I had a letter to the editor published in the Chicago Sun Times last week. (I had checked once, didn't find it, and didn't keep checking. A friend told me that he had seen it, so I checked again.)
The URL is here, but I have printed the entire letter as published after the jump.
Rezko is a guy who was quite rich at one point, apparently honestly. At that point, he contribute to a lot of political campaigns. These included all the campaigns of Barack Obama and the gubenatorial campaign of Rod Blagojevich. Rezko's fortune, which was based on risky real-estate deals, went south. He responded by selling his influence in the Blagojevich administration. the Republicans have tried to push this onto Obama as guilt by association.
The Sun Times published an article recalling that McCain had connections of his own, notably his starring role in "The Keating Five." My letter pointed out the differences. Obama had contributions from somebody who sold his influence with another politician. McCaion did favors for a contributor who ended up in a showy trial; he continued to do favors for other contributors.
Rezko ties nothing like McCain's ethics problems no comparison
July 23, 2008Recommend (2)
Your story ["McCain's own Tony Rezko"] on Monday tried to parallel the two cases. There is a critical difference. McCain did favors for Keating, as he has continued to do favors for dozens of lobbyists. A politician has to accept political donations and socialize with the donors. Either that, or he has to be rich enough to pay for the campaign himself. It's his choice, however, as to whether he uses his political position to do favors for the donors, and it's blind luck whether those donors get in trouble elsewhere.
When Rezko felt he was big and rich, he donated to political campaigns; when he felt he was going broke, he called in the favors he had done to the Blagojevich campaign. Until somebody can show Obama having used his position to help Rezko, no more blame should attach to him than to anyone else Rezko knew.
On the other hand, McCain was censured by the usually compliant Senate ethics panel for the influence he used on behalf of Keating. He has been caught using influence, to the extent of threatening the funding of a regulatory agency, for other donors.
Frank Palmer,
Edgewater
(The headline isn't mine. It's clearer than mine, actually.)