NY Post Editorial Questions Obama's Associates

[Madeline]

Finally.  They endorsed him enthusiastically a few months ago.  Good Morning, NY Post.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06082008/postopinion/editorials/baracks_bad_buds_114511.htm

BARACK'S BAD BUDS

June 8, 2008 -- If people are best judged by the company they keep, then Barack Obama has got some explaining to do.

There's his long-term relationships with extremist preachers like Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger. And his association with '60s radical terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

And then there's his links with Tony Rezko - the Chicago political power broker who faces up to 20 years in prison after his conviction last week on 16 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering and soliciting bribes.

Rezko was found guilty of corrupting two state boards as part of a scheme in which he collected millions in kickbacks from companies seeking government contracts. Rezko, prosecutors charged, was "the man behind the curtain, pulling the strings."

The Obama-Rezko ties aren't ideological - they're just old-fashioned Chicago street politics at work.

Over the years, Rezko has raised as much as a quarter of a million dollars for Obama's political campaigns.

The now-presumptive Democratic nominee also did some legal work for Rezko early on, helping him earn millions developing run-down housing properties, many of them located in Obama's state Senate district. (More than half of those properties have since fallen into foreclosure, incidentally.)

But there's a far more personal connection, as well.

In 2005, Rezko helped Barack and Michelle Obama by buying a lot they could not afford next to the new home they'd just bought, then selling them part of the property so they could build a fence.

Obama admits that, at the time, he already knew that Rezko "was going to have some significant legal problems" with his housing deals. He now calls their personal transaction "a boneheaded move."

Indeed it was.

All in all, Obama apparently was one of the few people in Chicago who was blind to the fact that Tony Rezko was a key political-influence peddler.

Just as he was about the only person in Trinity United Church who missed every one of Jeremiah Wright's regular militant anti-American sermons.

No wonder Obama's reaction to Wednesday's jury verdict was, "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew" - just as he maintained that Wright's now-infamous diatribe was "not the person I met 20 years ago."

All of which makes us wonder: What did Barack Obama really know?

And when did he really know it?

[cjd]

Many positive things have been said about Obama because it was a way to appear PC. In the back of most people's mind they honestly thought that Obama would be sidelined by now and whatever they said about them would have no lasting consequences. Well surprise, surprise this guy might just make it to the White House and thats whats got many people thinking twice. I guess the prospect of having a racist black muslim president is not a comfort to most thinking Americans.   

[underthesun]

They should thought about this prior!

The Democrats will probably say that all "bad" media coverage about Obama is smearing from the GOP.

[JTFFan]

They should thought about this prior!

The Democrats will probably say that all "bad" media coverage about Obama is smearing from the GOP.

Lol, I could imagine the DemoKKKrats saying anything BolsheviKKK to benefit their power.