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* Almost nine years ago, state Sen. Barack Obama wrote a couple of perfunctory letters to the Department of Housing and the Illinois Housing Development Authority supporting a Tony Rezko project in his district. The Sun-Times fills us in…
As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.
The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama’s former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district. […]
The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he’s known Rezko, “I’ve never done any favors for him.” […]
“This wasn’t done as a favor for anyone,” [Bill Burton, press secretary for Obama’s presidential campaign] said in a written statement. “It was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project.”
Rezko’s spokesperson denied to the Sun-Times that the indicted man had reached out to Obama about the project.
A few things before you start whaling on the guy.
First, according to the letters Obama sent, the company was seeking a second mortgage. That little factoid was never spelled out in the piece. The company wasn’t asking for cash money.
Second, as the article notes, Obama wasn’t the only politician to send a letter. Ald. Preckwinkle and Rep. Lou Jones also offered their support of the project, which, according to Obama’s letters, included a home health care service, adult day care and a wellness center. The place is still open and functioning.
Third, buried down deep in the article is the revelation that the law firm Obama worked for did not represent the company in question, although the company was co-founded by the guy who hired Obama.
Lastly, take a look at the letters. This is basic stuff. The letters are identical, down to the same typos and grammatical errors in both. (”I hope the Department of Housing will provide a second mortgage financing this valuable project requires.”)
Also, as noted parenthetically above, Obama’s letter to IHDA expresses his hope that the city’s Department of Housing “will provide a second mortgage” for the project. IHDA has nothing to do with the city department.
Conclusions? Legislators write letters like these all the time. It doesn’t look to me like he went overboard for Rezko and his former boss, and considering the obvious errors in both letters, he probably didn’t even proof-read them.
But, any Rezko taint can’t help “Mr. Clean’s” claim that he is above all that dirty political stuff.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 9:47 am
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Legislators’ secretaries write letters like these all the time. And Congressmen’s interns. And you get the picture.
Comment by Better said, Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 9:53 am
Better Said
What do you bet they’ll write one for you.
Comment by True Observer Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 10:32 am
Has the Sun-Times gotten every memo, note, letter, and scribble this guy ever did over the last 20 years? Most of these letters for projects are just filler fluff for poundage. S-T must be really searching for a story to fill the pages with something.
Comment by zatoichi Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 10:45 am
Obama says he had dinner with Rezko a few times a year over the course of ten years in the ST Q and A a while back… you think it was all social chit chat between these two? Rezko was investing in Obama’s career and they were making plans. Nothing perfunctory about it.
Comment by Bill Baar Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 10:52 am
Of course.
Anyway, do we know whether senior citizens actually benefited from this enterprise, in addition to Rezko apparently raking in millions
of our money. Or was this one of Rezko’s little projects that didn’t turn out too well.
Or would it have been cheaper to just give the senior cits the taxpayer money direct in the form of vouchers and let them buy housing on the market.
Helping the so-called poor is so expensive in Illinois because there are so many political porkers and politicos that have to get cut in on the deals.
Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 11:04 am
Political porkers and politicos are the only ones with enough cash to even consider “doing these deals”. Enough said.
Comment by FAN of CAP FAX Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 11:17 am
[…] Mr. Novak’s fellow journalist Rich Miller points out the number of ways in which this letter ain’t no thing (my words, not his). Among the points Mr. Miller notes: First, according to the letters Obama sent, the company was seeking a second mortgage. That little factoid was never spelled out in the piece. The company wasn’t asking for cash money. […]
Pingback by Something sure does smell « Illinois Reason Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 11:35 am
If you want business as usual Illinois politics in the White House-then accept this “minor” incident -if you’re wanting something better then look for someone better-if there is anybody with ethics interested in politics
Comment by red dog Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 11:59 am
Bill Baar, Cassandra, FAN of CAP FAX, and red dog (and those like them)…
What was the “deal” that you think was agreed upon here?
That Obama write a letter rife with typos to an agency not involved in the actual second mortgage Rezko was seeking? (Nevermind that Obama’s letter was simply one of a few such letters on the exact same topic from other area politicians…)
If that’s what you’re claiming is a “deal” then Rezko got shafted by Obama’s lack of follow-through.
And Cassandra, are you really that cynical that you think senior care facilities and wellness centers are sooooo contemptable?
Then again, maybe all those politically-connected octogenarians are part of the “deal” too.
(Now if we could just find those millions of dollars that “fell off” Halliburton’s Iraq trucks in bricks of Hamiltons we could patch up all the “millions” from Rezko’s nefarious senior center deals with that highly unpopular Obama character.)
Comment by Rob_N Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 12:40 pm
I was just thinking that, Rob_N. If I was Rezko, I wouldn’t be happy at all with that letter. Flawed boiler-plate.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 12:43 pm
Exactly right, Rich. I used to see many of these what we called “happy letters” back in the Thompson days. They were perfunctory on the part of the legislator and had zero, zip, nada bearing on the outcome of the particular project.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 1:05 pm
If Obama wants to present himself as “Mr. Clean” then he should have stayed in Hawaii. The moment he started working the backrooms of Chicago politics he started dealing with the Devil.
Not only did he do business in Cook county and Chicago, he was good at it enough to get where he is today.
Perhaps he is only the piano player at the cat house, but what he saw, heard, and made his career should be a factor in his 2008 campaign.
Illinoians are forced to be very cynical about politicians. We accept a lot of dirt from our elected officials. That is not the case when you leave the state. Obama has some explaining to do.
And do it well, too. This is only one is a parade of Chicago stories his opponents are sending out to the media, hungry to tear down our newest celebrity/politician, Barak Obama.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 1:40 pm
I agree this is normal protocol from a legislative office. However, if there are any red flags, an official should never throw his or her support behind a questionable project. And since the official is rarely ever able to look at each individual project, it is up to a staff member (preferrably a higher-up) to catch these nuances. But hindsight is always 20/20.
Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 1:58 pm
Fact: Obama did legal work for Rezko before he
was elected to office.
Fact: Obama sent a letter on behalf of Rezko’s
company sometime after the legal work when Obama
was elected to office.
that alone is usually enough to send clean government types screaming to the press.
what was the time period between the work and the
letter? was it as long as government ethics
requirements for employees?
if you worked in government and worked anywhere near the dealings with Rezko, it was WIDELY known that something was hinky in the world of
the former CHA chief, Alison Davis, Rezko and anyone who came near them. obama knows better.
and so do you who condone him playing the game. Just because he’s from Illinois does not mean you
have to play dumb along with him. unless you want
to ship out our baggage to hi level jobs in DC
if Obama becomes pres. hmmmm…..almost makes me want to support him. except he is not at all
qualified to be president.
Comment by amy Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 2:42 pm
“that alone is usually enough to send clean government types screaming to the press.”
No, it’s not. Only in rare occasions are those sorts of things looked at. And in this case, the letters seemed perfunctory at best, or even almost counterproductive.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 2:46 pm
Uh, Rob, my question was, did the senior citizens actually get the housing? Did it fall into disrepair because of shoddy building materials?
Was the project outcome worth the nearly million bucks in “fees” we reportedly paid Rezko and pals. Or am I supposed to assume that it all went great, even though Rezko is now under federal indictment.
It’s fine for government to invest directly in senior care and wellness centers if necessary, but in this case it appears that in order to get them built we also had to give Rezko and his consortium about a million bucks or so. Was it worth it? Was the loan repaid? Could the housing have been built at lower cost to the taxpayers.
I don’t pay money to the government with the expectation that it will make people like Rezko and Davis rich, although high rewards to politically connected businesspersons appear
to be a very frequent use of my and other taxpayers’ money here in Illinois.
Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 3:42 pm
This Obama/Rezko thing made national radio news this afternoon on the Shawn Hannity program broadcast on WTAX in Springfield. I felt sort of bad for Shawn though because he thought there was something to be further explored about Obama giving back $16K in campaign funds and purchasing some property from Rezko’s wife. Hannity doesn’t get that this is just Illinois politics.
Comment by Little Egypt Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 5:41 pm
Who did the letter go to, who read the letter and who acted upon the letter. That is what I need to know. What did Mayor Daley know, and was his signature on the check? Please let us name all the players.
Comment by Deep Water Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 5:48 pm
Good grief. This sort of letter is perfunctory from EVERY legislator in EVERY district - the “good guys”, the “bad guys”, all of them. It is also probably true in every state in the union. That anybody would think this amounts to anything is just nuts. If you can’t be seen as a genuine reformer if you’ve ever written a letter of support for a businessman then you might as well disqualify anybody who has ever served in office.
I have seen Senators show up AT THE TABLE with applicants before a regulatory body - now that’s outrageous. A mere letter of support - come on! Anybody expressing outrage here is just doing a lousy “Captain Renault”/Claude Rains imitation.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 6:20 pm
Much ado about absolutely nothing.
Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 9:23 pm
So grant the Obambi promoters their wish and simply acknowledge that “every elected official” writes these “National brautwurst week” type of letters for folks they barely know. Now answer this one: Does every fresh faced Kennedy-esque pol with ambition also have mentor and muse that has sold his voters down the river while the mentors family happens to pick up the multi tens of millions contract from the utility that is having its way with those same good citizens?
The roots are rotten B O’B, the question is, are they yours?
Comment by lincolnlandbubba Wednesday, Jun 13, 07 @ 11:39 pm
Folks let’s remember that Obama is a protege of Mr. President of the Senate Emil Jones…Obama and company (Axelrod) have been working diligently to present the candidate as untarnished…we all know that the meatgrinder that is IL politics could never produce such a candidate…I predict that Obama’s star has begun its decline…Go Hillary…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Jun 14, 07 @ 7:27 am
[…] As political journalist Rich Miller pointed out after actually reading that S-T article, there are several problems for those Obama-haters jumping to the false conclusion that this form letter is their much-hoped-for Obama Waterloo. […]
Pingback by It’s the Worst Thing EVER. No, Really! The Cons Say So! « Illinois Reason Thursday, Jun 14, 07 @ 7:31 pm