Rezko and Obama Drudging
ArchPundit
Over at Hillaryis44.com.
They’ve been passing on stuff pretty much word for word from the Hillary oppo shop and continue with the Rezko story, but not getting any of it right. You’d think if you are supporting a candidate who was in business with James MacDougal, you might think twice about starting this kind of attack, but hey.
Obama worked for a politically connected law firm in Chicago.
No, not really. He worked for Miner, Barnhill & Galland which concentrates on civil rights law and employment discrimination law. They certainly have political connections, but not the type of firm that typically does big political work like Mayer or Thompson’s shop.
Obama, while at the law firm (and later) helped pump tens of millions of dollars – government dollars – to his friend and benefactor Rezko via Rezko’s company Rezmar.
He worked six hours on the project according to the Sun-Times. That’s hardly a significant effort in a law firm. Also, see below, the non-profits were clients of Davis and that’s how the connection was made (she ahem, he (sorry) was a name partner then)
The tens of millions of dollars in government subsidies were for housing projects Rezko (via Rezmar) was involved in. Neither Rezko, nor his partners in the housing venture had any prior experience to in the housing field – but Rezko/Rezmar still got tens of millions in government money.
Around that time, Rezmar began developing low-income apartments in partnerships with the Chicago Urban League and two other not-for-profit community groups, both founded and run by Bishop Arthur Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God and a powerful ally of the mayor — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., known as WPIC, and the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization.
All three community groups were clients of the Davis law firm. Davis himself was treasurer of WPIC when it went into business with Rezmar.
Why go into business with Rezmar? “We thought they were successful,” Davis said, noting that little development was taking place in Woodlawn.
At the time, Rezmar had been in business for six years and had become one of City Hall’s favored developers of low-income housing, managing 600 apartments in 15 buildings it rehabbed with government funding. Teaming now with community development groups, Rezmar rehabbed another 15 buildings, with 400 apartments, between 1995 and 1998. Each deal involved a mix of public and private financing — loans from the city or state, federal low-income-housing tax credits and bank loans.
More from Hillaryis44.
Some of the money in government subsidies went to buy tenements in Obama’s state senate district. Rezko treated the mostly African-American tenants with contempt. No heat, no hot water in at least one particulary cold winter. Rezko claimed he did not have money to provide the heat and hot water – but Rezko did have enough money to donate to Obama.
Which wasn’t known at the time and Rezko had seemingly been successful with housing before this.
As State Senator, Obama, in his official capacity, also helped pump tens of millions of more dollars to REZKO. [Obama denied doing “favors” for REZKO as a state senator but this video proves that too was an Obama lie HERE]
The only thing they can be referring to here is the a letter in support of a project in his district
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.
Letters of support are pretty standard fare for most office holders so it’s hard to see how it’s a favor unless there was community opposition. There is no claim the community was against the development–and in fact, evidence there was widespread support for the effort.
More from Hillaryis44:
Obama, again with the help of Rezko donations and fundraising, was elected a U.S. Senator. Michelle and Obama, hoping to live in a house they deemed worthy of their new stature, wanted to buy a big house they could not afford. The house cost
$1.65$2.3 million. Obama made a deal with the doctor who owned the house. The seller agreed with Obama to sell the house separately from the house’s side yard. Obama purchased the parcel of land with the house at a discounted price. On the very same day, Rezko’s wife, bought the side yard at full price. Michelle and Obama got their $1.65 million house.
In the past, the two lots had been sold as a single estate. But in 2005, the owners listed the two parcels for sale separately.
This is also wrong on another point–the house had two bids on it and Obama’s was the highest bid. The vacant land already had a bid close to asking price:
Q: Who was your Realtor? Did this Realtor also represent Rita Rezko?
A: Miriam Zeltzerman, who had also represented me in the purchase of my prior property, a condominium, in Hyde Park. She did not represent Rita Rezko.
Q: How do you explain the fact your family purchased your home the same day as Rita Rezko bought the property adjacent to yours? Was this a coordinated purchase?
A:The sellers required the closing of both properties at the same time. As they were moving out of town, they wished to conclude the sale of both properties simultaneously. The lot was purchased first; with the purchase of the house on the adjacent lot, the closings could proceed and did, on the same day, pursuant to the condition set by the sellers.
Q:Why is it that you were able to buy your parcel for $300,000 less than the asking price, and Rita Rezko paid full price? Who negotiated this end of the deal? Did whoever negotiated it have any contact with Rita and Tony Rezko or their Realtor or lawyer?
A: Our agent negotiated only with the seller’s agent. As we understood it, the house had been listed for some time, for months, and our offer was one of two and, as we understood it, it was the best offer. The original listed price was too high for the market at the time, and we understood that the sellers, who were anxious to move, were prepared to sell the house for what they paid for it, which is what they did.
We were not involved in the Rezko negotiation of the price for the adjacent lot. It was our understanding that the owners had received, from another buyer, an offer for $625,000 and that therefore the Rezkos could not have offered or purchased that lot for less.
So, other than getting every major fact wrong, a great resource.
What’s he gonna do when there’s no Bush to tell him what to think?