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June 29, 2008

So Tell Us, Sen. Obama, 'Who Else Sent You?'

By Russ Vaughn

It was, of course, inevitable. How could any politician rise so quickly on the legendarily corrupt Chicago political scene and be as pure as Obama's devoted followers were purporting him to be? The question in the minds of skeptics was, "Who sent you?"

Well now we're beginning to find out and it ain't pretty. In a lengthy, and amazingly frank, Boston Globe article depicting the dismal results of Chicago's attempt to develop and manage low income housing through private developers, we see that the candidate of change is nothing more than another Chicago machine-generated pol with his feet firmly mired in the muck of corruption of the city he chose to make his political base.

From the Globe article we learn that Tony Rezko, FOB, (Friend of Barack's) whom we have known up to now only as a corrupt developer, was and is, in fact, a slum lord, although on a much grander scale than what we usually associate with that term. Using government subsidies which Obama helped them obtain, Rezko and other FOB's, some now actively associated with his campaign, developed low income housing with fancy sounding names and substandard construction within Obama's state senatorial district.

The article points out that it was Obama's law firm and Obama himself that represented these slum lords when angry tenants complained about overflowing sewage, inoperable heating units and rat infestations. And guess what? Just as we're expected to believe that Obama sat in his church for twenty years and never heard any of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's racist diatribes, now we're told Obama was unaware of the slum-like conditions his constituents were living in, conditions directly attributable to the thievery from public coffers of his political cronies like Rezko.

But getting to a partial answer of that old Chicago test of cronyism, "Who sent you?" will require you to read to page seven of the Boston Globe article where you find this:

"All the while, Tony Rezko was forging a close relationship with Barack Obama. When Obama opened his campaign for state Senate in 1995, Rezko's companies gave Obama $2,000 on the first day of fund raising. Save for a $500 contribution from another lawyer, Obama didn't raise another penny for six weeks. Rezko had essentially seeded the start of Obama's political career."   [emphasis added]

Thirteen years later, the now out-of-business slum lord, Tony Rezko, is a convicted felon and on his way to federal prison, while his political protégé is trying to become the head of the federal government. Do you suppose foreign-born Tony understands irony? Do you think he's scrambling to find Eric Holder's phone number? Although, considering Obama's demonstrated willingness to abandon anyone who comes between him and the White House, Ol' Tony probably shouldn't hold his breath waiting for a return call. After all, the tens of thousands he has given Obama in the past are now chump change for a candidate who can forego public campaign funding without a backward glance at either his promises or his former mentors.

The true irony in all this is not that this champion of change is tainted; it's by what he's tainted. You'd at least think if this Pied Piper of America's youth is going to be just another corrupt politician that it would be something hip like being in the pocket of some billionaire software developer or hip-hop promoter.

But slum lords? The Messiah of Change?

So what at first seemed nothing more than tainted whiffs of unwise political and religious associations by Obama are growing into a stench of ordinary political corruption that may very well be more than many moderate voters, even Democrats, can stomach. For sure there are increasing numbers of blowflies buzzing in and about the diminishing glow of that once-bright halo. Of course, for the Kool Aid drinkers, it will simply morph into a crown of thorns.

So tell us, Sen. Obama, "Who else sent you?"
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