If Hillary Clinton had a friend under indictment for attempting to buy favors for his business, we're sure The Nation would make a cover story. Possibly a multi-part cover story.
Somehow, despite their non-stop dribbles on Barack Obama, the name Antoin Rezko has never been mentioned.
Repeating, not one word. Who is "Tony" Rezko?
He's someone currently facing money laundering, fraud and extortion charges from the federal government. He donated to many of Barack Obama's campaigns.
That's really all. Or that's what Bam-Bam wanted to present. The public lie Bambi told was "$50,000 and $60,000" was the range of contributions Rezko had donated to his campaigns over the years. The reality was over three times Bam-Bam's low ball, $163, 308.
Reality, the land Obama's home sits on includes a portion that he couldn't afford but, fortunately for him, Rezo bought and then later sold it to Obama when Obama could afford it. He bought the land -- which Obama couldn't afford -- at the same time Obama bought his original parcel. No deal was ever made, we are told. Of course not. We often buy up small lots next to ones our friends buying without even knowing. Don't you? And don't you also spend a thousand dollars (Obama's high ball) to have your neighbor's lot repeatedly mowed even after the indictment is made public?
He was just someone who donated to Baby Bam-Bam, no one Bam-Bam knew very well. Of course there's also the fact (emerging months after the real estate purchase was addressed by the press) that Obama, in a law firm, helped the man now charged with embezzlment win forty-three million dollars in government funds.
We've noted the above in passing as different revelations came out. (Click here for The Chicago Tribune's reporting on the relationship, here for the Chicago Sun-Times reporting -- note those links provide you with mulitple reports). It's worth really pointing out now. And noting that Frank Main (Chicago Sun-Times) reported in December of last year:
In addition to a land deal, Sen. Barack Obama's ties to indicted dealmaker Antoin "Tony" Rezko include an internship the senator provided the son of a contributor at the request of Rezko, an Obama spokesman confirmed today.
John Aramanda served as an intern for Obama for about a month in 2005, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs. His father is Joseph Aramanda, a Rezko business associate who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal corruption case against Rezko. Aramanda has contributed $11,500 to Obama since 2000, Gibbs said.
"Mr. Rezko did provide a recommendation for John Aramanda," Gibbs said. "I think that it's fairly obvious that a few-week internship is not of anything of benefit to Mr. Rezko or any of his businesses."
The revelation of the internship comes after Obama acknowledged a mistake in buying property from Rezko in January 2006 -- a deal that enlarged the senator's yard in the Kenwood neighborhood on the South Side. The transaction occurred at a time when it was widely known Rezko was under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office.
So what changed? Why are we noting it now? Bam-Bam himself. Just as he slams Hillary Clinton for voting for a resolution he couldn't bother to show up and vote on (though he swears he would've voted against it), he's also slamming her about releasing her papers.
We should add, about releasing her papers as First Lady. She's really not required to do that. She can if she wants. But Hillary, a first in many ways, is the first former First Lady to ever run for president. But Bam-Bam wanted to scream and shout about that because he has nothing else.
The Chicken Sop for the Soul curdeled and went bad causing him to abandon the alleged 'politis of hope.' He trails so poorly in the campaign that someone just looking at the numbers and nothing else would have no idea of how propped up and spit polished his campaign and tiny record has been by the press -- especially our loveliest of the lovelies at The Nation.
But Bam-Bam wanted to make a big-big deal out of Hillary's records on Friday. Turns out that he hasn't released his own records from when he was in the Illinois state legistlature (1997-2004). The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times have both requested them and Bam-Bam's offered that he only had one staffer at the time and besides some of them may have been tossed out!
Bam-Bam. As C.I. and Ava noted, we'd hate to see him drop out because then who would we laugh at? But Bam-Bam won't release the records, is now indicating they may be lost, and they cover the period of his close relationship with the indicted Rezko (whom he wrote letters of character for, it should be noted).
As Debra Winger says to Diane Ladd in Black Widow, "I find that odd."
We find much of the coverage odd about Barack Obama. One of the constitent outlets has been Black Agenda Report and, as Glen Ford has again noted, two of the front-runners are exactly alike (see Ford's "Obama and Clinton: The Siamese Twins"). But that is one and only one outlet.
We're having a difficult time thinking of a Republican candidate who could put a homophobe on stage and let the homophobe rant and rave without The Nation calling it out. But they didn't call out Barack Obama for doing that in South Carolina. They don't call out anything he does.
There is very little that Hillary Clinton does that Barack Obama doesn't also do. They are Simese Twins. They are two of a kind. (On Iraq, we see no difference between them or John Edwards.) But The Nation's offered non-stop slams on Hillary. That in and of itself would be fine. They are not a cheerleader -- or they're not supposed to be. They should be lobbying tough shots at everyone. They should be informing their readers of the weaknesses in all the candidates and the strengths so that their readers are the most informed voters out there.
But that's not how it plays out. Instead what happens is Hillary is taken to task and they avoid calling out Obama. They offer excuses for Obama. Katrina vanden Heuvel picks a public fight with David Corn when he dares to doubt that Saint Obama pees holy water. (Which only led to vanden Heuvel becoming a bigger joke in the mainstream press. Corn, of course, has moved onto Mother Jones. Before he did, the MSM made clear whom was the reporter and whom was the joke by whose opinion they cited. They cited Corn.) Laura Flanders (whom we all like) elects to use the time after the homophobic singer was allowed to speak against gays at the Obama rally to pen an open letter pleading to him.
About allowing a homophobe to appear at one of his events? Oh, please, cookie, she's distracting by pleading with him to breack with a Chicago political machine over the issue of torture.
There are serious criticisms to be lobbed at Hillary Clinton. We've done so here many times. That's not the issue. The issue is that the left and 'left' journals refuse to call out Obama. Time and again, he gets a pass.
He charges people to attend his public events. No doubt they then get listed as "small donors," the same way those who buy t-shirts and key chains are listed as small donors.
We sure hope no t-shirt buyer already maxed out on their actual donations to his campaign because if they did, they are now violation of federal law with the campaign listing t-shirt sales, key chain sales and bumper sticker sales as "donations."
(If The Nation weren't so known for being so damn cheap, we'd entertain ourselves with images of Patricia J. Williams being hauled off to the pokey for buying a ticket, a t-shirt and a key chain.)
The FEC is going to have a field day pouring over his records (after the election) trying to determine if everyone purchasing a ticket, key chain, and other Obama "swag" ended up having their purchase listed as a "donation" and, if so, what contributors maxed out with their actual donations and were now over the spending limit?
But to return to the aspect of appearing in public and charging citizens (whom you want to vote for you) to attend, it's appalling that the same crap media on the left that wants to whine the Big Business has to much say in the elections (it does), can't take a moment to call out Bam-Bam for turning what should be free events, open to all, open to only those who can afford to pay. He started out charging less than twenty bucks. He's now up to over thirty. Possibly when it hits a thousand, some may finally register an objection.
Let's be clear that this isn't face time (which has always been sold). This is to attend a political rally. So the next time you hear any of them -- John Nichols, Peter Hart, Katrina vanden Heuvel, go down the list -- hop on the high horse and talk (rightly) about the fact that the working poor and the poor are being cut out of the political process, if they haven't called out Obama's ticket-scheme, they are full of sh*t. By not calling it out on Obama, they are allowing it to become accepted and we will see it more and more in future campaigns. And yet he gets a pass.
Barack Obama has offered no plan for anything that is progressive. He has offered platitudes. He has served up Chicken Sop for the Soul. He's a triangulator just like Hillary but he gets a pass. The polls don't indicate he's got a shot at the White House, but the scary thing is wondering, if he did get in would the same outlets continue to give him a pass?
The only thing that might be more frightening is grasping what the mainstream media (and the right wing) will do with his connections to Rezko if he gets the nomination. Bet on it, they want play silent the way our 'left' 'leaders' have.