The Beachwood Reporter reports on billionaire and "friend" of Tony Rezko :
Auchi is apparently still appealing a 2003 fraud conviction in France. He visited Chicago and Detroit in 2004, but wasn't allowed back in the country in 2005.
"Prosecutors in Mr. Rezko's case have said that Mr. Rezko asked Illinois officials to help obtain a visa for Mr. Auchi's visit to Chicago," the Times says. "The officials have not been identified, and Mr. Obama's campaign has said he was not involved in that effort."
Let me ask you a question: You're Tony Rezko and you've bankrolled Barack Obama's entire political career. You helped him buy his house and you and your wife socialize with him and his wife. You've held a reception for a potential investor in which you invited Obama, who had just been elected to the United States Senate, to impress your business partner. And you appeal to Illinois officials to help him get a visa. Are you telling me you do not ask for Obama's help?
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Obama's campaign says the senator "does not recall" meeting Auchi. There's a lot he didn't "recall" about Rezko either for quite awhile. You know, like actually knowing him.
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Via RezkoWatch:
"Rick Moran of Pajamas Media reminds us that, during his March 14, 2008, exclusive interview with the editorial board and reporters of the Chicago Sun-Times, "Obama denies helping Auchi in any way with his visa [in 2005] but can't vouch for his staff":
Q: Did you ever help Auchi enter the country?
A: No.
Q: Or your office?
A: Not that I know of.
The ethics of the one.Steve Rhodes summarizes the situation:
Tony Rezko pimped out Barack Obama to impress Nadhmi Auchi, a bad operator who found the political culture in Chicago and Illinois amenable to his kind of investment acumen. The only problem was that Rezko's deal was in trouble, and Rezko himself was caught up in, among other scandals, a minority-contracting scam with the Dalely administration. At the same time, Rezko was wheeling and dealing with the Blagojevich administration and everyone in the political universe knew he was under federal investigation for it but Obama asked for his help buying a $1.6 million mansion and appeared at a couple of events to help Rezko impress Auchi and others.
Now Obama's memory is faulty because there's that pesky question of judgement, as well as the stain on his meticulously burnished image as a beacon of hope and reform because his relationship with both Rezko and the Machine and politics-as-usual is deeper than he's ever cared to admit.
