Why Ayers, Rezko, Wright, ACORN, and the Entire Corrupt Illinois Political Machine Matters

In today's Chicago Tribune, Georgie Ann Geyer gives the standard liberal talking points about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers.

Earlier this week, in her best sled-dog attack mode, Gov. Palin used Obama's supposed cronyism with Ayers as a proof of not only Obama's supposed leftism but of his dishonesty in denying it. In one of her many convoluted statements, she said: "I'm not saying he's dishonest, but in terms of judgment, in terms of being able to answer a question forthrightly, it has two different parts to this. The judgment and the truthfulness and just being able to answer very candidly a simple question about when did you know him, how did you know him, is there still—has there been an association continued since '02 or '05, I know I've read a couple different stories. I think it's relevant."

Whoo! The McCain camp is trying to set Obama up as a leftie sympathizer of
old leftie Bill Ayers (a "domestic terrorist," they call him), who was co-founder of the
radical and violent Weather Underground. Palin went so far as to tell a crowd in Florida that Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!"

But in fact, Bill Ayers, who was then rebelling against his father, Thomas Ayers, no less than CEO of Commonwealth Edison, is a man of total inconsequence today. The Weathermen are either long dead or have high positions in academia or Wall Street. Bill has a 48-page curriculum vitae and is a professor of education at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, who was praised recently by none other than Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley for his work on Chicago public school reform...

Now, frankly if the entire narrative about Obama's past revolved on this murky relationship with Bill Ayers, I would agree with the liberals that this whole thing is nothing more than a red herring. If all there is in Obama's past is this association, then this would be a smear job. Now, I agree with the liberals that McCain is bringing this up to take attention away from the economy. Duh. The economy is working against him, and so of course, he wants to change the subject. Of course, that doesn't mean there is nothing there.

The reason that Bill Ayers matters is because Bill Ayers is only the beginning of what is really a never ending list of questionable associations for Barack Obama. These associations range from acquaintances, to mentors, to spiritual advisors, to friends and neighbors. It isn't merely that Obama was once a colleague with an unrepentent former terrorist. It's that he was once a colleague with an unrepentent former terrorist, AND his friend, neighbor and fundraiser is a crook, AND his pastor is a racist, AND his former employer is at the center of voter fraud, AND his political mentor runs one of the most corrupt legislatures in the country (Emil Jones), AND he has come from the inside of the most corrupt political machines in the country.

Just today, news reports have Obama's former neighbor, friend, and political fundraiser (and now convicted criminal) Tony Rezko reportedly talking to the Feds about Alexi Giannoulis.

Sneed hears rumbles political fund-raiser/fixer Tony Rezko, who is now singing sweetly to the feds from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, has been talking about his “dealings” with a Chicago bank, which has political connections.

Stay tuned.

...

We just spoke with someone well-connected in Chicago politics who told us that the bank Sneed is talking about has to be Broadway Bank, which is owned by the politically-connected Giannoulias family. We were told that Sneed’s column confirms rumblings people we know heard independently that Tony Rezko is giving up the Giannoulias family to Patrick Fitzgerald — Rezko and the Giannoulias family are as close and tied together as anyone in Chicago could be. If Rezko is turning on them, then Rezko is going to give up Governor Rod Blagojevich and Obama too.

In other words, his convicted crook, neighbor, friend, and former fundraiser is spilling the beans to the Feds about the State Treasurer that Obama himself endorsed in 2006. At the time, Alexi Giannoulis, 29, had no political experience, though his family had and still has all sorts of political connections.

At what point does it stop being guilt by associations, and it starts being that every association appears to be guilty. In 2006, Barack Obama endorsed Todd Stroger for Cook County Board President. Stroger, who was then a sitting Chicago City Council Man (but son of the incumbent Cook County Board President), has since gone on to raise the sales tax to the highest levels in the country, balloon the property taxes, while the local CBS affiliate reported that several of Stroger's friends wound up on the Cook County payroll with cushy six figure jobs.

That's the problem. Questionable associations for Obama are a dime a dozen. There is no end to them. He's had a twenty plus year relationship with ACORN, and now ACORN is popping up every single day with new allegations against them of voter fraud.

How many fiery, anti American, and racist reverends can one person know before it becomes troubling? Obama is close to three: Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Reverend Michael Pflegger, and Reverend James Meeks.

Is Ayers a distraction? On his own I might agree, but it isn't Ayers. It's Ayers, Wright, ACORN, Jones, Stroger, Rezko, and the rest of the corrupt Illinois political apparatus. When someone is close to all sorts of radicals, criminals, and corruption, that person's Presidency will be radical, criminal and corrupt. That's why it matters.