Obama on Rezko Land Deal: It Was a Mistake

[Alhena]

I was glad to read this article. I was especially relieved to read that the sellers of the house Obama purchased had the house for sale for several months and that Obama's offer was the highest. The main thing I was worried about was that it might develop that Obama had gotten a sweetheart price on the house, which might have allowed opponents to say Rezko was secretly subsidizing the purchase of the house. So while I agree Obama should have been more careful about dealing with Rezko at all, I look for this story to be a footnote rather than a major scandal.


http://www.suntimes.com/124189,obama05.article

November 4, 2006

BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama expressed regret late Friday for his 2005 land purchase from now-indicted political fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko in a deal that enlarged the senator’s yard.

“I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it,” Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times in an exclusive and revealing question-and-answer exchange about the transaction.

In June 2005, Obama and Rezko purchased adjoining parcels in Kenwood. The state’s junior senator paid $1.65 million for a Georgian revival mansion, while Rezko paid $625,000 for the adjacent, undeveloped lot. Both closed on their properties on the same day.

Last January, aiming to increase the size of his sideyard, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for a strip of his land.

The transaction occurred at a time when it was widely known Tony Rezko was under investigation by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and as other Illinois politicians befriended by Rezko distanced themselves from him.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. this is very good news. And John Kerry could take a page out of this

for his own good.

Rezko is shit on steroids. watch for him to undermine the lives of dozens of high ranking Ds and Rs throughout the state. Although many in power, on both sides, require little inducement for any crime. They seem to be genetically predisposed to line their own pockets first.

I am glad to hear this. this will help him immeasurably.

[karynnj]

2. This is good news for Obama

but what's the Kerry slam for. If you mean the SBVT, this is not in the ballpark. This is a legitamate question asked by a Chicago newspaper. Kerry has always honestly answered questions on his life - and has a reputation of being a very clean politician.

A better analogy would be Clinton and Whitewater - where Clinton didn't provide much information at the beginning.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. no slam intended.

And Kerry's flap was a flop for the GOP. They could have attacked any candidate in any race, and made hay by lying like they normally do. But, luckily for us, they concentrated on Kerry.

[karynnj]

7. I don't think it was lucky

Kerry is the strongest voice we have now on Iraq. I'm also concerned that the party could try to keep him from pushing for the policies needed for Iraq. This whole thing gives power to Hillary who is somewhere between Kerry and Lieberman - and I can;t say closer to which one.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. Murtha? Biden? Durbin? Pelosi?

all stronger on IraqNam or at least as strong as Kerry. Plus, they have the added advantage of not suffering from "Da Mare from Chicago disease", in terms of speaking ability.

[karynnj]

14. Your entitled to your opinion - I also meaning authoring plans,

But Biden's plan was said by the NYT and other papers as being not acceptable to the Iraqis. If it were the best idea, the Kerry/Feingold called for a regional summit that could choose something like that. The key being that the US (read colonial power) should not be the one drawing the lines.

Murtha is excellent and he is a very good speaking about the troops. Kerry/Feingold was a far more comprehensive plan that Murtha was to some degree moving towards. Pelosi and Durbin have, to my knowledge not been leading on this issue. Durbin - my second favorite Senator - is the Democratic whip and he often has spoken on this issue very well.

Carl Levin, the ranking member on the Armed Services committee is someone who will be involved. My hope is that Kerry will be allowed to be one of the leaders. Kerry has been excellent speaking about Iraq in SERIOUS policy speeches - he is far less good on jokes. He also was in this campaign in the roll of attacking Bush - which is dangerous and I assume even if he didn't make this mistake that without spin would be ignored) some line he said if only something about our troops can't win this militarilly would have been used to similar effect.

[TayTay]

16. Excuse me?

Kerry has been crystal clear on Iraq.

It is an immoral war. We need to get out.

Sorry that is incomprehensible to some people. It seem's pretty clear to me.

[sandnsea]

4. Excuse me?

When John Kerry was considering an investment deal, he contacted a lawyer and when it didn't look completely ethical, he backed out of it. How in the world do you excuse Obama for actually having terrible judgment on this deal and then believe John Kerry can learn ANY-thing from him?? Claire McCaskill is in some trouble about some offshore business too. Democrats better clean up their own backyards if they're serious about cleaning up Washington. John Kerry can't be compared to any of those kinds of shenanigans.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. I wou;d love to see this 1.65 million dollar house--must be nice eh?

and did not even come with enough land--so more had to be purchased.

[arikara]

6. Are there any politicians at all, either

D or R that aren't at the very least multi-millionaires? Is it any wonder they relate to the corporations more than to the people???

Aaron Russo's AMERICA - FREEDOM TO FASCISM presents startling facts about our laws, raising critical issues that Americans must consider if they are to be a free people.

Determined to find the law that requires Americans to pay income tax, Aaron Russo (THE ROSE, TRADING PLACES) sets out on a journey. Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews with US Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card (becoming law in May 2008) and the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track citizens. A striking case about the evolving police state in America.

See the complete video here, it's an amazing documentary.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-431273027...

...issue of republican vs democrat as if they don't get it, and I say look... here's the way you get it. Its organized crime. All you do is you call the republicans the Genoveses and you call the democrats the Gambinos.

The people at the top, they treat it like a crap game, like its their crap game like they're making lots of money. Occasionally somebody at the table shoots each other, but the moment anything threatens their crap game they all unite to protect it. They're both controlled by the same financial and economic interests.

Website

http://www.freedomtofascism.com/

edit: grammar...

[dipsydoodle]

9. Thanks for drawing my attention

Unfortunately that link has been broken / removed by Google ?

here's the correct one : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198 &hl=en

edit to include correct/later link

[arikara]

15. I hope you got as much out of it as I did

Thanks for the link update.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

11. The ruling class has to live very opulently. It always makes me suspicious of their

desire for the finer things and where this desire turns to greed and then to corruption. My opinion of Obama has dropped dramatically.

[depakid]

12. Just another example of his poor judgment

People who consider him to be some sort of "rising star" are going to be very disappointed.

[goclark]

18. That is not a lot of money to pay for a house

He has certainly made more than that just on his book alone.

He deserves to place his family in any house he can afford and he can well afford it.

Living in Los Angeles that would not hardly be a Mansion that would be a three bed room house.
Everything is relative and he handled it beautifully IMO.

[athena]

22. Frankly,

if your opinion of someone drops so dramatically upon merely finding out that he is wealthy, then your opinion wasn't worth much to begin with. You should do more research about Obama and his past before you pass judgment. Obama is probably closer to the poor than anyone else in the Senate. He lived for years on very little money, organizing the poor in Chicago. He changed his career so that he could better advocate for the poor. He made all his wealth off the sales of his first book, which he wrote before he got into politics. It's a well-written, meaningful, and touching book, and deserves to be read widely.

[high density]

13. It's crazy that we have all of these elites "representing" us in Washington

Somebody with a $1.65m house doesn't have any honest clue about what most Americans are dealing with.

[bliss_eternal]

20. Respectfully, not necessarily...

how did Obama grow up? Did he grow up living in a mansion? Has he always been "wealthy"?

It's one thing to grow up with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth (i.e. gw bush jr.)and not "get" what it means to be poor, middle class, etc. We've all seen that in *. His base is the wealthy and he can't (and won't) relate to anyone that's not what he is. It's something altogether different to acquire wealth later in life and live accordingly, but still be able to relate to one's roots. For example, Clinton was wealthy, but I've never felt he was a poor representative of the people. He "got" us. His policies seemed to try to address the issues of all human beings--regardless of their yearly income.

Is it really fair to judge others on their homes, earnings, etc.? Don't we, as progressives try to see beyond the superficial of people? I would think that would extend to our representatives as well. It's not fair to lump everyone together based on the cost of the house they can buy.

I hope that you can forgive my contradiction of your statement--I'm not trying to flame you.:) I'm merely offering another perspective to consider.:hi:

[athena]

21. You need to read his book. He wasn't always wealthy.

The book is Dreams From My Father. He gave up his corporate job to spend years organizing some of the poorest communities in Chicago. It was only when he realized he could help them more as a civil lawyer that he went back to law school. As he points out in his interviews, he had little money until he wrote his book, which sold well especially after his 2004 speech at the DNC.

He probably knows much more about what most Americans are dealing with than you do.

[SoCalDem]

8. Whitewater ring a bell?

A moptivated media can raise a stink about anything..and we all know the repubes will stoke those fires until Grandma's last chair has been burned..

[AtomicKitten]

17. yikes -- another land deal nonstory.

Obama is smart to get out ahead of this nonsense now.

[goclark]

19. LOL ! Grandma's last chair

is a new one. Love that expression.

[BlueIris]

23. Again, like Whitewater, the scandal that wasn't.

Sigh.