As many of you know, Tony Rezko’s trial got under way today and I wanted to toss something out there that may indeed be possible if he’s our party’s nominee. From what I’ve heard, this friend of Sen. Obama’s for the past 17 years may well call him as a witness in this trial.
This video is just the start of what this trial will set in motion guys...
Here’s what was said in that video...
MORAN: If Tony Rezko called you as a witness in the trial would you testify for him?
OBAMA: Well, I don't know what my legal obligations would be. And so yeah, I would leave that up to lawyers.
Make the jump – there’s more...
Now it’s pretty clear that the republican nominee will be Sen. John McCain, a guy who served in Vietnam, was captured by the Vietcong, tossed into a tiger cage and survived, and has been a major player in his party and in the Senate for years. He’s also got his name on loads of legislation, most notably a campaign finance reform bill. You know – designed to clean up our government and elections?
Now think of it – if Obama’s our nominee there’s a very good chance he'll be called as a witness for the defense in a corruption trial. And if he’s not testifying he’s either got that subpoena hanging over his head or the trial’s come and gone and he’s an extremely flawed and damaged candidate for allowing himself to get caught up in this mess in the first place.
Picture it – our party’s nominee / our standard bearer testifying on behalf of a guy he’s known for 17 years – who he may possibly have gotten help from in a real estate deal – and who’s up on corruption charges... going up against the likes of John McCain.
Pictures like this will be all over the airwaves, the net and in the press..
Can you imagine what McCain and those 527 groups will do with that? Is BO really the strongest candidate we Democrats can find to go up against a guy like John McCain?
This story’s been out there for quite some time now, but as ABC said today, Obama Scant on Details the Day of Rezko Trial, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, even after today’s press availability...
Sen. Obama, D-Ill., went through the motions repeating point blank details that were already known about their controversial history, "Tony Rezko was a friend, and supporter of mine for many years. He was a well known business man in the community, as you’re aware of, he supported not just me, but many democrats and republican. He is now in trouble and is on trail for federal corruption charges. Those charges are completely unrelated to me and I don't think anyone disputes that. What is also true is that I entered into a real estate transaction with him, I bought a strip of land at an adjacent property that he had purchased and I said that that was a mistake because at that point there was already a cloud over Tony Rezko’s head."
That worked for a few minutes, until people started to ask him specific questions about fundraisers (who was there and what was raised). He offered up excuses – not answers, claiming that hundreds of stories have been written about this. I’m sorry but if that’s true then why do we know so little about this whole mess? And why did he suddenly cut the press availability short when they started asking those unanswered questions?
After about ten questions in a fifteen minute press avail. As he walked away from the podium a slew of questions were barreled at him. He said he was late and had already taken numerous questions.
But a slew of specific questions yielded few new answers from the Senator, just one day before the March 4th primaries, although he claimed, "I’ve been very open that I called it a boneheaded move."
Someone found footage of the end of that press availibility and posted it on YouTube. Take a look..
Apparently, BO’s not the only one dodging questions regarding BO’s ties to Rezko. David Axelrod went on Snuffalupgus’ show (aka This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos) on Sunday and claimed they’d answered direct questions from reporters who’ve been covering this story. That’s not entirely true says Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times. She included the following news report in her blog entry today. It’s good background information - take a look...
This is some of what she had to report in that blog report...
Here what David Axelrod said on Sunday, during an interview on ABC’s "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
STEPHANOPOULOS: Before you go there, David, let me just follow up on one point, because Lynn Sweet writes in the Chicago Sun-Times, I believe it was yesterday, that in fact Senator Obama has not sat down with the Chicago reporters who are most familiar with the Rezko case. Is he willing to do that, or is Ms. Sweet wrong, in your opinion?
AXELROD: I think she is wrong. We've talked to reporters from -- and he's talked to reporters from both papers several times in several sessions about this, and each time the conclusion is the same: There's no evidence of any wrongdoing related to Mr. Rezko.
I showed the above to the reporters who cover the Rezko-Obama story.
For the record, here’s what they said.
Sun-Times Reporter Tim Novak
"David Axelrod has never talked to me, Fusco or Mckinney about Obama. Neither has Obama.
All we've gotten are responses to written questions, and who knows who actually answered those. And occassionally we talk to (Bill) Burton.
But the point is that Obama himself has never sat down and discussed these questions about Rezko."
Sun-Times Reporter Chris Fusco
"Tim is absolutely right about that one."
Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney
"Well, I know Chris and I have never had a sit-down interview with Obama. Axelrod might be referring to the December 2006 Q and A, but as you know those were written questions and written responses. I believe Tim's experience was identical when he wrote about Rezko's slum properties. Axelrod would have been more accurate, perhaps, had he said today that Obama has "communicated" with reporters (through spokesmen and a Q and A). But he hasn't spoken to us directly about this. You are right. Axelrod is wrong."
Sun-Times Political Columnist Carol Marin recalls when Tim Novak broke his first major piece on Rezko’s slumlord holdings in Obama’s state senate district, Obama’s campaign delayed providing substantive answers for weeks.
Sweet goes on to repost earlier entries and write-ups regarding this whole story so check it out – there’s some great background information there as well.
What follows is a series of questions that were raised by Hillary’s Communications Director in a conference call with reporters toward the end of last week. Her campaign has put them online with sourcing and back-up and I think these are just the start of the questions BO will have to answer as this trial unfolds - especially if he’s called as a witness for Rezko’s defense. Check it out...
Questions Sen. Obama Should Answer About Tony Rezko
3/3/2008 10:18:49 AM
The trial of indicted influence peddler Tony Rezko – longtime friend and political patron of Sen. Barack Obama -- starts today . Sen. Obama's name has already surfaced in pre-trial documents submitted by the prosecution and, according to media reports, is likely to surface again as the trial progresses. Democrats deserve the answers to these questions as they consider their votes:
1. Will Sen. Obama release all documents related to his relationship with Tony Rezko, including all documents related to his controversial land transaction?
Howard Wolfson asked top Obama strategist David Axelrod this question on ABC's This Week and the campaign has yet to respond. [ABC's This Week, 3/2/08]
2. When, specifically, did Sen. Obama become aware of Mr. Rezko's legal problems?
On national television this January, Sen. Obama said "no one had an inkling" of Rezko's legal troubles during the course of their relationship. Actually, it was already widely reported that Mr. Rezko was under investigation for participating in a kickback scheme prior to their controversial land transaction. [CBS, 1/23/08; Chicago Sun-Times, 9/16/05]
3. Sen. Obama has returned money from several individuals who are publicly associated with Mr. Rezko. How much money did Mr. Rezko bundle for Sen. Obama's campaigns in total, including people who are not business associates of Mr. Rezko? How many fundraisers did Mr. Rezko hold for Sen. Obama? Has there been an internal investigation to determine how many straw donors Mr. Rezko used to funnel money to Sen. Obama?
The Obama campaign has returned money from people who are publicly associate with Mr. Rezko. But they have not revealed who much Mr. Rezko bundled for Sen. Obama in total. The Chicago Sun Times reported that the Obama campaign "declined to say" whether they maintained a list of the money that Mr. Rezko raised for Mr. Obama over the course of his career. [Chicago Sun Times, 1/23/08]
4. Much of the upcoming trial involves Mr. Rezko's efforts to control state boards as a means to defraud the state government. Have Sen. Obama and Mr. Rezko ever communicated about potential appointments to Illinois boards and commissions? It's been publicly reported that Sen. Obama lobbied these same state boards to secure contracts for campaign donors. Did Sen. Obama ever confer with Mr. Rezko concerning how to successfully lobby state boards?
The indictment alleges that Mr. Rezko manipulated state government boards to defraud the people of Illinois. At the same time, "Mr. Obama met with three state pension boards," urging them to give contracts to specific firms. Later, employees of these companies "donated more than $300,000 to help Mr. Obama win his seat in the United States Senate in 2004 and set fund-raising records early in the 2008 presidential race." [New York Times, 10/01/07]
5. The New York Times reported that Sen. Obama attended a business meeting on behalf of Mr. Rezko to impress potential investors for his business schemes. How many events did Sen. Obama attend on behalf of Mr. Rezko to impress investors? What was his role? Why did Sen. Obama agree to attend?
The New York Times reported in June that "Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and that at Mr. Rezko’s request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004, just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko’s partners said, helped impress foreign guests." [New York Times, 6/14/07]
6. How many times did Senator Obama visit Tony Rezko's house? What were the purpose of these visits?
The Times of London reports that "The court is also expected to hear from John Thomas, an FBI mole, who reportedly witnessed Mr Obama and Mr Blagojevich making frequent visits to Mr Rezko." [The Times, 3/3/08]
7. Did Sen. Obama intercede on behalf of Mr. Rezko in any governmental capacity?
The Chicago Sun Times reported that "As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens." They have not said whether there were any other actions that Obama took for the benefit of Rezko. [Chicago Sun Times, 6/13/07]
(See Source for hyper-links to original info. and facts).
Hey if I can pull this information and these questions together, don’t you think it might (might!) be possible for the reporters out there to start doing their job and get to the bottom of this mess – before someone’s crowned as our party’s nominee?
Just saying (shrugs). You might not think it’s worth looking into, but I would think anyone interested in sending up our strongest possible candidate might at least be asking themselves if BO’s the best candidate that we can crown as our nominee – to do battle with the rethugs in the general election.
For my money – there are just too damn many unanswered questions out there right now.
There’s been a lot of talk of who’s more ready to lead between BO & Hillary. He’s made a big deal of judgment and I thought I’d close with something a friend just sent me in an email...
Obama is an attorney. What's wrong with taking his own advice? Why does he need to consult an attorney?
Oh, that's right, his own judgment got him into this mess. That's the same judgment he's bragging about with the Iraq war speech.
I hope he has the good judgment to not hire the same lawyer as Tony Rezko when that subpoena comes, and he has to testify in this trial.
And I hope our party’s Super Delegates have the good judgment to back Hillary in this election.