There is an ancient proverb that says, "They who lie with dogs will rise with fleas". Perhaps Barack Obama is beginning to understand the truth in this proverb. The president-elect's most recent questionable association is with the Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, recently arrested for allegedly conspiring to use his power to appoint someone to Obama's vacant senate seat in exchange for financial payment or appointment to a cabinet position, ambassadorship, or a powerful union position. Blagojevich also allegedly attempted to get Chicago Tribune editorial writers who called for his impeachment fired. There is much more, including obscenity-laced tirades from the Democratic governor and his first "lady" wife, Patricia, all recorded on secret FBI tapes.
True to form, the pro-Obama press is once again trying to distance their Anointed One from the Illinois governor. If this were a Republican administration tied to a corruption scandal the White House press corps would be digging into this story as if it were Sarah Palin's trash cans in Alaska. But the liberal media has given Obama a pass on so many of his questionable associations that they can no longer be expected to objectively explore any potential political scandal. Let's not forget other Chicago associates of Obama: William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, Rashid Khalidi, and other nefarious characters. Obama can try to disassociate himself until the cows come home but his tendency to "pal around with" these people illustrates, at the very least, some extremely poor judgment on his part.
Let us not forget that Obama launched his political career in the home of William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who, as members of the Weathermen in the 1970's, bombed government buildings and attempted to assassinate US Army officers, and continue to say that they have no regrets for their actions and wish they had done more. Ayers is now making the rounds on the big three television networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS) hawking his autobiography. Of course there is very little hard questioning by the "news anchors" about Ayers' relationship with Obama. Instead, Ayers gets the opportunity to rehabilitate his terrorist past and rehash old grievances against America in an attempt to justify his heinous actions.
Then there is the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright who proclaimed the nonsense that America invented the AIDS virus to exterminate black people and that the government introduced crack cocaine into African-American neighborhoods in order to imprison black people. Obama's "spiritual advisor" (his description) also vehemently stated that we should not say, "God Bless America" but, rather, "God damn America" because ours is an evil nation. Wright has also praised the race-baiter Louis Farrakhan, who proclaimed Obama was the "Messiah", and the terrorist group Hamas. You probably recall that Obama was a member of the Trinity United Church for more than 20 years and listened to, although he claimed not to recall, many of Wright's sermons.
Next on the list is Tony Rezko, a Chicago slumlord and Blagojevich's bag man, who donated $10,000 to the Obama campaign from an illegal kickback scheme and was recently convicted on several counts of fraud and bribery. Rezko raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both Obama and Blagojevich. Obama himself has credited Rezko with helping bolster his political career. The two were involved in a questionable land deal in Chicago's South Side, where Rezko paid the full price for a property located next door to Obama who received, on the same day, a 15% reduction on his property to the tune of 300 grand. The investigation of this matter is not over.
You may not be familiar with Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi is a outspoken supporter of Palestinian terror and worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a major perpetrator of anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorism. During Obama's last year on the board of The Woods Fund, in 2002, he, along with fellow board member and former domestic terrorist William Ayers, participated in awarding a grant of $70,000 to the Arab American Action Network (AAN), a Chicago-based group founded by Rashid and Mona Khalidi. In an apparent quid-pro-quo move, the couple later held a fundraising event in their home for Barack Obama. Obama has acknowledged that he attended numerous dinners at the home of the Khalidis.
Barack Obama is a product of the flea-infested Chicago political system. He learned to play hardball as practiced by local leaders and mentors such as former Chicago Mayors Harold Washington and Richard Daley; political activists such as his close advisors David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Rahm Emanuel, and the other influence peddlers Wright, Ayers, Rezko, et. al. According to Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office: "If it [Illinois] isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor."
If his associations with political dogs are beginning to make Obama scratch, it's long overdue.
