Obama Comes Clean on Rezko

By Prescott Carlson in News on Mar 15, 2008 1:06PM

As the Democratic nomination inches closer to absolute certainty for Barack Obama, someone in the Obama camp decided they should perhaps act on that "call for transparency" that Barry keeps talking about. Not only did Obama release his list of earmarks from 2005 to 2006 (which the press has been trying to obtain for months), he also sat down for a 90 minute interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board Friday afternoon. The topic? His connection to Tony Rezko.

Obama's opening statement:

So what I want to do, if this is OK with you guys, I want to start just by talking about my house purchase and [Antoin] Tony Rezko because that's something that I know you guys have editorialized on, suggesting that we haven't provided you guys enough information. I would love to have an exhaustive conversation about all aspects of it and ensure that by the time we leave here today, you may not be happy with all my answers—but at least you can't say that I have not answered the questions. Is that fair?

Obama goes into much further detail about his relationship with Rezko that extends all the way back to when Obama was in law school, to his first congressional race, dinners with Rezko and his wife, a trip to Rezko's home in Lake Geneva, and the big revelation that campaign dollars raised for Obama by Rezko well exceeded what was previously thought, topping out at a quarter million dollars. He also tried to clear up once and for all his now infamous Kenwood home purchase:

So, I then discuss [the home purchase] with Michelle as well as our broker and said "well maybe it's worth while us putting down an offer, but we should get a better sense of what it's valued." And our broker said, "you certainly shouldn't be paying the list price on this because it might be a little bit overpriced." And so at that point, Michelle and I talked about who did we know that knew Kenwood who might have a sense of these properties.

And that's how Tony Rezko's name came up because he was an active developer in that area and owned lots in that area and had done development in that area.

It was at this time that Rezko expressed interest in purchasing the vacant lot next to the house for $600,000. As we all know now, the Obamas purchased a piece of that lot in 2006 for $104,500, sparking rumors that Obama had received a "discount" on the property, presumably to curry political favors:

I in turn asked my attorney to do an appraisal of what it would, what a fair price for that 10-foot strip would be or a 5-foot strip would be to make sure that I paid fair market value for such a transaction. The appraisal actually came back relatively low, something like $40,000.

And that was attributable to the fact that there just aren't comps for a 10-foot strip of land and that was noted by the appraiser. The appraisal, which is, by the way all these documents are in there, the appraisal did note that the other parcel, Rezko's remaining parcel, would be fully developable if he sold this to me. And so rather than pay the appraised price, I paid one-sixth of the cost of his property. He agreed to sell that 10-foot strip.

The level of detail in the interview is a far cry from Obama's position at the start of his presidential run when he painted Rezko as an "acquaintance" whom he knew casually because he performed 5 hours worth of legal work for his company. It's doubtful that the Rezko connection will cause any Democrats to jump ship in the general election. But Obama's "trust" of Rezko may introduce some doubts as to his judgment when picking his cabinet, and combined with whispers of wrongdoing it may come back to haunt Obama amongst independent and Republican crossover voters. And since many polls are declaring a Obama vs. McCain matchup at a virtual tie, that voters bloc could be crucial. Read the full interview transcript here. [Trib]