Gramm-pa McCain Camp Launches Lame October ‘Surprise’: Rezko

By GottaLaff

According to CNN, Gramm-pa's campaign is convinced their tax talk is working. But, of course, that's not dirty enough for them:

In what appears to be an attempt to gin up an “October Surprise,” the McCain campaign teamed up with the American Conservative Union today to make a campaign issue of Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to convicted Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko.

The ACU quietly filed a formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee — the group’s Website features no mention of the action — against the Democratic presidential nominee. From The Boston Globe:

Rezko was convicted in June on federal corruption charges not involving Obama. [...]

[I]ndependent fact-checking groups have concluded that there’s no proof that Obama was involved in any wrongdoing.

Still, the American Conservative Union filed a formal complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee today alleging that Obama’s home purchase violated the Senate’s gift ban. In the letter to the Ethics Committee, ACU Chairman David Keene said that “sufficient information exists to demonstrate that Sen. Obama solicited, received, and accepted a gift greater than $50 from Mr. and Mrs. Rezko, and Sen. Obama failed to disclose this gift.”

Right on cue, the McCain campaign held a conference call with reporters that featured former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), who was a colleague of Obama’s for two years in the Illinois Senate, and Ed O’Callahan, a former federal prosecutor in New York.

During the call, the participants wanted to know why Obama has never answered questions from the media about the matter, while acknowledging Obama did answer questions about the matter from The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times in March.

O’Callahan, clearly reading a script, veered off-topic into McCain campaign talking points:

“Obama needs to come clean on this deal before the election, so that voters can judge whether Obama received monetary benefits from these Rezko favors.

Since the Democrats took control of Congress only two years ago, they have driven our economy into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. What’s their solution to the problem? To spread more of our wealth around by giving it to those who don’t pay a single penny of federal income tax. With friends and priorities like these, Barack Obama and his Democrat allies lack the judgment to lead our country.”

Fitzgerald and O’Callahan had taken just one question from the reporters before the call was abruptly ended.

I’ve sat in on dozens of these conference calls, and I’m pretty sure this is a record for fewest questions allowed from reporters.

The obvious question is: If this is such an important controversy, why did the ACU wait until five days before the presidential election to file its complaint?

With no new information being offered, the complaint appears to be a stunt aimed at influencing the election. However, if this is what the McCain campaign has been holding up its sleeve, to be sprung at the last moment, it doesn’t look like Obama has much to fear from this year’s October surprise.

The wrong people are being reported to the ethics committee.

I'm running out of derisive adjectives. See "labels" for what's going through my mind right now.

The good news is, it's a lame attempt that will fail. Four and a half days. It can't come soon enough for me.

VIDEO: Chris Matthews v. Michele Bachmann

By GottaLaff

Bachman seems unable to articulate a coherent thought beyond "Obama's leftist, liberal, anti-American mentors." She even claims that Rezko is a "leftist, liberal, anti-American." Matthews points out that Rezko is a businessman, not a liberal. Bachman didn't seem to understand the difference.

Wow. Even Tweety was a little freaked out by this whack job.

Rezko: Feds pushed for dirt on Obama

By GottaLaff

Shades of Susan McDougal? And I am not equating McDougal with Rezko, I am seeing a parallel between the pressures on both of them to turn against major political figures:

Imprisoned Chicago businessmanAntoin “Tony” Rezko has accused federal prosecutors of improperly pressuring him to implicate Barack Obama in a corruption case.

In a letter to the U.S. District judge who presided over his trial, Rezko, who was convicted this month of 16 corruption-related counts, including fraud and money laundering, called prosecutors “overzealous.” And he singled out what he said were their efforts to get him to turn on Obama, an Illinois senator and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Illinois Gov. Rod Bagojevich.

“They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Gov. Bagojevich and Sen. Obama,” Rezko wrote in an undated letter released by the court this week. “I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people.”

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, wouldn't comment on Rezko's allegation.

See what I mean? Kinda makes you nostalgic for Ken Starr, doesn't it? Me neither.

But its allegations about pressure to implicate Obama will surely give ammunition to partisans on both sides.

For Democrats, Rezko’s claim dovetails with allegations that the Department of Justice targeted high-profile Democrats.

For Republicans, it will be used to suggest Obama’s relationship with Rezko drew warranted federal scrutiny.

The DoJ would never play politics when it comes to justice! Why ::sputter, sputter:: that would be politicizing our legal system! By the way:

Though Obama was not implicated in any wrongdoing in the Rezko case, his name was mentioned sporadically during Rezko’s trial.

Its a given, when someone mentions a Democrat in a trial, it means the Democrat is automatically guilty of something. Ask any Republican.