"During his 12 years in politics, Sen. Barack Obama has received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted businessman Tony Rezko and his associates than he has publicly acknowledged, the Chicago Sun-Times has found." (Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, Chicago Sun Times - June 18, 2007)
Think about those tenants in the Englewood government subsidized housing on Chicago's South Side just four years after slum landlords Tony Rezko and his partner, Daniel Mahru rehabilitated the 31 buildings financed by Chicago taxpayers. It is 1997 and it is an absolute brutal winter. It is bone chilling cold. They are shivering without heat in their apartments because it doesn't work.
Rezko and Mahru let them freeze. When Obama is asked about his friend's apartments and why Rezko and partner would not turn the heat back on, he says he does not remember. Eleven of Rezko's buildings in disrepair and distress were in Obama's state Senate district. (Sun-Times/AP)
These are not Rezmar Corp's only low income projects - which fell into disrepair in spite of government funding. And Obama should have known more than he did since he was also the recipient of campaign cash from Rezko. Barack Obama was a newly elected state senator and his district included the unheated building. Rezko, who has been friends with Obama for 17 years (they didn't just meet), contributed to Barack Obama and later made it possible for Obama to purchase a larger lot with his $1.6 million mansion.
Obama worked for the Davis Miner law firm which represented Rezko helping him to get millions of dollars from the government for his buildings. Rezko hosted fund raisers in his home for Obama and other patrons, including Gov. Blagojevich - from whom he demanded kickbacks. So what did he want and get from Obama in return for his favors. Did Obama simply look the other way since 11 of these buildings were in Obama's district?
Rezko, who received government funding for his low income housing, in need of repairs and unheated, and today Rezko is an indicted political fund raiser who since this week is sitting in jail. He has been indicted for allegedly demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Governor Blagojevich.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported: "Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko's low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers." (Tim Novak, Chicago Sun Times - "Obama and his Rezko ties" - April 23, 2007)
"The building in Englewood was one of 30 Rezmar rehabbed in a series of troubled deals largely financed by taxpayers. Every project ran into financial difficulty. More than half went into foreclosure, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found." (Novak)
As pointed out in the investigative report, a former city official, said: "Their buildings were falling apart. They just didn't pay attention to the condition of these buildings." (Novak)
There is also the not so small matter of the $1.6 million dollar mansion.
"Much of the criticism has centered on two real estate deals involving Obama's South Side mansion. In the first, Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price for a doctor's home, while Rezko's wife paid the doctor full price for the vacant lot next door. Then -- a few months before Rezko was indicted -- Obama bought part of that lot from Rezko's wife." (Novak)
"But Obama's ties with Rezko go beyond those two real estate sales and the political support, the Sun-Times found. Obama was an attorney with a small Chicago law firm -- Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- that helped Rezmar get more than $43 million in government funding to rehab 15 of their 30 apartment buildings for the poor." (Novak)
"Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience when they created Rezmar in 1989 to rehabilitate apartments for the poor under the Daley administration. Between 1989 and 1998, Rezmar made deals to rehab 30 buildings, a total of 1,025 apartments. The last 15 buildings involved Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland during Obama's time with the firm." (Novak)
"Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble: ... Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure. ...Six buildings are currently boarded up.. ..Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs. ...Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans. ...At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings." (Novak)
Obama's campaign staff now acknowledges that Obama did indeed work on these where previously Barack Obama denied much of an involvement - and in his recent debate with Hillary when she accused him of representing Rezko, Obama said, he only billed Rezko for 5 hours of work. Well, of course he did. He had to show something, didn't he. After all, the consideration was far more than five hours worth of legal work. There was the little matter of the million dollar mansion and the extra lot and the campaign contributions and private parties.
What do lawyers do? They lie. He doesn't remember. That is convenient but the truth is he doesn't have to remember. The facts can be checked and there is sufficient evidence to implicate obama in far more than a mere casual relationship with Rezko.
In fact the relationship goes back 17 years. "...Obama had just become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Newspapers wrote about him. One story caught the eye of David Brint, a vice president of Rezmar, a new company that had become the Daley administration's favored developer of low-income housing."
Obama was offered a job. He says he didn't take it. Instead he returned to Chicago and worked on a voter-registration drive in 1992. Then he was hired by the law firm which represented Rezko, Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, which specialized in government subsidies for low-income housing. Whether this was an arrangement worked out in advance, we don't know, but it does seem reasonable to assume it was. Otherwise, it was just too convenient that he should now be working for the firm which handed Rezko's work, which had offered Obama a job.
The Sun Times report says, "The firm's top partner, Allison S. Davis, was, and is, a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, appointed by Mayor Daley. Davis was also a friend of Rezko. Davis and Rezko would eventually go into business together, developing homes." (Novak)
It was also convenient that Judson Miner, the other law firm partner was the legal administrator for Chicago's Law Department under Mayor Harold Washington. When Novak asked Judson Miner for a list of the cases Obama worked on, he said he would provide them but never did. Is it surprising that he would not want to?
Meanwhile as Obama prepared for bigger and better things, it was necessary to build a persona which would be appropriate for an up and coming politician and to leave all the dark shadows outside and skeletons locked away in the closet. Getting that information is like getting reliable information on George W. Bush's time in the National Guard. In Obama's book(s) (there are two of them now), he tells about how he worked to improve conditions in poor neighborhoods. He doesn't mention those people who are freezing in Resko's slum housing.
In biographical information Obama submitted to the Sun-Times in 1998, he says he specialized "in civil rights litigation, real estate financing, acquisition, construction and/or redevelopment of low-and moderate income housing..." And along the way he amassed enough to buy that $1.6 million dollar mansion.
"Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle. Obama also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s."
"Tony was one of the biggest fund-raisers."
AND Rezko has helped to raised millions more. "Rezko was among the people Obama appointed to serve on his U.S. Senate campaign finance committee, the Sun-Times reported in 2003. The committee raised more than $14 million, according to Federal Election Commission records, helping send Obama to Washington in 2004." (Novak)
"Two years ago, Obama bought a mansion on the South Side, in the Kenwood neighborhood, from a doctor. On the same day, Rezko's wife, Rita Rezko, bought the vacant lot next door from the same seller. The doctor had listed the properties for sale together. He sold the house to Obama for $300,000 below the asking price. The doctor got his asking price on the lot from Rezko's wife." (Novak)
Hank RothDoes this really seem like a casual relationship to you? It would be far fetched to think so. - It looks a lot more like a plan. And this one has been in the making for 17 years.
What do lawyers do? They lie. He doesn't remember.
Does this really seem like a casual relationship to you?
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