Obama and Rezko are discussed Firedoglake in a terrible and borderline slanderous article.
Before I go into it: I am mildly supportive of Obama who is not the progressive candidate I'd like to see, but who seems to me to be marginally better than Hillary Clinton who I also think would be a decent president (and obviously better than any possible Republican). I don't really know much about the Rezko matter and originally looked at the FDL article with interest to see if there really was something there. However, the article's treatment of something I did know something about was so misleading that it made me distrust everything else. The author claims that Miner, Barnhill firm that employed Obama was a "sleazy" and "ethically spotty" firm, insinuating that it essentially acted as an arm of Rezko's business and that Obama's choice of this firm itself is deeply suspicious. In this light the Rezko connection become ominous. But a little research shows this entire construction to be fabricated.
Let's see Looseheadprop's case first:
When Obama became president of the Harvard Law Review, Rezko interviewed him for a job working for one of Rezko's companies. Obama turned down the job, but instead accepted more indirect employment at the law firm representing a series of Rezko's not-for-profit partners in the series of transactions to build and rehab low income housing that are now the subject of federal indictment in Chicago which US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald described as "pay to play on steroids."
So, Obama turned down a direct job with Rezko and accepted "indirect employment" with the law firm. Sounds bad.
In the comments, Looseheadprop comes back to this:
The president
of Harvard Law Review doesn’t need any help from Rezko to get a job offer at a small Chicago firm
EXACTLY!!! A guy like Obama doesn’t even consider going to a sleazy firm like this. Why wasn’t he as some white shoe firm. A guy with his resume from law school doesn’t need a firm like that.
Really, why would he work for a sleazy firm like this? Makes sense only when you know of his secret connection to Rezko, right? And when asked to back up "sleazy" Looseheadprop tells us more:
If you mean why did Obama go to work for a firm that he was clearly overqualified for? This firm has had a spotty ethical history (one of the law firm’s partners left to become a partner of Rezko’s)
It’s not like he was doing something altruistic by joining this firm. It’s not like he went to work for the SCLU or Legal Aid.
Geez, I can hear alarm bells ringing all over town. Something must be deeply creepy about this Obama fellow if the best he can do with his Harvard Law Review Presidency is go to some real-estate sleaze shop, no? Well, maybe not. If we read the Associated Press, we learn:
The firm of Miner Barnhill & Galland, many of whose members have Harvard and Yale law degrees, has a reputation that fits nicely into the resume of a future presidential candidate.
"It's a real do-good firm," says Fay Clayton, lead counsel for the National Organization for Women in a landmark lawsuit aimed at stopping abortion clinic violence. "Barack and that firm were a perfect fit. He wasn't going to make as much money there as he would at a LaSalle Street firm or in New York, but money was never Barack's first priority anyway.
This is from
http://www.boston.com/...
So while Looseheadprop is mystified why Obama would select such a law firm, a lead counsel for the National Organization for Women tells the AP that it was a "do good law firm" and a perfect fit. The AP goes on to tell us
The firm offered another advantage to Obama. It was close to the political action.
Miner was Chicago's corporation counsel under Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor, in the 1980s when Washington was battling for control of the City Council against remnants of the once-mighty Machine.
Miner introduced Obama to a number of people in politics. Obama already knew many others, having worked as an organizer in the black community before he entered law school.
So it turns out that a senior partner in this obscure and sleazy law firm used to be corporation counsel under Chicago Progressive hero Mayor Harold Washington. Maybe the lure of working "indirectly" for Rezko was not what got Obama back to Chicago. And the AP goes on to cover some of the cases that Obama worked on for this law firm: representing ACORN, black voters in a voters rights case, a whistleblower and so on.
This is not at all what one might expect from the picture Looseheadprop paints. You could also go to the webpage of Miner, Barnhill and look at their practice areas.
The first one listed is Employment under that topic you can find a long list of very high profile cases where the law firm represented workers fighting employment discrimination.
Here's part of it.
Miner, Barnhill and Galland is one of the nation's leading employment law firms. Partners Judson Miner, Charles Barnhill, Sarah Siskind, Paul Strauss, Jeffrey Cummings , and George Galland, all devote a substantial percentage of their time to this practice group. The firm is known particularly for its representation of plaintiffs in large-scale, high-profile class actions or multi-plaintiff cases brought under the federal employment discrimination laws. Some of the matters handled by the firm over the years include:
* Evans v. Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America ( George Galland ). The firm represented the 27 private plaintiffs in this lawsuit, which was settled in 1997 and which was perhaps the largest and most widely publicized sexual harassment lawsuit in the nation's history.
* In re Burlington Northern, Inc. Employment Practices Litigation ( Charles Barnhill ). The firm was counsel for the plaintiff class in this nationwide class action, which was settled for approximately $60 million in damages and injunctive relief and remains one of the largest pre-trial settlements of any race discrimination case.
* Ridgeway v. Local 134, IBEW ( Judson Miner ). The firm has represented the plaintiff class in this race discrimination class action against the Electrical Workers' Union, which was settled through a decree that has opened the Chicago area electrical construction industry to blacks.
* Orlowski v. Dominick's Finer Foods Inc. ( Judson Miner , Paul Strauss , Jeffrey Cummings ). The firm is counsel for the plaintiff class in a sex discrimination lawsuit against one of the midwest's largest grocery store chains.
* Isaacs v. Caterpillar, Inc. ( George Galland , Paul Strauss ). The firm represented 69 plaintiffs in this "opt-in" class action under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act challenging a series of reductions in force. The case was settled in 1992.
* Hany v. General Electric Co. ( Charles Barnhill , George Galland ). The firm was counsel for ten plaintiffs who lost their jobs in a series of reductions in force. After a series of victorious jury trials and an appeal, the case was settled in 1993.
* Liberles v. Miller ( Charles Barnhill , George Galland ). The firm was counsel for the plaintiff class in this race discrimination case on behalf of African-American employees of the Illinois Department of Public Aid. The case resulted in what was at that time the highest race discrimination judgment in Illinois history.
* Mays v. Motorola ( Charles Barnhill , Judson Miner ). The firm represented the plaintiff class in this race discrimination class action challenging the hiring practices of the defendant. After plaintiffs won the liability trial, the case was settled during the appeal for approximately $15 million.
* Meiresonne v. Mariott Corp. ( Sarah Siskind , Charles Barnhill ). The firm represented the plaintiff class in this sex discrimination class action involving dsicrimination in the promotion of women, which was settled in 1991 for $3 million.
* Allen v. Marshall Field & Co. Inc. ( Charles Barnhill ). The firm was counsel to 64 plaintiffs in this case, which was one of the first age discrimination "opt-in" class actions settled in the midwest.
* Anderson v. Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. ( Charles Barnhill , Paul Strauss ). The firm represented 39 plaintiffs in this opt-in class action brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which was settled in 1987.
* Chaffee v. A&P Tea Co. ( Paul Strauss ). The firm was counsel to the class in this race discrimination class action involving the improper segregation and layoff of black meat-cutters, which was settled after plaintiffs prevailed in a liability trail.
So when Looseheadprop wonders why, why in the world, would a talented young lawyer like Obama select this "sleazy" firm where he would work indirectly for Rezko, readers are not given the information that in fact the law firm works on some of the most high profile workers rights cases in the country. And that's just the beginning. None of this is secret information - none is hard to get. Here's the practice areas page on for the law firm
http://www.lawmbg.com/...
And I want to stress, none of this proves Obama is the best candidate to be president. None of what I've written shows that Miner Barnhill or Obama is innocent of bad practices or even wrongdoing re Rezko. But it does show that the article by Loosheadprop is grossly misleading on this critical issue. The article asks us to consider Obama in light of his mysterious decision to join a low prestige sleazy real-estate law firm that appears to be nothing more than a front for Rezko and in this light, it would be natural to be suspicious of everything. And that is the secret of a successful smear. Obama's explanations of his work will, necessarily sound like excuses because we have already accepted the shady setting.
Smears are always about context. Once the context is established, the target is at a disadvantage. Once you accept that Hillary Clinton is a cold calculating bitch, then her positions are automatically dishonest and fabricated stories about her failing to leave a tip for a waitress seem believable and significant. Once you accept the idea that Al Gore is a "serial prevaricator" then his explanations of Love Canal or internet invention seem like so much flailing about. Same here.
BTW: I wrote this in comments in FDL and emailed it to them
(under the other name I use "rootless" without getting a response.)