* This opening statement by the defense will almost certainly come back to bite them in the posterior…

Wilmette businessman Tony Rezko raised money for candidates in both political parties — including Democratic Gov. Blagojevich, former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar and Illinois senator turned Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama — but he never asked for anything in return, Rezko’s lead defense counsel said this afternoon.

* This, however, will be more effective…

“The government has embraced what will probably be the most corrupt individual you will ever see in your life –a very, very sophisticated con man in the fullest sense of the word,” Duffy said in an opening statement.

He said claims about Rezko’s role in the corruption by Levine are false and began as name dropping to impress people. He said Levine is now lying about Rezko in hopes of getting a lenient 67-month prison sentence.

* A surprisingly large number of the charges against Rezko are based on what Stu Levine told others. And Levine has a whole lot of problems…

“Mr. Levine’s days at times would include the substance Special K — and it wasn’t the cereal,” he said.

Instead, it was ketamine, an animal tranquilizer that Levine took in liberal amounts, as well as cocaine, ecstasy, pot and crystal meth, he said.

* But the defense is gonna have to overcome stuff like this…

“Defendant Rezko was the man behind the curtain pulling the strings,” Hamilton told jurors as the trial expected to last three to four months and hand Blagojevich a nasty black eye got under way.

One of the first witnesses, FBI agent Charles A. Willenborg, said that federal investigators have identified $1,437,350 raised by Rezko for Blagojevich from 2000 to December 2004.

* Barack Obama wasn’t mentioned by prosecutors yesterday, but the defense dropped his name, which got some people all atwitter…

Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s attorney on Thursday invoked presidential front-runner Barack Obama’s name in telling jurors what good judgment Rezko has in picking friends — an unwelcome compliment for Obama — as yet another federal corruption trial involving Illinois politics gets under way.

As if to make sure jurors were getting the point, the defense also noted that the star witness against Rezko was a disciple of disgraced former Gov. George Ryan.

* Obama has admitted time and again the two men were friends and that Rezko raised money for him, so it’s really not a huge deal. As I told you late yesterday, Obama is seriously considering doing a press conference to explain all that went on between them.

He needs to do it soon, because half-baked stories like this are beginning to spread…

Accused Illinois fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko is in debt by $50 million and relies on “family” handouts of $7,500 a month to pay monthly costs, according to a previously sealed court transcript reviewed by ABC News.

Rezko’s bleak financial picture raises the question of how the Rezkos were able to buy a vacant lot adjoining the home of Sen. Barack Obama in 2005, at a time Rezko says he was already in deep debt.

Super-active, bigtime developers like Rezko rarely have a lot of cash on hand. They live on borrowed money. They were able to “afford” the lot because Rezko, like most other developers, had a giant line of credit, which dried up after he was indicted.

* And, finally, I will say this again: if Jimmy DeLeo was the “real” governor, we wouldn’t have been in session for eleven months last year. That notion simply defies all reality. Influence? Sure. Friendship? Certainly. Does he call the shots? Preposterous.