Obama ducks the questions
Suddenly, our open senator is acting like a dissembling pol
April 25, 2007
BY CAROL MARIN cmarin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Obama tells us he is the messenger of a new kind of politics.
Open. Transparent. Different.
But put the pedal to the metal and ask Illinois' junior senator new and
serious questions about his radioactive, federally indicted, former friend
Antoin "Tony" Rezko, and suddenly this gleaming presidential hopeful and
paragon of new politics behaves just like any other dissembling,
dismissive
Chicago pol, ducking the discussion while pretending not to.
The story behind the story of this week's Sun-Times' re****ts on Rezko, the
power broker slumlord, and Obama, voice for the voiceless, is revealing.
For five long weeks, Sun-Times' investigative re****ter Tim Novak called,
e-mailed, requested, practically pleaded with Obama's press people to
provide information about the senator's relation****p to Rezko when it came
to the development of low-income housing in Chicago. In an abundance of
fairness and an excess of solicitousness, Novak sent a list of questions.
For five weeks, no answer.
Jointly, on behalf of both the Sun-Times and NBC5 News, Novak and I sent
Obama's campaign requests to interview the senator for both print and
television.
Again, no answer.
Until Novak began his digging, the most we knew about the Obama/Rezko
nexus
was the revelation that Rezko, a major Obama donor and fund-raiser, had
helped Obama enlarge the property surrounding his South Side mansion by
having Mrs. Rezko simultaneously purchase an adjacent lot and then sell
off
a strip of that property to Obama. At the time, unless Obama never read a
paper or watched the news, he couldn't help but know that Rezko was
already
under federal investigation. Rezko was ultimately indicted.
"It was boneheaded," the senator confessed when questions were raised. And
that was that.
But Novak's re****ts this week raise new questions about just how much
attention Obama, a self-described activist, was paying to the critical
issue
of affordable housing in the district he used to represent as a state
senator. It again involved Rezko, his longtime patron, who had 11 failed
or
failing buildings in Obama's district.
Though Obama says he, himself, did a mere five hours of work, the
12-person
law firm where Obama was a junior partner did significant legal work for
Rezko's company which, by 2002, was being sued by the city, state and a
bunch of banks for defaulting on loans and doing a downright awful job of
providing decent housing. Taxpayers and lenders have lost up to $100
million
while Rezko's firm made about $7 million.
There is no suggestion that Obama or his firm did anything illegal. But
here's a guy who, according to a recent Tribune profile of his wife,
Michelle, was so scrupulous about the details of life that he actually
went
with her on a job interview just to make sure her potential employer was
up
to snuff. Too bad he didn't give Rezko the same treatment.
Instead, Obama and his minions this week gave us the treatment for having
the audacity to inquire.
More than five weeks after receiving Novak's questions, the Obama people
at
last sent a partial written response. It arrived exactly five hours before
the Sun-Times went to press.
That's OK -- any answer is better than none. But what about that
interview?
Here's a candidate who these days is on camera more than many TV anchors,
whose staff is putting out press releases faster than IHOP cranks out
pancakes, and yet, the senator just didn't have time, his staffers
claimed,
to stop and talk on Monday even though he was in Chicago giving a speech
at
which, conservatively, there were 30 re****ters and 15 cameras.
We didn't know it then, but while Novak and I were staking out the
senator's
big, black SUV parked outside, he was giving a quiet private interview to
the Tribune about the wrongheadedness of the Sun-Times' story.
Meanwhile, an Obama staffer, sent to watch us, nimbly Blackberried our
movements to someone inside.
Suddenly, bodyguards pulled the SUV down into a parking garage, grabbed
Obama, and with wheels squealing, sped out and away.
Maybe it was the image of that getaway, played on the 5 o'clock news, that
finally persuaded Obama to hastily call a news conference to which Novak
was
not invited but managed to find out about anyway.
Obama said while the new allegations about Rezko were "deeply troubling,"
none of it had ever been "brought to his attention."
So why all the gymnastics to avoid the conversation?
Especially for a candidate who is "open" and "transparent" and
"different"?
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