Where is the wisdom of Mike Royko when you need it?
Royko was by far Chicago’s most beloved political columnist. His scathingly brilliant, uproariously funny writings on the Chicago political machine not only shone a light in the dark corners of corruption, favoritism, and mobbed up businesses of Richard J. Daley’s City Hall, he had fun doing it.
Several theories have arisen as to what Mayor Daley really meant a few days ago when he said:“If they don’t like it, they can kiss my ass.”
On the surface, it appeared that the mayor was merely admonishing those who would dare question the royal favors he has bestowed upon his sons, Prince Curly, Prince Larry, and Prince Moe.
But it can be a mistake to accept the superficial meaning of anything the mayor says.
The mayor can be a subtle man. And as Earl Bush, his press secretary, once put it after the mayor was quoted correctly:
“Don’t print what he said. Print what he meant.”
So many observers believe the true meaning of the mayor’s remarkable kissing invitation may be more than skin deep.
One theory is that he would like to become sort of the Blarney Stone of Chicago.
As the stone’s legend goes, if a person kisses Ireland’s famous Blarney Stone, which actually exists, he will be endowed with the gift of oratory.
And City Hall insiders have long known that the kind of kiss Daley suggested can result in the gift of wealth.
People from all over the world visit Blarney Castle so they can kiss the chunk of old limestone and thus become glib, convincing talkers.
So, too, might people flock to Chicago in hopes that kissing “The Daley” might bring them unearned wealth. Daley, or at least his bottom, might become one of the great tourist attractions of the nation.
Royko thrived during a time when Chicago had two daily newspapers; the rather staid and conservative morning Tribune and the afternoon liberal Daily News where Royko would hold forth much to the delight of homeward bound train commuters. He was fearless, honest, and disdainful of politicians.
And he would have ripped Barack Obama to shreds over stuff like this:
A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.
A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.
Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.
Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko’s still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.
It should be mentioned that Obama got around a $300,000 discount on the $2 million plus house. The sellers deny there was any quid pro quo with the two buyers – that there is no connection between Mrs. Rezko paying full price for the lot next door and the bargain they gave the Obamas.
That may be so but the question is, where did Mrs. Rezko get the money?
It is unclear how Mrs Rezko could have afforded the downpayment of $125,000 and a $500,000 mortgage for the original $625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Ave.In a sworn statement a year later, Mrs Rezko said she got by on a salary of $37,000 and had $35,000 assets. Mr Rezko told a court he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations.”
Auchi is emerging as a key figure in the corruption trial of Rezko and also played a part in one of Rezko’s attempts to exploit his relationship with Obama. Obama denies he ever did any favors for Rezko or his associates but the crooked Obama fundraiser told prosecutors that after Auchi gave him another “loan,” he asked Obama to intervene with the State Department in order to get a visa for Auchi who was being denied entry into the US:
Prosecutors say that, after Mr Auchi was unable to enter the United States in 2005, Mr Rezko approached the US State Department to get him a visa and apparently asked “certain Illinois government officials to do the same.” Mr Obama denies he was approached. Mr Auchi’s lawyer has emphasised to The Times that it would be entirely false to imply that money had been lent by GMH to Mr Rezko in return for Mr Rezko seeking to assist Mr Auchi to obtain a visa. The two men’s relationship, the lawyer stressed, was a busines s one.
Allow me to introduce you to Nadhmi Auchi. He was charged in the 1950s with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the future tyrant was acquiring his taste for blood. He was investigated in the 1980s for his part in alleged bribes to the fabulously corrupt leaders of post-war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed that Auchi’s bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen from their luckless peoples. In 2002, officers from the Serious Fraud Squad raided the offices of one of Auchi’s drug companies as part of an investigation of what is alleged to be the biggest swindle ever of the NHS. With allegations, albeit unproven, like these hanging over him, wouldn’t you think that British MPs would have the sense to stay away?Perhaps you would, but I forgot to add a final fact about Mr Auchi: he is the thirteenth-richest man in Britain, and he has been able to collect British politicians the way other people collect stamps.
First of all, his business dealings make Rezko’s kickback schemes for political contributions look like the minor leagues of sleaze. Auchi had a hand in the biggest political and corporate scandal in post war Europe, the so-called “Elf Affair” where $2 billion francs up and disappeared from the French state oil company Elf.
In a fantastically complex scheme, oil company execs used the state owned company as their own piggy bank, loading up on goodies:
The Auchi case confirms that the political class is attracted to the sleaziest characters in capitalism. Auchi’s conviction was a part of the gigantic investigation into the corruption of the Elf oil company, the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments. By any definition, this was news.It was only due to the persistence of the French investigating magistrates that Auchi got to Paris. They issued an international arrest warrant in 2000. For three years, the Home Office refused to deport him. Two MPs, Vaz and an unnamed politician, made inquiries. Renaud van Ruymbeke, the French magistrate leading the investigation into the Elf scandal, all but accused Britain of sheltering fugitives. Only after his protests, and pressure from this newspaper did the Home Office relent. Then there were Auchi’s relations with Iraq which have a certain topicality.
What are those connections to Iraq? Nothing less than being an early and enthusiastic supporter of Saddam Hussein. He has admitted to taking part in the assassination attempt on former Iraqi prime minister Qasim which Saddam also took part. He must have realized the nature of Saddam because he left Iraq but kept doing business with the regime:
Auchi’s brother was among the many Baathists killed by Saddam, but the execution did not inhibit Auchi’s business dealings with Iraq which, he says, didn’t stop until the Gulf war of 1991. His first coup in the West was to broker a deal to sell Italian frigates to the Iraqi Defence Ministry, for which he received $17m in commission. Italian investigators claimed that a Panamanian company owned by Auchi was used to funnel allegedly illegal payments. Auchi denied he had done anything wrong.In the mid-1980s he got to know Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia, a man whose role in directing money to politicians led Italians to call him ‘the one below God’. Saddam Hussein had ordered the construction of a pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia. Battaglia and Auchi secured the contract for a Franco-Italian consortium. In a statement to New York lawyers Battaglia alleged he knew how. ‘To acquire the contract it was necessary, as is usual, especially in Middle Eastern countries, to pay commission to characters close to the Iraqi government… In this case, the international intermediary who dealt with this matter was the Iraqi, Nadhmi Auchi.’ Auchi has denied any wrong-doing.
Truly. Elegant. Sleaze.
Rezko was into Auchi for upwards of $27 million – monies that curiously never got paid back. But what Rezko had was a stake in a big land development project that he was only too happy to give Auchi a piece:
According to court documents, Mr Rezko’s lawyer said his client had “longstanding indebtedness” to Mr Auchi’s GMH. By June 2007 he owed it $27.9 million.Under a Loan Forgiveness Agreement described in court, Mr Auchi lent Mr Rezko $3.5 million in April 2005 and $11 million in September 2005, as well as the $3.5 million transferred in April 2007.
That agreement provided for the outstanding loans to be “forgiven” in return for a stake in the 62-acre Riverside Park development.
The Obama-Rezko relationship must be understood in the context of the influence peddling, the casual corruption, the cronysm, the favoritism shown in less than open bidding – all part of a city and state political culture where the politician, the businessman, and the crook frequently rub elbows and sometimes wear each other’s hats. Obama hiring the daughter of a Rezko associate to work in his office (after Rezko had helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for his campaign) is no big deal. But this kind of “favor” done for Rezko is a different story:
The Chicago Tribune: “On June 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that as a state senator, Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens. The Sun-Times said the deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama’s former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district.
Obama now regrets his association with Rezko and has given $150,000 to charity in order to atone for his sins.
Sorry Barry but it don’t work that way.
In the course of a 17 year relationship with Rezko, it is impossible to quantify the amount in contributions funnelled to Obama by Rezko using his ill gotten gains. Nor can it be ascertained at this time if the favors done by Obama for Rezko – large and small – involve him in illegal activities. It certainly has him enmeshed with some extremely shady characters in Rezko and Auchi.
At this point, unless there is a deliberate, concerted effort by the large media outlets to allow this story to die once Rezko is convicted, I find it probable that other revelations are yet to come that will show Obama to be just another machine politician, skirting the edge of ethics and the law – perhaps even going over the line and engaging in criminal activities.
Obama is not the Agent of Change. He is a calculating politician who plays the game the same way politicians have been playing it for hundreds of years – receiving money in exchange for favors from government for his friends and cronies. And if Mike Royko were alive, one has to believe that despite agreeing with his politics, Royko would have been relentless in taking Obama down, hammering away in his own inimitable style at the influence selling, the sweetheart deals, the pay for favors, and all the rest of this sleazy mess.
No Royko today. But we have an army of bloggers who can push this story into the mainstream and force the media to expend the resources necessary to get to the bottom of the Rezko-Obama enterprise. True, like Whitewater it is a very complex story and there is very little ease in the telling. But given the stakes, an effort should be made nonetheless.
1:48 am
Brilliant!! I know Illinois. Royko was brilliant and his words are universal in Illinois. Thank god we have Wyatt Earp (aka Patrick Fitzgerald) in here to clean house.
There is lots of smoke here and the Tribune and the Sun-Times are poking around, looking for the fire. If there is anything there, i will be hard to ignore. The Trib or the ST are not the NYT or the Post (all though I respect them more), but front page blockbuster headlines will be hard to ignore. They both have committed at least 4 reporters to the various aspects of the story. Eight reporters on one gigantic story! They smell a Pulitzer!
As for Rezko, there is more. Check out this rather obsessive look at the man. Check out some of the names this guy is associated with.
http://www.rezkowatch.blogspot.com
Also, Obama’s name came up in connection with an FBI mole, who recorded “several visits” to Rezko’s office by Gov. Blagojevich and Obama and reportedly witnessed Rezko hand a fist full of cash to a Blago aid.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/786015,CST-NWS-mole10.article
I think the Obama land deal was a loan from Rezko to Obama, to be paid back over the years or never paid off at all, with Rezko subsidizing the property taxes. That explains why Obama paid 1/6 of the price of the lot, and not the $44,000 his appraiser put the piece of the lot at. Additionally, buying the 10 foot strip made the footprint of the lot too small to develop based on zoning and landmark restrictions, significantly raising the property, aesthetic, and security value. I believe this is known as mortgage fraud!
One more ting. Most of these stories that are appearing in the Trib and the Sun-Times (pre-trial) were leaked from Fitz or the FBI. Fitz is well known for NOT tolerating leaks, so these stories had his okay. When Rezko was indicted, it was a few weeks before the gubernatorial election of Blagojevich. Prior to the indictment, several stories began appearing, on an almost weekly basis, preparing people for the background on the charges. Sound familiar? Fitzgerald does not give a high hoot who you are or what you are running for. If you are crooked, he will out you if he has the goods.
I would not be comfortable if I was Obama. In fact, I would b downright terrified, which explains his campaigns near hour delay in commenting to the Sun-Times about today’s news of the strong possibility of Obama’s name coming up in trial. How? Who knows? But Fitzgerald is savvy, uber-prepared, and unpredictable.
And did I mention that when the Tribune first got the Rezko lot story back in ‘06, Fitzgerald pleaded with the editors to not publish the story.
Obama has since only talked to the Sun-Times (and oddly, Bloomberg News) regarding the details of the purchase, refusing to talk to the Tribune reporters who broke the story and are fluent in the details of the transaction.
This will bring Obama down and I couldn’t be happier if it shined the national spotlight on the filth, waste, and corruption that is Illinois, Chicago, and Cook county politics.
2:07 am
One more thought. Check it out bloggers. Spread the word!!
http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/2008/02/follow-money-cousins-accused-of.html
Toledo, Ohio’s WTOL11 reported February 25, 2008, that cousins Khaleel Ahmed and Zubair Ahmed and the three men from Toledo “accused of plotting to kill troops overseas begins in federal court” on March 4, 2008. Coincidentally—or not—March 4 is the date of the Ohio primary. It is also the day after jury selection begins in Chicago for indicted political fixer—and Obama patron—Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s fraud trial.
Last April, two pleaded “not guilty” to the plot. Cousins Khaleel and Zubair Ahmed say they didn’t do it, though federal agents say the group researched explosives and trained with snipers, surveillance equipment and suicide bomb vests.
U.S. prosecutors say they have one man saying on tape that he wanted to go back overseas and that, “This time if we die, we die.”
The trial is expected to take three to four months, after which a local jury will decide if these men are guilty of terror and, therefore, spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
What are the odds of a presidential candidate being connected to two separate federal trials starting within 24 hours of each other that focus on two such improbable political campaign contributors all from Chicago?
And, to all appearances, there has been zip-zero-nada from the Obama campaign about this.
8:27 am
[...] Rick Moran pines for the late Mike Royko, who would have known exactly what to do with these connections: At this point, unless there is a deliberate, concerted effort by the large media outlets to allow this story to die once Rezko is convicted, I find it probable that other revelations are yet to come that will show Obama to be just another machine politician, skirting the edge of ethics and the law – perhaps even going over the line and engaging in criminal activities. [...]
12:04 pm
The fact that the Rezko lot could only be accessed from Obama’s property is significant; it makes the land effectively worthless to anybody other than Barack, especially given the fact that it could not be developed after the 1/6th piece was sold to Obama. Yes, this stinks to high heaven.
12:26 pm
[...] Rick Moran sums this story up quite a bit while pinning for the old Chicago columnist Mike Royko: At this point, unless there is a deliberate, concerted effort by the large media outlets to allow this story to die once Rezko is convicted, I find it probable that other revelations are yet to come that will show Obama to be just another machine politician, skirting the edge of ethics and the law – perhaps even going over the line and engaging in criminal activities. [...]
1:14 pm
Well done! At last a piece of real journalism on Obama’s wheelings and dealings—and of course it had to come from a blog. This is precisely the sort of thing the NYT should be investigating, if it were a real newspaper and not a party broadsheet. The connection to Iraq certainly explains Obama’s oddly dovish vote from the onset of the war (this from a man comfortable with invading Pakistan, though unclear as to its exact location); he was evidently as thoroughly bought by Saddam as Ramsay Clark or George Galloway.
However, in answer to her question, this issue will not bring him down. It won’t have to. Obama has a solid proportional ceiling of national voters somewhere in the mid to upper forty per cent. America will not elect a black man as president at tnis point in its history—not an ultraliberal one, anyway. That, of course, is shameful; unfortunately, it’s now becoming increasingly obvious, so are Obama’s past associations, the traditional Achilles’ Heel for any politician emerging from the corrupt leftist inner-city. It’s a shame that neither women nor African-Americans had a candidate this election cycle that they could feel really proud of. Because after this carnival parade is over and Obama fails, he will then join the ignored ranks of black also-rans like Julian Bond and Jesse Jackson. Whose rhetorical flourishes he already emulates.
3:05 pm
I was watching the first season of “24” this past weekend and noticed some interesting comparisons:
However, their respective virtues and morality are completely different. If Barrack Obama had one-half of the personal integrity of David Palmer, despite his politics, he would not be too bad a president, all things considered. We as a country could survive his liberal policies IF they were based upon personal honor and virtue. But if the stories about him are anywhere close to the truth, we have a problem Houston.
The next 8+ months should be very interesting indeed.
3:16 pm
Obama’s “I was against the Iraq War from the start” line can now be played in another manner, even though he may not have been aware of the Saddam ties to Rezko. The saying in Spanish is: Vendepatria.
4:07 pm
To say that some dirt-digging reporter for the NYTs is not aware of all the fractions of this story is absurd. But it does pose a question; was the recent hit piece on McCain (unsubstantiated money and sex) a buffer to any story that might come out about Senator Obama?
For Hope Muntz to say that Americans are not ready for a black president is also absurd. While racism may be alive and well, it is alive and well only in the minds of those like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the biggest hater of them all, Louis Farrakhan who recently endorsed Obama. Most Americans are too busy worrying about paying their bills to be concerned with that hype.
I read on Politic today that Obama’s campaign is warding off the national press, making it difficult for them to get access to the candidate. Why would that be? Hillary and McCain are both easily accessable to the national press and even welcome them, using them to get their messages out. Why would Obama shut them out? Saying that it is so the masses will have access to him is so much malarky. Are his handlers so concerned that he doesn’t have canned answers for the tough questions reporters will ask that the campaign is afraid he will blow his “smartest man in the world” image?
And Obama’s connection with the far left anti-war bunch is nothing new as Rick has pointed out before. Ayers and Dohrn, who should be making little rocks from big ones, should be looked into at greater depth. Exactly what part did they play in his meteoric rise to U.S. Senator?
No one advances as fast as Obama did, not even JFK who had tons of family money and his father’s political connections behind him. Obama has been a rocket in the air of politics but even a rocket needs fuel. Who was the fuel?
7:39 pm
[...] We’ll see if Russert and Williams take up Hillary’s campaign trail histrionics and how deeply they dig into Obama’s Rezko deal. [...]
10:58 pm
[...] There is more. This story has, as they say, ‘legs,” even if Senator Obama committed no crime: Allow me to introduce you to Nadhmi Auchi. He was charged in the 1950s with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the future tyrant was acquiring his taste for blood. He was investigated in the 1980s for his part in alleged bribes to the fabulously corrupt leaders of post-war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed that Auchi’s bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen from their luckless peoples. In 2002, officers from the Serious Fraud Squad raided the offices of one of Auchi’s drug companies as part of an investigation of what is alleged to be the biggest swindle ever of the NHS. With allegations, albeit unproven, like these hanging over him, wouldn’t you think that British MPs would have the sense to stay away? … In the course of a 17 year relationship with Rezko, it is impossible to quantify the amount in contributions funnelled to Obama by Rezko using his ill gotten gains. Nor can it be ascertained at this time if the favors done by Obama for Rezko — large and small — involve him in illegal activities. It certainly has him enmeshed with some extremely shady characters in Rezko and Auchi. … Obama is not the Agent of Change. He is a calculating politician who plays the game the same way politicians have been playing it for hundreds of years — receiving money in exchange for favors from government for his friends and cronies. by Sgt Tim @ 10:57 pm. Filed under Mark Levin Audio [link] [...]
11:56 pm
[...] Rick Moran sums this story up quite a bit while pinning for the old Chicago columnist Mike Royko: At this point, unless there is a deliberate, concerted effort by the large media outlets to allow this story to die once Rezko is convicted, I find it probable that other revelations are yet to come that will show Obama to be just another machine politician, skirting the edge of ethics and the law – perhaps even going over the line and engaging in criminal activities. [...]
12:27 am
[...] We’ll see if Russert and Williams take up Hillary’s campaign trail histrionics and how deeply they dig into Obama’s Rezko deal. [...]
2:21 am
Why isn’t Hillary jumping on this?
I shouldn’t ask. Her campaign has been stupid from Day One.
4:37 am
A couple of things. First, there were four newspapers when Royko started at the News, the Daily News, the Trib, the Times and the Chicago America. When the News folded he moved to the Trib because the Times was owned by a “foreigner” who was too right wing, and the American was also out of business.
The more important thing is that Obama did NOT receive any special consideration when he bought the house, his bid was the highest:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=Cz1VeFnrO5fmhCz7sNEgkr6eaqCzAtfUU1GVjODAsFVanWk6Dl&bbParentWidgetId=B8k88rWwXopuz5STgLeVwBLu
Joe5348
9:50 am
I wanted to remind you all of something while we writhe in fear of having a Black Liberal President. I have seen a couple of rallys for Obama on TV and people love him. In fact, so many Americans, es[pecially an up and coming liberal majority that is showing up at the polls and they are saying: “We do not want any more Republicans. Wer do not want anymore inide the beltway Democrats. We want something entirely new and definitely un consevative.”
The American people have said “We Want Barack Hussein Obama to be our next president. ” It is a total and utter rejection of Bush tyle Christofascism.
So. the next president of this country will be Liberla Black Man of Arab/Muslim ancestry.
Guys. in the Potomac primaries, more people voted for President Obama than voted for all the wingnuts on the ticket put together. what does that tell you?
4:47 pm
It is worse than it seems. From what I’ve been reading, Obama could not afford the $2 million house. There was no “vacant lot”. That’s like saying your backyard is a vacant lot. They devised a scheme whereby Obama would buy the house and Rezko would buy the backyard so that Obama could use the proceeds from his book deal to buy the house. So for all intents and purposes he was “given” a $650,000 gift from Rezko. Only after it became known months later that Rezko purchased the “vacant lot” on the same day that Obama bought his house did Obama buy the “strip of land” and put up his fence in an attempt to avoid having the truth come out.
6:08 am
Damm we sitting here talking about an freakin house, how many deals have been made by politicians and shady peoples, look at Dennis Hastert housing and land deals, is thats why he left office, because he knew that the dirty was coming down, oh yes and Hastert dealing with Ted Stevens in he Alaska oil dealing, so don’t try to go there, they all have something on them.
Hastert ain’t running for president. Or for anything else.
ed.
11:54 am
[...] and Tony knew each other for some time: The Chicago Tribune: “On June 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that as a state [...]
11:58 pm
Ah, yes, Senator Obama and his dirty laundry. We’ll be talking about it at the forum at http://www.chicagoconservatives.com
11:44 am
[...] But thriving in the Chicago political arena is like swimming in a cesspool with your mouth open. You know, you’re bound to swallow a few gulps here and there, aren’t you? ...influence peddling, the casual corruption, the cronyism, the favoritism shown in less than open bi… [...]
11:51 am
[...] But thriving in the Chicago political arena is like swimming in a cesspool with your mouth open. You know, you’re bound to swallow a few gulps here and there, aren’t you? ...influence peddling, the casual corruption, the cronyism, the favoritism shown in less than open bi… [...]
1:13 am
I want to know if the people of the USA understand the dirty history of Chicago politics and that BHO will bring that corrupt, socialist, and patronige form of government with him? This would include his possible chief-of-staff Valerie Jarrett. A very intellegent woman she is but very very to thee left.
And income redistribution will be the rule. I hope Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. America will understand this. But they are NOT gettingh the picture of this future painted for them – corrupt Socialist America. This is the END…?