Did Barack Obama use indicted campaign fund-raiser Tony Rezko as a conduit to get jobs for people in Gov. Blagojevich’s administration?
The question arises from a list of 39 people Rezko’s lawyers said in a court filing he urged Blagojevich to give state jobs.
Among those on the list were two people who appear to have Obama links and a third who’s now an Obama presidential campaign staffer.
But did the names come from Obama? His campaign staff’s short answer: Don’t know — but it’s possible.
“We do not know how decisions were made to fill specific state positions, and we have no records of any individual recommendations we were asked to make or made,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton “But we do know that Tony Rezko, among others, was helping to gather names for the positions coming open with a new administration, and, if it is established any names came through our office, we would have no reason to doubt it.”
h/t Karl
Karl already had it, but I just want to point out that the issue brings us to the question, “What kind of change does Obama represent, if he attained his present position by virtue of old-fashioned Chicago machine politics?” I think that’s a legitimate question.
*nothing to do with Shannon Elizabeth
Gleens: “B-b-b-but…”
Ellensberg: “Shhhh…It’s alright. You’ve written a bestseller and had Russ Feinglod read from your blog on the Senate floor. I’ll go get you another mojito.”
Of course that’s how he obtained his position. You simply cannot be a politician in Chicago without being a part of the machine. Period. If the gov’t workers/campaign workers (one in the same) can’t beat your organization, the paid-off “journalists” at the Trib will regurgitate every slander your machine opponent whispers in their ears (for “access” to other juicy political stories from the machine).
Now we know where the writers got half the plot lines for “The Wire.”
@ #4
“But did the names come from Obama? His campaign staff’s short answer: Don’t know  but it’s possible†was printed in the Chicago Sun-Times, whose head is so far up Obama’s ass, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
They now refer to themselves atop the Editorial page as, “The Progressive, Independent Conscience of the City.” ALL of their columnists are unabashed liberals. Two editors recently resigned when a couple of “white guys from Corporate” came down and forcibly rewrote (to tone them down a bit) the Obama and McCain Illinois primary endorsements. Obama still got a two page spread with icon. Complete moonbattery. McCain got two paragraphs in a separate edition.
Since Obama’s been in, CS-T has read like the Campaign’s house organ. Appeared, as well, with full page iconic photography.
That they allow their columnists to begin to question Obama’s Rezko ties is telling. Or maybe just interesting. But he’s so dreamy!
To be fair, they’ve had the questions. They just haven’t bothered to ask for answers.
Dear Senator Obama,
“If you were a tree, what tree would you be?”
#4
It’s Chicago politics. Of course he knows. you don’t get where he got in state olitics without patronage. Take my word for it. You do not want the United States run like the Cook County board.