By Andrew C. McCarthy,National Review
Tony Rezko from friend to bonehead all in a days spin
In Chicago,Barack Obama’s M.O. was to talk the talk of a reformer and walk the walk of an old-school machine politician. When he got called on it,he did what machine politicians do:He waxed eloquent about his commitment to transparency even as he stonewalled,obfuscated,and lied.
That is how convicted fraudster Tony Rezko was transformed,before our very eyes,from a guy Obama barely knew to a contributor who may have helped Obama’s political campaigns,then to a bundler who’d actually raised more than $250,000 (some five times the amount claimed in Obama’s initial admission),to a developer who won contracts with Obama’s assistance,to a fixer who helped Obama buy a pricey home the future president couldn’t afford on his own—an ethical lapse Obama finally had to acknowledge was “boneheaded.”