Obama squeaky-clean? Hardly

Have you ever wondered how a little-known state legislator, who got his lunch handed to him in 2000 when he ran for a congressional seat, managed to become a U.S. senator in four short years and a presidential contender in eight?

You might say that there are 435 senators-in-waiting in the U.S. House of Representatives, all biding their time for a shot at becoming one of the 100 most important lawmakers in this country. Some have been trying for years to find a way to make the jump to the elite upper chamber of Congress. So just how, exactly, did Barack Obama manage to pull off this feat?

Was it just a case of incredibly good timing or simply the cream rising to the top? I say it looks more like a shrewd politician, financed by a corrupt businessman, combining forces with a former Chicago Tribune political writer who used his influence to pull off a series of political dirty tricks. You be the judge:

Much has been made about the fact that Obama's Illinois political career was financed, in part, by Tony Rezko, a well-known Chicago real estate developer and influence peddler who, over the years, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Illinois powerbrokers.

Rezko, now under a federal indictment, was Obama's first significant campaign contributor, and very likely, without Rezko's support, Obama still would be an obscure lawyer. As a young attorney, Obama worked on some Rezko deals. Once in the state Senate, he wrote letters in support of Rezko deals.

No doubt it was some of Rezko's money that, in 2003, enabled Obama to throw his hat in the ring to be the Democrat nominee to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. At first, no one took Obama that seriously. He was considered no match for multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes.

Hull was beating Obama in double digits when, just three weeks before the primary, the Chicago Tribune broke a story that Hull's wife had filed a restraining order against him in the run-up to their divorce. Meanwhile, Obama was holding a press conference on domestic violence. Those in the know charge that the story was brought to the Tribune by former political writer David Axelrod, who was, and still is, the mastermind behind Obama's campaigns. Word is that the Tribune's decision to release this juicy tidbit came down from "on high" and that the timing of that release and Obama's media event were no coincidence.

Obama captured 52 percent of the primary vote to become the Democrat nominee. Still, he faced a formidable opponent in Republican Jack Ryan, a multimillionaire who retired as a Goldman Sachs partner to teach at an inner city Catholic parochial school.

The Tribune sued to open the details of Ryan's California divorce and child custody battle with his former wife Jeri. Both agreed to make their divorce papers public but wanted the child custody records sealed to protect their son. In late June, a Democrat judge in Los Angeles opted to release those records. Those five-year-old records revealed that Jeri had charged that Jack took her to sex clubs with the expectation they would have sex in public. The charge was unproven and the judge in the proceeding awarded additional custody rights to Jack, but the damage to his reputation forced him to resign late in the campaign.

Maryland resident Alan Keyes was brought in as a last-minute replacement for Ryan, but Keyes was viewed by the Illinois electorate as an interloper and self-destructed after a series of controversial remarks.

After Obama coasted to victory, he received a suspiciously good deal on the home he bought – around $300,000 less than the asking price – on the very same day that Tony Rezko's wife bought the vacant lot next door for the full asking price. Shortly thereafter, Obama bought part of that vacant lot from the Rezkos to expand his yard. Hmmm!

Obama recently donated to charity $86,000 from his campaign that was tied directly to Rezko, which he can now afford to do, but it was early money from Rezko that set up his political career. This doesn't wear well with his squeaky-clean, above-the-political-fray image that he has carved out for himself.

Obama claims he knew nothing about Rezko's alleged shady background or political deals – but Rezko was well-known in Chicago political circles, so Obama has to be either the dumbest or most naive person on the planet. Either should disqualify him from any consideration for the highest office in our land.

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