Comments on: Final Republican Debate Is A Sleeper – It Could Have Put You To Sleep

By: Christines

Christines — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:23:47 +0000

I think we should pay attention to what politicians do and not at what they say!! Spitzer is a good example and Obama is another!

ABCNews.com Analysis Shows the Campaign Still Hasn’t Returned More Than $100,000 in Questionable Contributions

By AVNI PATEL
Jan. 28, 2008—

Despite claims over the weekend from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama that his campaign had given away all the donations connected to accused fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the campaign has not returned more than $100,000 in donations from Rezko’s wife and 20 other Rezko-linked donors, according to an ABCNews.com review.

“What we’ve done is we’ve traced any funds that we know of that we think were connected to him,” said Obama during an appearance on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. “And if there any other funds that were connected to him that we’re not aware of, then we will certainly return them. It is in our interest to do so.”

On Friday, campaign spokesman Bill Burton dismissed the ABC News findings and others from the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Sun-Times, stating “we think they are casting a wide net and overestimating.”

The campaign has donated to charity more than $85,000 of Rezko-linked contributions since Rezko was indicted on federal fraud charges in the fall of 2006. Burton said the campaign’s best estimate of what Rezko has raised is $60,000, including contributions from a fundraiser Rezko held for Obama in 2003, but acknowledges that it does not have an exact record of what Rezko raised. “We review our donations, and where there are questions, we make decisions about donating to charity those which, in the circumstances, do not seem appropriate to retain,” said Burton.

The Obama campaign statements have left some campaign finance watchdogs perplexed. “I don’t understand why they didn’t do a top-to-bottom audit and divest themselves of these funds,” said Cynthia Canary of the Illionois Campaign for Political Reform.

The revelation that Rezko may have used “straw donors” to funnel tainted money to Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign has further cast a cloud of suspicion over the Rezko-linked contributions. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Jan. 20 that Obama was the unnamed “political candidate ” referred to in a court document in the Rezko case last month accusing Rezko of directing two associates to contribute to Obama’s campaign, and reimbursing them with money from an kickback scheme.

Much of the scrutiny surrounding Obama’s relationship with Rezko has centered around a real estate deal involving Obama’s home on the South Side of Chicago. Obama says he approached Rezko for “advice” as he sought to purchase the house in 2005. The owner of the house was trying to sell the a neighboring vacant lot as a part of the deal, Obama later told the Chicago Tribune he could not afford to buy the lot because “it was already a stretch to buy the house.”

Rezko’s wife, Rita, purchased the vacant lot and later sold a part of it to Obama to expand his yard. Obama has since called his decision to involve Rezko in the deal “a bone-headed mistake.”

Click Here for the Investigative Homepage.

By: Jersey Joe

Jersey Joe — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:31:41 +0000

Yeah, Larry, is it possible that the Demo debate actually kept you awake?

By: Flip Flop Mike

Flip Flop Mike — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:11:29 +0000

my partner and i are life long republicans after watching the depate i like romney because he has great hair, my partner edward likes john mccain because he is so hard,i fliped from huckabee because he reminds me of jim nabors ‘goooooly”,now edward floped to fred thompson because he likes his candidates big.
to those dirty leftwing traitors,you’re hipocrites!!

By: jack russell

jack russell — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:47:34 +0000

ok mike you know my candidate is hillary,who is your candidate you never say.
put up or shut up!
also mike do you have any affiliation to flip flop mike that blogged in yesterday.
and finaly you can get serious time for abusing a dog.

By: ANON

ANON — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:14:07 +0000

If Larry mentions the democratic presidential debate in his next blog I am going to scream. That thing was so scripted I wanted to puke. The exchange between Obama and Biden discussing Biden’s racial misstatements was like watching Days of Our Life. This whole campaign is turning into a soap opera.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:23:03 +0000

First off I don’t work for the White House and secondly there was no note and thirdly my name really isn’t Ed and fourthly I really do not exist.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:09:20 +0000

i happen to work at the White House and thought you might be interested in a note I found on
george Bush’s desk.

Dear GW,
Just got back from lunch with Don Rummy, Gen Powel, Al Gonzalez,

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:24:00 +0000

I didn’t think the debate was a sleeper when Ron Paul had the opportunity to speak. His clear message and personal intergrity are very exciting. He speaks to enthusiastic crowds everywhere he goes. His ideas make so much sense it is enough to wake up all those who have grown tired of all the lies, flip-flopping, and senseless personal attacks. Google Ron Paul and I challenge anyone not to be excited at the thought of an alternative to “politics as usual”.

By: atp2007

atp2007 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:15:25 +0000

Larry, it’s been colder than normal out here in Iowa since Thanksgiving, there have been several irritating ice storms and twice as much snow as usual for December, everyone is behind in shopping and uneasy about going to the Mall, we’ve been deluged with these political commercials and phone calls for months and months, have seen all the candidates in person more than we normally would have, and really won’t make our final decision until we reach the caucus room and decide exactly how best to utilize our vote to max delegates for the candidates we like. Don’t expect any candidate in any party to ruin the Holiday feeling that is finally developing. Nobody can afford to be a Grinch at this point. Everybody smile while inserting that knife into other backs.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:12:04 +0000

Hey Ed,

I’d still rather have Bush in the Whitehouse over the treasonous traitor Kerry anyday. And I can’t say anything good about the Clintons, except they are very good at distorting the truth. But I’m sure JR would have rather had his fellow left-leaning dem Kerry there, so when 9/11 happened, he could have went over and had lunch with Bin Laden.