Today I’m reflecting back on the whole Tony Rezko affair. A year-plus into the Obama era, it is interesting to think about “Rezko”, a scandal that Obama made it through unscathed. While other politicians have been made to do the Elliot Spitzer shame shuffle for lesser deeds, Mr. Obama suffered no consequences or even serious scrutiny for a shady land deal that he benefited greatly from.
Obama and Rezko
Before Barack Obama was selected as King of the Democrats, Slate wrote the following in 2006 about the Obama/Rezko real estate purchase:
It begins in 2004 with Obama’s $1.9 million book advance for The Audacity of Hope. In June 2005, Obama used the money to purchase a $1.65 million Georgian revival home on Chicago’s South Side—$300,000 less than the asking price. On the very same day, Rezko, a Democratic Party fund-raiser and developer, bought the adjacent empty lot at the asking price from the same owner (the house and the lot were previously owned by the same person). Rezko, who had raised money for Obama and known him since the senator attended Harvard Law School, did not develop the empty lot. In January 2006, he sold a 1,500-square-foot slice of it to Obama for $104,000, a fair sum in that market.
Here’s the question: Did Rezko orchestrate his same-day purchase of the lot at full price so that the seller would give Obama a break on the price of the adjacent house? Was Obama in on the deal? And did Rezko never intend to develop the lot, giving Obama a nice roomy side yard, a favor which he’d call in later?
Obama says he did talk to Rezko before the purchase, but only because a person who had renovated it for a previous owner had once worked with Rezko, who owns other properties in the South Side. He didn’t arrange the joint purchase with him. He bought the house at such a good price, Obama has told the papers, because it was being unloaded in a “fire sale.”
The main house sold in a “fire sale” according to Obama, but Rezko’s wife paid full price for the side yard? Not likely. Of course the sale was orchestrated between Obama and the man that had, to that point, raised or donated over $200,000 for Mr. Obama’s various political campaigns. Give me a break. After the sale, Obama actually paid for the lawn care of Mr. Rezko’s lot saying at the time that, “Right now my landscaper who comes and does all my work, I have asked him to go ahead and mow the lawn on the other side. My intention was to have the landscaper figure out some pro-rata cost for that mowing and send that bill to Rezko.” Obama added, “I just haven’t had time to do it.”
Remember, there was no fence between the two properties at the time of purchase. To a casual observer, they were the same property. The press downplayed that fact because it made Mr. Obama’s deal look much worse. A fence was later added, and Mr. Obama bought that fated piece of Rezko’s lot for $104,500.
I often wonder how blind partisan advocates can be. The press, for letting Obama off the hook in the Rezko affair, and the far right wingers focusing on whether Obama was born in a secret Muslim village in Kenya (he was not). By not focusing on Rezko, and the insider favoritism he represents, both groups failed to keep their eye on the ball.
The Obama Age, we now know, is about plenty of choice for a select few and much less choice for the many. 20 year olds no longer have the choice to have a credit card. Health insurance companies will soon no longer have the choice of whom to cover in their private business. All of us will have less choice soon when Obama’s tax policy is enforced in earnest. But, back in 2005, Barack Obama was given the choice to buy a more expensive house than he could afford by a crooked political fixer. Mr. Obama took that choice. We should all be so lucky in the future.
Comparing and contrasting Obama the Statist and Obama the beneficiary of the Chicago political machine is what it’s all about. Bill Ayers was never the issue, Tony Rezko was. Sean Hannity and the attack dog wing of the right would have been well served to focus on Rezko. They still could be.
As we all prepare for ObamaCare and a host of other measures that are “for our own good” from the Democrats, we shouldn’t forget where Obama came from and the rules that those in Chicago play by. They are surely not the rules the rest of us benefit from.
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John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
