According to Chicago Tribune reports, Obama bought his house in June 2005 for some $300,000 less than the asking price. The same day, Rezko's wife bought the adjoining lot, paying the full $625,000 asking price. One question raised was whether Rezko's wife subsidized Obama's purchase of the $1-milllion-plus home, while providing a next door private preserve that can't be reached from a public street.For more on Obama's guy Tony Rezko.For the close ties beyond Obama's land deal with Tony Rezko.Here's the land deal.With the coming primaries,we will find out if the rest of the country is as tolerant of corruption as voters in Illinois.Here's The Chicago Sun-Times take on Tony Rezko and Obama's concern for the poor,and Obama's willingness to "help" Rezko:
Obama first described his dealings with Rezko as ethical and proper, but a couple of days later acknowledged the arrangement might have appeared improper. He said in writing: "It was a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor. For that reason, I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it."
For Chicagoans accustomed to the sound of non-apologies, the statement had a familiar ring: If anyone thinks I did something wrong, I'm sorry I got caught.
Chicagoans also have noticed another curiosity: During Obama's recent and much-lauded African trip, he gravely criticized rampant government corruption there. Back in Illinois, he had plenty of similar opportunities to criticize what may be the most corrupt city/state government in the nation. But he took a pass, missing a great opportunity to demonstrate integrity and independence from the corrupt Democratic machine.
It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.Here's some basic questions Obama should answer before the beginning of Tony Rezko's trial on February 25,2008 trial:
Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on.
Obama has been friends with Rezko for 17 years. Rezko has been a political patron to Obama and many others, helping to raise millions of dollars for them through his own contributions and by hosting fund-raisers in his home.
Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko's low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.
The building in Englewood was one of 30 Rezmar rehabbed in a series of troubled deals largely financed by taxpayers. Every project ran into financial difficulty. More than half went into foreclosure, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
"Their buildings were falling apart,'' said a former city official. "They just didn't pay attention to the condition of these buildings.''
Eleven of Rezko's buildings were in Obama's state Senate district.
Obama, now a U.S. senator running for president, has come under fire over his friendship with Rezko, who was charged last fall with demanding kickbacks on state business deals under Gov. Blagojevich.
Much of the criticism has centered on two real estate deals involving Obama's South Side mansion. In the first, Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price for a doctor's home, while Rezko's wife paid the doctor full price for the vacant lot next door. Then -- a few months before Rezko was indicted -- Obama bought part of that lot from Rezko's wife.
But Obama's ties with Rezko go beyond those two real estate sales and the political support, the Sun-Times found. Obama was an attorney with a small Chicago law firm -- Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- that helped Rezmar get more than $43 million in government funding to rehab 15 of their 30 apartment buildings for the poor.
1)Did the U.S. Attorney interview Obama about his ties to Tony Rezko?
2)If Obama should win the election does he want to replace U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald?
3)Would President Obama pardon Tony Rezko,if Rezko is convicted of any charges?
