Political Punch

Bush... Clinton... Bush... Bush... please! Someone else who hasn't been elected to any office in Washington.

For the sake of the country! No more do nothing Senators running for President!

Obama and Edwards are too outspoken and now it shows. Something wonderful about Obama is his arrogance. His wishy-washy style of politics – his past of maybe even more scandals than the Clintons have been associated with: there’s his befriending Rezko when his besmudged name was all over the news. Obama’s great inconsistency about voting to enter Iraq. His continued identification with republican ways. His questionable behavior that when brought up, he simply denies – like the wishy-washy, haphazard, below-standard, inexperienced politician that he is. (I’d rather have Hillary back in the white house than someone has quaky as Obama.)

And it’s not just Rezko: there’s a whole machine Obama is connected with, dripping with scandal, in Illinos. If Obama’s candidacy is based on playing the saint, let’s give him reality.

Gee, could it be that ALL the Democrats are just as dirty as ALL the Republicans. I'd sure wonder a lot more about Hillary making $100,000 on a $1,000 cattle futures investment than about Obama getting a little slice of land next door to his house. How many normal people who are NOT politicians have ever made $99,000 on a short term investment of $1,000? Hmm, how does the answer NO ONE sound? If this becomes a battle of putting sleaze and dirty deals out for comparison, and balancing the Clintons against anything Obama may have done, it will be like having a 1,000 pound man sitting on the other side of seesaw with an anorexic woman on the other side.

H aha the Obama campaign is sending out pictures taken of Rezko with the Clinton during a 2001 DNC event in Chicago. That is going to backfire on the Obama campaign. They sent the photos to the Drudge Report and the media trying to smear the Clintons and perhaps associate them with Rezko! NOW that is a new low coming from the campaign of hope and change. Well to late because the Rezko trial will start in Chicago on Feb 25th and on all those years of investigation by the Sun Times, Chicago Tribune and the Feds the Clinton have never been tied to Rezko unlike Mr. squeaky clean Obama.

Hillary knew Rezko, why won't she admit to it. If you go to Drudgereport.com, there's an article about this on the top of their main page, right along with a photo of Hillary, Bill and Rezko!

"I assume there exists a document listing all the shady characters the Clintons have been pals with over the years?"

I assume the media has all that already? It can't be tomorrow's blog, because it's way too long - perhaps a Countdown-'til-Super-Tuesday Special?

You could start with Bill's partnership with that Dubai sovereign wealth fund that the WSJ reported on this week? $20 million is a lot of money for a President who was broke and owed lots of legal bills when he left office. I always wondered how those numbers added up.

Way too many fevered imaginations here! Too many Gothic novels perhaps?

This is Barack Obama 15 years ago:
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Barack_Obama_15_Years_Ago_News_Story_from_January_1993
Idealistic, working hard, same as he is now.

Josh, everyone knows Barack Obama made his millions from his books. He and his family decided they wanted to invest that in a house for their family. What's surprising about that?

What the Clintons have done with the Rezko story is mix up all the timelines, as well as the facts. Did Obama represent Rezko? No, Rezko had his own lawyer. The firm Obama worked for represented the non-profit (church) who was working to provide low-income housing, and THEY were working with Rezko as their developer. Can you spot the difference?

All the rest of the claims are similar spin. Chicago papers (and of course the LA Times is owned by the Tribune) have been checking this out for years. There's nothing there, other than what Obama said: it was boneheaded to do that, purely because of appearances. But anything unethical or illegal? No.

So I'm glad it's getting dragged out one more time, just so everyone will be satisfied there's nothing there. It's yet another whisper campaign timed just before the next primaries - same as the appalling emails and phone calls and all the rest.

Guys. This is supposed to be a presidential campaign, not a season of Survivor.

Now we all know why Obama refused the six figure offer to work in big law firms, instead chose to work as a community lawer. Six figure income will not let you live in a multi-million dollar house, but working in the community with the poor inner city people will. How ironic. What a smart move!

If a politician benefits from sucking money from the poor is not dirty, I don't know what will be called dirty.

Chicago Sun Times knows Daley machine politics like no one else, and they've been smelling a big stinking rat for some time now. Everything has yet to come out, but there are lots and lots of rocks to turn over. Fitzgerald will see to that.

This story has legs. It is going to be a problem.

Kudos to you, Jake, for giving credit to the great coverage the Chicago Sun Times has been doing on Sen. Obama's background and his relationship with Tony Rezko. And many thanks for quoting one of my favorite columnists, Mark Brown, and his especially incisive column today about those same Rezko links!

Despite how down and dirty the campaigns are becoming, it's only late January. By the time the campaigns reach their most extreme, everyone in the US will need to be Scotchguarded with all the mud that will be thrown!

The Edwards supporter who says the machine crashed Dean last time. So why didn't Edwards win the nomination in 2004 then?

The Democrats defeated the Republicans in 2006 and took back control of both the House and Senate, not because of the Battle of Iraq, but because of the well orchestrated campaign against the "Republican" culture of corruption. The media masterfully hyped any Republican scandal while it buried, or in some cases flat out ignored, Democratic scandals. A prime example is Sen. Dianne Feinstein's conflict of interest which eventually lead to her resigning from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommitee -- 4 months after the election.

My point is that there IS a culture of corruption. But it is NOT limited to one party. It is rampant throughout our political system: local, state and federal. Don't get me wrong. The majority of our elected officials are decent, honest and permeate integrity. But even the most honorable of elected officials can find themselves acquainted with an individual or a group that is, at best, ethically challenged -- especially the longer that elected official has been in office. Whether a particular elected official crosses the line between acquaintance and complicity can only be determined when all the facts are known.

Unfortunately during campaigns allegations are made for political gain. In a court of law there is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. But in the political world there isn't enough time to gather and evaluate all of the facts before the election. That is the whole purpose of bringing such charges. The electorate is left in a quandary.

As a conservative Republican who will not be voting for either Sen. Clinton or Sen Obama (based solely on ideology), but more importantly as a political junkie, I find the Democratic race for the presidential nomination nearly as entertaining as our own party's race. But it is NOT enjoyable (as I find ours to be). The "politics of personal destruction" is very destructive and divisive. This winning at all costs -- the ends justifies the means -- that has become even more common-place in recent years is a very dangerous path.

Lets face it, when in the history of a country a total unknown politician without credentials, real records, or even family history have raise to the top in less than 2 years? That sounds like a good movie plot or a nice story, right? This only can happen when big corporations, corrupt individuals, and opportunistic politicians -some of then sore losers like Dashle, Bradley, Kerry-, and powerful political machine knew they can come with a "fairy tale" and touch the heart of many people and that's wrong. They are playing with all of us including Obama they poured millions of dollars and they created this all of the sudden super-hero, hyped the wave and were ready to claim the prize way to quickly. This power struggle is more than the bickering between Hillary and Obama is the behind scenes real fight between the sore losers that never agreed with Bill Clinton and resented the fact his wife was running for the wife house.
Those are the same machines that crashed Governor Dean's campaign 4 years ago and are trying to crash Edwards campaign now. Those machines don't care about the future of the party, all they care is about their own entrenched interests; they don't care about who they put on the White House -just like the Republicans did with Bush- all they care is to elect a President they can manipulate and serve their interest. I became and Independent 3 years ago; but now I will vote for Edwards.

Hilarious how some people that hate Hillary keep coming back with stuff that have been already investigated and found nothing wrong there; now in the Obama side...how much do we know about Obama, how much do we know on his strategist Axelrod who is happens to be the same strategist of Major Daley and big guys in the Illinois political machine, the same machine that the Feds are investigating and going after. Rezko is the the tip on the ice. I am sure they will be more to come. Now Obama should be straightforward and tell "all" about his relationship with the fixer Rezko, his behind the doors with big corporations like Exelon in Illinois, his endorsements to dubious people like Strogger Jr.,the job to Armanda a crony of Rezko, etc. Sooner or later all that will come up and in fact the RNC started circulating letters about all Obama stuff. He knows is coming, so why not to be honest to the American people now and don't try to bring back things from the Clintons that people already heard about it.

I'll trust Obama and his one shady character dealing WELL BEFORE I trust the Clinton twins and the massive "suicides" and plane crashes that seem to happen right before and after their found "not" guilty.

Whitewater, anyone? How about Vincent Foster? Oh! Any Ron Brown takers? What about the sudden, unexplained death of Ron Brown's attorney and secretary? Jake -- you seem like an intelligent man -- why not post the grading that the Washington Post provided on 1/23/08 on Hillary's Economic stimulus plan vs. Obama's? After all, it's the broken state of America that most are concerned about --not rumors, opinions and innuendos.

Dems - any one else going to sit out election if Hillary is the nominee? I decided that I am. I predict that she is going to lose in November and we will not have a woman president for another 20 years.

Rezko trial will start on Feb 25th and will be a beauty to follow. It's time to clean the house here in Illinois and expose those politicians that have ruined the State and have profited from their shady deals and corruption, the former Governor Ryan a Republican is in jail for corruption and the current one Blogojevich a Democrat will go to jail, that's for sure. Madigan, Daley, and the very well connected and always a "trooper" Obama will get some mud from it thats for sure too.
What troubling is the many ways Obama have tried to change the story about his relationship with Rezko. That's bad judgment, a character issue, or maybe there is something behind we don't know.
Obama is just another ambitious and opportunistic politician that does whatever it takes and go to bed with anyone that serves his career!
This story have some legs and will not go away. Stay tunned!

Obama is a dirty politician.

For those who refuse to know it, it is fine. I know it is a terrible feeling to see the burst of the empty hope.

For the rest of us, we need an answers. What "change" do you want to bring us? Dealing with criminals for a "change"?

For Hilary Clinton-- I have never been satisfied with the explanation of events surrounding Vincent Foster's death and the disappearance of his files.

I believe that the Obama camp should also deserve a bit of your eloquent writing by your summarizing the well-documented shady dealings and associations of the Clintons. Wasn't dear Hillary the 1st Lady who was almost indicted? Come on, you should give Obama a break for his being an African-American and view him for his many qualifications and great leadership potential. Although I am not African-American or democrat, I'm prepared to vote for Obama, otherwise, I am thinking about voting for one of my dogs before voting for that Hillary creature.

At least Obama calls him someone I knew. Ex-Cons, foreign despots, etc donate millions to the Clintons' stash and all we get is, "we told them we would not release their names".

And how exactly does HRC describe Norman Hsu while he does not pass go and heads directly to jail? How about Marc Rich? What about Gupta raiding a public company to line big Bill's pockets?

Rezko is one man. You could bring equal or worse in by the planeload for the Clintons.

What change will he bring about when he is no different from others. He is using his oratorial skills to create the hype of a change. That's it.

Obama himself, and every politician in Illinois knew about his friend Rezko the well known fixer; but they didn't care back then. Thats' the way the politics in Illinois are "what happens in Illinois stays in Illinois." As a resident of Illinois I have long been disgusted with the "under the table" corruption that runs RAMPANT here. What disgusts me even more is that when blatant evidence is exposed, the accused individual always finds a way to "make it go away". Chicago Mayor Daley is the chief source of most of the corruption in the state ("Operation Silver Shovel", etc.), but somehow he's always able to walk away with his hands clean. Oh, by the way, he's a big Obama supporter. Also, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (and current Illinois Democratic Party Chairman) was under investigation by the Feds. No problem. He and the Illinois Democratic Machine got Madigan's daughter elected Attorney General of Illinois. Gee, what ever happened to that investigation...........As far as the Rezko case, Obama is not the only one having a connection to Rezko but Obama was very close to him he wasn't "someone I know" lightly like Obama is saying now, Rezko was his friend and Obama as his lawyer and long time affiliation should have known the kind of individual he was and the type of business he was running, and more so Obama like everybody in Illinois knew that Rezko was investigated by the Feds!. Rezko was also a fund raiser and close friend of the current governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich - a governor who is also being investigated by the Feds for his own corrupt practices. (Ironically, Blagojevich came to power by vowing to clean up the corruption created by Republican Governor George Ryan.)Those of you who still aren't convinced that Barack Obama is yet another cog in the Illinois corruption machine should look up the Todd Stroger Cook County Board election scandal. Barack Obama unabashedly threw his full support to Todd Stroger despite the dubious way Stroger even got to become a cadidate. Why would Obama even endorse such shennanigans? I don't have enough time to go into this one, but trust me, it's a beauty. Look it up!Whether Obama himself is corrupt is yet to be determined, but his associations do cause alarm. Are these the same associations that would follow him to the White House? Obama is not "squeaky clean". We in Illinois know better.I will close by saying that I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I have been forced into cynical independence from Illinois politicians that continue to disappoint

The MSM is returning to plan B-McCain

I don't see this as "contrast and compare". If we are talking about questionable connections, what about HU? I heard one of Hillarys fundraisers was doing a year in jail?...don't think the Repubs won't remind ALL of us of the Clintons laundry list of questionable donors and connections. Fair is fair. Many Folks who are voting NOW don't remember the FACTS on the Clintons. Remind them.