive Illinois politics and Patrick Fitzgerald.
2 comments:
I think that you'll find today's diary interesting: Obama's Rezko—and Iraq—problem. Enjoy!
The proffer's references to "political candidate," which is supposed to be Obama, are as follows:
"Another $10,000 of the $112,000 transferred into the pizza company’s bank account was
used to make a political contribution in Individual D’s name to a political candidate. Rezko was a fundraiser for that political candidate and directed at least one other individual to make a political contribution to that same candidate, which Rezko then paid back."
That's it. One paragraph on page 36 of a 78 page indictment. And it's one that's about fundraising, which you said, in a previous ChaliceChick post's comment thread WASN'T what you thought the issue would be.
I find this frustratingly circular. Sure, slimy guys gave Obama money. Unless you're going to claim that Obama knew about the slime, he is not going to look any worse than the Clintons, with their bad fundraising history, or McCain, one of the Keating Five. It's quite difficult to become a U.S. senator or president, in a country without purely public funding for campaigns, without having some sketchy people kick money your way.
You say I don't know Chicago and Illinois politics, which is fair -- I don't. However, I do know what the fundraising histories of Obama's current opponents are, and they're no cleaner than Obama's. If Obama doesn't get criticized by the Senate Ethics Committee for his, he's doing better than McCain. Again, there's a reason that Clinton went after Obama's Rezko connection as "you worked for a slumlord!" instead of "you got money from a criminal." She knows she's living in a glass house on this issue.
You've gotta come up with something clearer about Obama's wrongdoing than that he got money from slimeballs, for it to be useful to his opponents.
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