Obama's GUILTY Friend Tony

The Bloomington Pantagraph, on reaction from Illinois lawmakers to the Rezko guilty verdict. I like this quote the best:

State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, said Blagojevich should completely explain what was going on in his office.

“Any kind of charges like this don’t help him. It’s just an issue that he’s going to have to face up to and tell the people what’s right, wrong or indifferent,” Forby said.

The third way. The Chicago Way, and good old Illinois. Bloomberg has a pretty good summary, "Ex-Obama Fundraiser Found Guilty in Kickback Trial". One more bit from AP:

The jurors laughed and declined to comment when one reporter asked whether they had realized before the trial how corrupt Illinois politics could be.

This was obviously not news to them. But perhaps the rest of the country is wising up. NY Times? Still "unclear":

Mrs. Clinton brought up Mr. Obama’s ties to Mr. Rezko to try to counter his statements that he offered a change from politics (and fund-raising) as usual. Although Republicans have raised similar questions, the fallout, if any, seems unclear.

RNC detailed missive, "Rezko: Obama's Longtime Friend and Money Man".

To spell it out for the Times, the significance of this conviction is that it torpedoes Obama's new kind of politics message and lays bare to the country the sleaze of Rezko and Chicago that helped him to the top, even as he clinches the Dem nomination.

Related posts: Obama Saddened, Rezko Verdict-GUILTY, The Hard Slog Starts for Barack