-By Warner Todd Huston
Antonin “Tony” Rezko, a long-time Political fundraiser for Illinois Democrats, has been sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison for extorting millions from companies seeking state business or hoping to have favorable regulations written for them by government. The money was sought as donations to politicians such as disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich — Rezko was his top fundraiser — and President Barack Obama.
Rezko, a Chicago real estate developer, has been involved in shady deals with Democrats for a long time but has until now escaped any consequences for his criminal actions. His conviction came in 2008 but Rezko’s sentencing had been delayed because he was ostensibly assisting prosecutors to go after Blagojevich. Apparently Rezko didn’t help a whole lot, though, as he was never called to the stand and prosecutors demanded that Rezko get 15 years in federal prison — a hefty demand if he was, indeed, being helpful.
Rezko was a fundraiser for Obama when he was in the Illinois State Senate. But there is more to the Obama/Rezko connection. It should be recalled that Obama bought his Hyde Park house for $300,000 under market value with Tony Rezko making up the difference for him. To date, no one has ever explained how this was legal.
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Obama Fundraiser Tony Rezko Gets 10.5 Year Prison Sentence”
In another breach of trust between President Obama and the American people, Obama has once again broken a promise to change the business-as-usual habits of Washington. As a candidate and early in his presidency Obama claimed he’d bring an unprecedented transparency to Washington. But now it looks as though he’s OKayed his agencies to lie about the records they hold.
After running on the claim that he’d make presidential records more available and after criticizing George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney for “secret meetings” in the White House because visitor logs were kept from public view, the Obama administration continued the Bush era practice of keeping White House visitor logs secret. Now a court has ordered that Obama release those logs.
In 2008 Obama ran for president claiming that he wanted to make Washington more transparent than ever. Obama ran as the law-and-order man, he ran as the anti-lobbyist man, and he ran as the man for all the people, the great centrist that would finally work for the people. He ran saying that Bush was a lawless president and that he, Obama, would shut down the illicit Guantanamo facility and immediately end all the “illegal wars” that Bush was prosecuting.
Let’s go back to those hopey-changie days of the Obama campaign for president when he railed constantly against all those “special interests” and eeeevil lobbyists that he claimed were ruining the political process. Let us recall that once elected he claimed he’d have the “
Back in the hoary days of the Obama transition Obamaniacs and other sycophants were rushing to the microphones to tell us all that we voters had just hired the most ethical White House ever. Why, White House transition team co-chair