The Absurd Report

If Illinois politicians learned anything from this past election, it is business as usual. The citizenry of this very Democratic State will put up with corruption, kickback real estate deals and you name it as long as you are a Democrat.

And why do I single out the Democrats in particular because the Republicans in the State of Illinois are almost non-existent and are not smart enough to even get some crumbs from under the table.

As a show of the arrogant confidence level of the ruling Democratic Party, the State Legislature took exactly one week after the election to vote themselves a pay raise. An unnamed source was quoted as saying, “By 2008 the voters won’t even remember this.”

Whether the politicians deserve a pay raise is subject to debate but the timing of this raise smells like an open septic field and the stench reaches from Cook County (Chicago) to Springfield where deficit budgets are the order of the day.

Illinois previous Governor George Ryan, a Republican, is due to report in January to start serving a six year term in the pokey for corruption. The present Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who easily won reelection on November the 7th is under investigation by the Feds for similar type of charges, maybe they can get a 2 for 1 deal.

Who is Tony Rezko?

Tony Rezko, (also spelled Resko) owner of Papa John’s Pizza and Panda’s, has been consistently mentioned as a potential name on the Rosemont casino list of owners. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the suburban of Rosemont, it is adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and is host to some of the finest hotels surrounding the airport. A casino in this location will do standing room only business.

Tony Rezko is presently under indictment on 24 counts by the Feds for strong-arming people and corporations for bribes and political donations and is a close friend of Illinois’ present Governor Blago. When Blago was asked about Rezko, he pleaded ignorance; even if you cut the Governor some slack here — do you really want a man who is so blind, so unaware, so stupid to be your governor?

Tony is also the “Magical Fairy of Real Estate Deals” for Illinois politicians.

Rep. Gutierrez’s Amazing Land Deal With Tony Rezko

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Rep. Luis Gutierrez got a deal on a riverfront town house built by Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a developer and prominent political fund-raiser now under indictment for an alleged kickback scheme involving state pension funds.

Gutierrez paid $434,900 three years ago for the town house along the Chicago River just north of Diversey. That’s far less than his neighbors paid for any of the other riverfront town houses in the development, records show.

Gutierrez no longer lives there. In March, he sold the town house for $610,000 — a 40 percent profit.

Only two other original owners have sold their riverfront town houses — one paid $535,000 and sold it for $650,000, a 21 percent profit; the other paid $622,000 and sold it for $662,000, a 6 percent profit.

Gutierrez said he’s been friends for 20 years with Rezko, whose family has donated more than $19,000 to the congressman’s campaign funds over the years.

But the congressman said their friendship had nothing to do with him getting the cheapest price on any of the 17 riverfront town houses Rezko built, with everyone else paying between $495,000 and $660,000, in some cases for smaller homes.

This is the same Tony Rezko who had a land deal with none other than Senator Barack Obama.

Illinois Governor’s Wife Cleans Up on Real Estate Commissions

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Gov. Blagojevich’s wife got nearly $50,000 from a real estate deal in late 2002 involving Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a developer and former top Blagojevich political fund-raiser now under federal indictment.

In the following two months, the governor began giving friends of Rezko seats on influential state boards and began hiring former Rezko employees to upper-level state jobs.

The chain of events in December 2002 and January 2003 is detailed in records obtained by the Sun-Times. It’s the first record of Patti Blagojevich making money off a Rezko deal around the time Rezko began seeking favors from the governor.

The governor’s office vehemently denied that the first lady’s business dealings with Rezko had anything to do with his influence in her husband’s administration.

Illinois may make history with a Governor and wife indicted.

SideBear: I wonder of the Gov. will plead ignorance again?

Obama Regrets Land Deal and Answers Questions

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on a question and answer session with Barack Obama:

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.

Q: Why did you put the property in a trust?

A: I was advised that a trust holding would afford me some privacy, which was important to me as I would be commuting from Washington to Chicago and my family would spend some part of most weeks without me.

Q: A Nov. 21, 1999, Chicago Tribune story indicates the house you bought “sits on a quarter-acre lot and will share a driveway and entrance gate with a home next door that has not yet been built.” Is this shared driveway still in the mix? Will this require further negotiations with the Rezkos?

A: The driveway is not shared with the adjacent owner. But the resident in the carriage house in the back does have an easement over it.

Q: Does it display a lack of judgment on your part to be engaging in real estate deals with Tony Rezko at a point his connections to state government had been reported to be under federal investigation?

A: I’ve always held myself to the highest ethical standards. During the ten years I have been in public office, I believe I have met those standards and I know that is what people expect of me. I have also understood the importance of appearances.

The land deal that will not go away.

SideBear: Long the standard motto of the Democratic machine in Illinois has been, pick up their garbage and plow the snow, and you can pick their pockets clean.

As long as the people of Illinois continue to act like ostriches and dutifully continue to elect a monarchy, they deserve the type government they get and the corruption will continue unchecked. Voter apathy only emboldens the thieves or as the Good Book says, “You reap what you sow.”

As the title of this article suggests from a Jack Nickelson movie……You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!