Clout List: Rezko Realtor on Obama Sale

UPDATE: The national media is picking up on the gravity of Obama's early relationships with domestic terrorists. The Politico, via RCP: "Obama once visited '60's radicals". It starts off this way:

In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious – and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement.

UPDATE to UPDATE: Dan Riehl has unearthed a quote from Ayers' book where he mentions Obama going back to the 90's and the cozy radical chic neighborhood in Hyde Park we all know and love.

More: Via NRO, Hillary's camp is pushing the Ayers story now. As they say, won't work for Hillary as Bill pardoned Puerto Rican domestic terrorists, but it'll work for McCain. Great Ace commenter. MSNBC picks it up. Rick Moran quotes Hillary fan Margaret Carlson on media disenchantment with Obama--even Chris Matthews is turning. And Captain's Quarters:

Let's also look at the mainstream media disinterest in this story. Imagine what the media would report if John McCain had met with Timothy McVeigh in 1995 to secure his blessing for re-election to the Senate, or if he had met with Eric Rudolph the following year.

***
More seamy details surrounding the sale of that Hyde Park mansion to Barack Obama (funded of course by the proceeds of a book sale which skirted Senate ethics rules, and with a little help from his friend Rezko). Sun Times:

Tony Rezko, the indicted political influence-peddler, once sought an appointment to a state board for the real estate agent who sold Sen. Barack Obama a South Side mansion and the adjacent side lot to Rezko's wife, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Rezko asked Gov. Blagojevich's administration to appoint real estate agent Donna Schwan Jackson to the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities, according to the court papers filed in Rezko's corruption case. Jackson ended up not getting the appointment to the unpaid position.

Jackson is among a long list of people Rezko and others tried to get appointed to state boards and commissions, according to the Blagojevich administration records obtained by federal prosecutors.

Then there's this:

Obama paid $1.65 million for the mansion -- $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko's wife, Rita Rezko, paid $625,000 -- the full asking price -- for the adjacent lot, then sold a piece of it to Obama. Rezko's wife has since sold the property to Michael Sreenan, a former Rezko attorney. Now, Sreenan has hired Jackson to sell the lot.

Jackson, a longtime Democrat, was a political fund-raiser for former Gov. Dan Walker.

(D-IL). Dan Walker served time for offenses unrelated to his time as governor. Here he gave advice to Illinois' latest gubernatorial inmate, even as Illinois' current governor is under investigation by the Feds--individual A. Obama is presumably the unnamed political candidate also referred to in the same investigation.

The WSJ takes note of the Rezko trial opening the day before the key March 4th primaries. Note we will hear the testimony of a felonious realtor turned FBI mole who wore a wire and observed "frequent visits to Rezko from Gov. Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)"

He is philosophical now:

People he has done business with said he doesn't hide his background. Some joke that Thomas even introduces himself as a convicted felon.

"All these brokers, they come in at 10 and leave at 5," Thomas said. "I come in at 7 and leave at 7 at night. I'm always working."

Chicago, he said, "is a wonderful place to do this kind of business. It is the most forgiving."

Very forgiving. Chicago--His holier than thou Hopeness Barack Obama's political stomping grounds. We'll see if the rest of the country feels the same way.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan on Michelle. Clive Crook, National Journal, does Obama actually make sense? Gerard Baker, Times of London, "Obama: is America ready for this dangerous leftwinger?" (apropos of this, National Review interview: Europe's slow-motion suicide) And Chris Muir cartoon commentary today.

UPDATE: RCP Blog Daily 2008 mentions Obama takes funds from lobby partners. Latest RCP Dem averages: Texas, Ohio.

UPDATE: Roseanne Barr in Huffpo derides Obama's hope.

Previous posts: The Obamas Get a Look, Obama Buyer's Remorse, Obama Toured with Rezko, Rezko on the Radar for Obama