Obama should have waited to run for office until this Rezko thing was cleared up. It's going to kill his campaign because his name is constantly coming up with Rezko's. And he's changed his story numerous times about what kind of relationship he had with Rezko. Dumb. But, hey that's what happens when you've never run a tough race.

I doubt it- it was barely reported on the political newspage I look at- it will blow up big..... IF he wins the nomination.

If this is true Larry, the shit is about to hit the fan. I knew there was more to Rezko than just donations and acquiring property.

God help us all!

Most of Obama's major endorsers received campaign contributions from Rezko, including Dick Durbin and Claire McCaskill.

this felon get a visa.  Someone has to find out before the trial.  We can not risk him becoming the nominee and taking the party down.  We can not afford another four years of republicans in the whitehouse.

Nice try... but no prize.

If the guy got the visa with the help of "Illinois government officials" in 2005, then that couldn't have been Obama.  Barack Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004, so he wasn't part of Illinois government anymore, he was a "federal government official." Far more likely that this is related to the governor's office - Blago has deep ties here.

Well done Larry!

No, most of his money went to Blago. In this decade that is. Before the Dems took over in Illinois he was a fund-raiser for the Republicans and George Bush. Even though Obama and Rezko are buddies from way back, Rezko helped defeat Al Gore. Nice group of friends Obama has.

Bush is his friend. Rezko cochaired a major fundraiser for Bush's presidential campaign in 2003. This, according to an indepth article on Rezko in Chicago Magazine, Nov 2007. The article goes so far as to suggest Rezko may have paid some of Obama's tuition at Harvard Law School. He was courting him back then...

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazi ne/November-2007/Mr-Inside-Out/index.php ?cp=2&si=1#artanc

And in the S.C. debate, Obama says of Rezko: "I, uh... uh... only did about 5 hours work for him."

That line alone will come to haunt him!  

Nope. Nothing will happen. Will barely be reported by the hate-mongers. Can you imagine Olberman actually saying something negative about Obama? Nope.

Flash back to 2000 when GW could do no wrong. 2004 for that matter. That is what we have here. A whitewash by the media. This Rezko story was big in Illinois for some time before intrepid bloggers brought it to the fore.

Maybe we all should send links to all the media - Olbermann, Wolf and all the rest. Who has a list of e-mail addresses? Olbermann reads DKos, but he won't find out anything there.

You people are amazing.  You have whipped yourselves into a complete rather.  You have collectively posted about ten diaries on this same subject in the last four days.

Fine, but there is no there, there.  This is all guilt by association and innuendo.

Patrick Fitzgerald has been investigating Rezko for over a year.  If he had some real dirt on Obama, don't you think we would have heard it?

Instead, Obama is mentioned indirectly in one paragraph of a 78 page indictment.

Your collective enthusiasm for "swift boating" a fellow Democrat is very unseemly.  Although I suppose I shouldn't complain, it is exactly this type of behavior that is feeding the anti-Clinton backlash.  Have you no shame?

Why let facts get in the way of a good story. Of course Rezko will blow up Obama. Why, just look at the 78-page indictment of Rezko, which has a reference to a "politician" who didn't know that the money he was given was tainted. That "politician"? Obama! And do you know why he didn't know? Because he wasn't involved in the scandal!

Oh, wait, there I go again, letting facts get in the way, let me start again.

Of course Rezko will blow up Obama. Why, just look at the plea statement of Rezko's co-conspirator! He describes working for a politician...um...Blagojevich ...the...uh...Governor of Illinois who...okay, didn't know about the fraud that was going on either.

Okay, wait. There's got to be a story here, right? I mean, Patrick Fitzgerald, who is famous for finding political corruption investigated this for  over a year. He produced 1.5 million documents to the other side, after combing through them himself. He didn't find anything! He's just waiting, right? Until the opportune moment...oh, wait, he's the career prosecutor who has never let politics sway any decision.

Yeah, I tried my best, but those darn facts kept getting in my way!

Well, don't you fret, Swift-Boat Veterans for Hillary, there's still the 3-week unpaid internship he GAVE TO A REZKO BUSINESSPARTNER'S SON! (You're really going to have to yell on that one, because once you get past "3-week unpaid internship" people will be laughing pretty hard.) Oh, and there are the two letters he wrote in support of a Rezko project. Which housed 97 elderly. Poor elderly. Who would have been homeless otherwise. (Talk quickly on this one and hope no one asks to see the letters, they look pretty innocuous. And DON'T mention the elderly!)

The weird thing about this arrest warrant is that it  is premised on the notion that Rezko is a flight risk. The warrant even acknowledges that the standard that had been used to determine whether or not Rezko was a flight risk back at the time of the Oct. 2006 indictment was whether or nor Rezko had any overseas assets he could make use of to essentially fund a life on the lamb in exile. Rezko successfully proved this late 2006 & 2007 and therefore was allowed his physical freedom. The bottom line, though, was that as long as Rezko didn't have any overseas assets or wasn't liquidating assets and transferring them overseas, then he wasn't a flight risk (or enough of a risk to warrant his arrest anyway).

Ok, so, this indictment cites evidence of funds transferred from a third-party overseas into the US on Rezko's behalf that were used to pay off various overdue financial obligations Rezko had. The warrant cites these overseas funds as evidence that Rezko actually did have finances he could access, and that combined with his failure to inform the court made him a risk to skedaddle before the trial.

I wonder though: why would a guy who is planning an escape have money wired into the US? Why would he care about paying off creditors? Why would he be putting money into US-based accounts for his family members? Giving money to the family of fugitive friends living in the US?

Now, I imagine the feds have asked the same questions. Given, though, that Rezko And I acknowledge that perhaps the Norman Hsu example has simply made the federal prosecutors more vigilant about guarding against flight risks than in the past. Still, there's another possibility.

What if Rezko is ready to "flip?" Ready to testify against a high profile person(s) whom the feds have been watching but not able to build a solid case against. Wouldn't this give them the ability to talk with and have access to Rezko as much as they need without tipping off people who may be watching Rezko to see if he's cooperating with the feds?

Just a theory...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Rezko is why Obama turned his back to Clinton.

All depends on traction. Some Clinton friendly 527's have got to start running ads for this to go anywhere because the media who are in Obama's camp seem to be playing it down. Otherwise it's going to generate a lot of heat here and in blog world but not much in the real world.

Beware the slow, deliberate, cautious, apolitical prosecutor named Patrick Fitzgerald. Obama's Day One will be the day Patrick calls him in for a quiet little chat about this Rezko chap. Fitzgerald has been doing everything carefully by the book, carefully censoring Obama's name from documents, so when Obama's Day One arrives, Fitzgerald will be seen as conducting a legitimate fair minded inquiry.

....should always include the part where the crooked politician does favors for the crook.

I don't see that here.
I've done some reading in the Chicago Tribune on this case and that gritty, nasty part of the case where the politician sells his soul for a bigger piece of the pie just hasn't come to light in this case.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/natio nworld/chi-obama-rezko-clinton-080122,0, 5430503.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

At the most-
- Obama wrote letters supporting low-income housing for 97 elderly folks near his district (which was supported by the community); and

- he gave a one month internship to a kid who's father is friend's with Rezko.

Obama also opposed a major gambling deal by Rezko back in the Ill legislature.  (Strike that one month of free work he kicked back to the intern.)

Doesn't sound like Rezko is getting the bang for his buck..  C'mon, where's the dirt?  Where's the scandal?

I've heard of worse land scandals.  Just ask the Clintons.