Registered Voter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, I am sure you were going to vote McCain
> before you were reminded of this. What a load.
>
> I was going to vote for Obama too until Palin got
> in the race.
>
> NOT.
>
> BTW - McCain was exonerated of all of these
> issues.
>
> Obama still has two major issues of his own to
> deal with. If you read any of the Chicago
> newspapers or online articles you will see there
> is still a lot of issues in the Rezko
> investigation, and Obama has not been totally
> cleared of that cloud yet.
>
>
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/124171,CST-N
> WS-obama05.article
>
> An interesting back and forth of questions
> including this little tidbit:
>
>
> Q: Did Rezko or his companies ever solicit your
> support on any matter involving state or federal
> government? Did Al Johnson, who was trying to get
> a casino license along with Tony Rezko, or Rezko
> himself ever discuss casino matters with you?
>
> A: No, I have never been asked to do anything to
> advance his business interests. In 1999, when I
> was a State Senator, I opposed legislation to
> bring a casino to Rosemont and allow casino
> gambling at docked riverboats which news reports
> said Al Johnson and Tony Rezko were interested in
> being part of. I never discussed a casino license
> with either of them. I was a vocal opponent of the
> legislation.
> (http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/sroll
> calls91/pdf/910SB1017_05251999_001000C.PDF)
>
>
> If you go to the PDF, all it has is a list of
> names and who voted Yea or Nay. If you look into
> the legislation, the bill passed and was signed
> into law. I would totally understand him voting
> against this bill seeing as how it promotes
> gambling, and one thing he has indicated is that
> he doesn't believe this helps poor people. The
> bill was most likely going to pass anyway with or
> without his vote.
>
> The other part that defies logic is the home
> purchase. So Rezko somehow has an idiot real
> estate person (he was in real estate development
> lets remember) who makes him buy a swatch of land
> next to the house Obama is buying for the ASKING
> price (oh wait, it was his wife that bought it -
> right), and somehow Obama manages to get the house
> reduced $300K...
>
> And of course, what he said was not true:
>
http://mediamatters.org/items/200706140007
>
>
> On June 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that
> Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), while serving as an
> Illinois state senator in 1998, "did a political
> favor" for Chicago Democratic fundraiser Antoin
> "Tony" Rezko by writing letters to state and local
> government officials in support of a Chicago
> housing project proposed by Rezko's company, New
> Kenwood LLC. The Sun-Times asserted that the
> "letters appear to contradict a statement last
> December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune
> that, in all the years he's known Rezko, 'I've
> never done any favors for him.' '' In reporting on
> this story, however, several media outlets omitted
> statements included in the Sun-Times article that
> challenge the paper's assertion that Obama
> performed a "favor" for Rezko -- specifically,
> Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton's claim that
> "I don't know that anyone specifically asked him
> to write this letter," and Rezko's attorney's
> claim that Rezko "never spoke with, nor sought a
> letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that
> project."
>
>
> Before Hillary got out of the race - I guess ABC
> was still doing hit jobs for her:
>
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4365942&pag
> e=1
>
>
> While Obama is not considered a target of the
> Rezko investigation, Stewart says it will shed
> light on a man who was pivotal to Obama's
> political career.
>
> "This wasn't just some guy who wrote a check once
> for Barack Obama, it's someone who was an early
> supporter and had a personal relationship with
> Sen. Obama for quite some time," Stewart said.
>
> Indeed, even after he was elected to the United
> States Senate, Obama involved Rezko in a land deal
> that enabled the senator to buy his current home
> on Chicago's South Side.
>
> Obama has since called his decision to involve
> Rezko "a bone-headed mistake."
>
> "Tony Rezko is all that is wrong with the old kind
> of politics or any kind of politics," said the
> Better Government Association's Stewart.
>
> The Rezko trial will focus on Rezko's alleged role
> in steering Illinois state contracts in exchange
> for kickbacks and political contributions to Rezko
> friends.
>
> The most damning examples cited by prosecutors
> involve Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but several
> of the contributions were directed to Obama's 2004
> Senate campaign.
>
> A motion filed by federal prosecutors identifies
> two instances when Rezko directed contributions to
> an unnamed "political candidate" who has since
> been identified by Chicago newspapers as Obama.
>
> The Obama campaign says it has donated to charity
> some $160,000 that can be traced to Rezko or
> others involved in the corruption investigation.
>
>
> Not to mention the more than $200M they have
> somehow managed to raise by donations of less than
> $200 each... I saw there was another thread on
> that subject so I won't go into it here. Suffice
> it to say, I guess you get what you pay for. I
> wonder how much Chinese money is in this election?
Re: China - Not as much as Bush and the GOP Congress pumped into our t-bills from 2001 to 2006, that's for sure.
McCain was exonerated from criminal charges, but still reprimanded on his lack of ethics.
Besides, influencing a local government has nothing on interfering with federal regulators for the largest thrift scandal in U.S. history (soon to be surpassed once the SEC and FBI are finished with their fieldwork).