The Chicago Sun Times this morning explores Sen. Joe Biden's ties to the Tony Rezko corruption mix: No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won't give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front.Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who's pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.
Joe Cari was Biden's Midwest field director and admitted to taking part in an $850,000 kickback scheme. Rezko is slated to be sentenced in October--a week before the election-- maybe not a surprise, but an unwelcome reminder to voters of all Obama's shady and radical relationships nonetheless. Sounds like a culture of corruption to me:
Still, an Obama spokesman said Biden would follow Obama's lead and divest his campaign fund of any money from Cari.
"As the former national finance director for the DSCC and DNC, Mr. Cari was a fund-raiser for many prominent elected officials," spokesman Ben LaBolt said. "If any contributions from Mr. Cari have not been returned or donated it is an oversight, and they will be immediately."
The Obama campaign defense is that this is just business as usual. It's a joke of a message of hope and change.
UPDATE: Chuck Goudie, suburban Chicago Daily Herald:
Soon, Mr. Cari will be known only by an 8-digit number.
That numeric title will be bestowed on Cari by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons when he reports to a federal penitentiary after pleading guilty to trying to extort campaign money for Gov. Blagojevich from an investment firm seeking state contracts.
So it is interesting indeed that Mr. Cari has deep connections with Blago, Biden, a loose link to Obama himself and several other notable political figures.
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