Update [2008-2-26 15:30:42 by susanhu]: Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes up the Rezko trial today (and she is going to cover the trial, which is terrific since she is an attorney and has covered trials for the 'net many times - subscribe to their RSS feed): "Rezko Trial Set to Begin: Implications for Barack Obama." Jeralyn covers some of what I have below, and also reviews a NY Sun article that is substantive, saying "as the Post points out, while the Rezko trial is occurring too late to help Hillary Clinton, it may be good fodder for John McCain."

"Experience": Via Taylor Marsh, Obama questioning his own experience to run for president when asked in 2004:

Experiences (he's had a few): The Chicago Tribune reports that "Obama's name likely to come up at Rezko trial" (prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald):

The name of Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama is likely to brush up against the impending federal corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko as the result of a judge's ruling Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve, who is presiding over Rezko's trial, told prosecutors they could introduce evidence to support allegations that Rezko used straw men to make political contributions on his behalf.

Prosecutors have alleged that the money came from fees Rezko illegally siphoned from a state pension board.  [Someone I know is researching the "coincidence" that during the three-plus months that Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama was appointed to the senate's pension committee -- just three months -- the senate prevented the consolidation of state pensions, which would have adversely affected Rezko's pensions schemes, that bilked millions from the state pensions.  The bald facts are there, but my friend is still digging for details. - SusanUnPC]

There are new developments regarding the Obamas' home purchase ...

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By Larry C. Johnson (bio/blog)

Today's arrest of slumlord Tony Rezko could be very bad news for Barack Obama's presidential ambitions.  Rezko was arrested because he lied to the Feds--he claimed in November 2006 he had no assets and was virtually broke, but in April 2007 he received $3.5 million from a company owned by an Iraqi billionaire who also happens to be a convicted felon .  The man's name?  Nadhmi Auchi.

So what does this have to do with Obama?  Well, buried in a footnote in the motion for an arrest warrant, we learn that Auchi was denied a visa to the United States because of his conviction in France on fraud charges.  Auchi's buddy, Rezko sent a request to the U.S. Department of State in November 2005 for a visa waiver.  And Rezko asked unidentified "Illinois government officials" to ask for clearance as well.  How much you want to bet one of those officials was Barack Hussein Obama?

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• Time Magazine: Tony Rezko Arrested


• Chicago Tribune: Tony Rezko arrested, sources say


• No Quarter post by SusanUnPC: "BREAKING: ABC News Reports $100,000 From Rezko That Obama Hasn't Returned/Given Away," January 25, 2008

Update [2008-1-28 12:13:9 by susanhu]: By the way, on ABC's This Week yesterday, Barack Obama said that he has had a "20-year" relationship with Tony Rezko, not the 17-year relationship typically described by newspaper reporters who are unable to interview Obama on his relationship with the influence peddler indicted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. In my Saturday story, "Politics Is A Blood Sport," I noted that Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet pointed out that "Obama has never agreed to an interview about Rezko." There's also an exceptional Boston Globeop-ed I quoted from, written by a Democratic media consultant in Boston, "Worrying about Obama":

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Barack Obama has enjoyed hands-off, near-reverential coverage by the media and pundits. Only a few gutsy journalists as well as a few bloggers, like me, are investigating the skeletons in Obama's closet and questioning Obama's preparedness to be president. If Sen. Obama is to be the nominee, he must not only be thoroughly vetted beforehand, but he must also show that he can take the vicious GOP attacks sure to come his way.  I read two important pieces today that buttress my points above:

• Digby, the extraordinary blogger at Hullabaloo, in "Pecksniffian Twit":  "The punditocracy's 'protectiveness' toward Obama is patronizing and insulting.  And this silly case of the vapors among the villagers over the 'nastiness' of the race and how it's going to tear the party apart is nearly guaranteed to make him look like a weak sister, which he isn't, and his elite supporters are falling right into the trap. Watching David Brooks and Mark Shields elbow each other to get to the fainting couch about the unprecedented horror of the South Carolina campaign (which as D-Day pointed out in the post below is a complete joke) is not helpful to Obama or Clinton. I would have thought that everyone would at least remember this little bit of negative campaigning.  It was only four years ago: [continued below]
• An op-ed, "Worrying about Obama," in the Boston Globe by Democratic media consultant Dan Payne: "BARACK OBAMA has a realistic chance to be the Democratic nominee for president. As the only white employee at a Detroit civil rights organization years ago, I am moved by this remarkable moment in our nation's history." Payne continues:

  But as a media consultant to Democrats, I am worried. I want to know more about Obama. And I want to know it now, not in the fall when the Republicans and their thugs in "independent" groups start slinging the sludge.

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Brian Ross has done it again. This is a KEY line: News organizations have found "Rezko-linked contributions that are more than double what the campaign has publicly acknowledged..." Be sure to watch Nightline tonight:

... "We have returned any money that we know was associated to Mr. Rezko," Obama told Diane Sawyer on Wednesday morning during an appearance on "Good Morning America." ...

The Obama campaign says it has given away more than $85,000 in Rezko-linked contributions since Rezko was indicted on federal fraud and extortion charges in the fall of 2006.

An ABCNews.com review, however, has identified an additional $100,000 in contributions made to Obama from Rezko's associates that have not been returned, including $19,500 in contributions from Rezko's wife and employees of Rezko's business enterprises. The ABCNews.com review includes individuals who have been linked to Rezko in news reports, court documents and public records.

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