Like it or not, this story is spreading fast.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rezko23jan23,1,2983892.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=trueLongtime patron may be a problem for Obama
Alleged slumlord and indicted businessman Antoin 'Tony' Rezko has long supported the Democratic presidential hopeful, who has returned related donations.............
But a government watchdog group that once lauded Obama for leadership on ethics says the Illinois senator should have known better.
"Everybody in this town knew that Tony Rezko was headed for trouble," said Jay Stewart of the Better Government Assn. in Chicago. "When he got indicted, there wasn't a single insider who was surprised. It was viewed as a long time coming. . . . Why would you be having anything to do with Tony Rezko, particularly if you're planning to run for president?"
But in 1998, then-state Sen. Obama wrote to state and city officials urging them to provide funding for New Kenwood LLC, a company formed by Rezko and Allison Davis. Obama wrote the letters, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, on Illinois Senate stationery, saying: "This project will provide much needed housing for 4th Ward citizens.".......................
The "slumlord" reference is backed up in part by a 2007 Chicago Sun-Times investigation that found that Rezko's low- income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many black families living in squalid conditions, sometimes without heat.
When Obama first sought public office in 1995, Rezko provided $2,000 in donations. Five years later, when Obama unsuccessfully challenged Democrat Bobby L. Rush for his U.S. House seat, Rezko and his associates contributed a much-needed infusion of cash in the final weeks of the campaign.................
Some who were part of Rezko's world remain Obama backers.
Kelly King Dibble was a Rezko company executive, and became Blagojevich's director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority until her resignation a year ago. She co-hosted a fundraiser in November at Chicago's South Shore Country Club for Obama.
Dibble -- who said her friendship with the candidate's wife, Michelle, goes back years -- said that whatever Rezko may have done, he was always decent to her: "I don't know him to be a crook. I know him to be a nice man." Nor does she believe he was, as Clinton said, a "slumlord," though she noted that it is hard to maintain low-income housing.
"It is sad that it has sunk to this level," she said.
Either way, he is either totally incompetent or in the pocket, Everyone seems to have known this guy was dirty and Obama has been taking money from him for many many years. Make you own minds up