V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 207and his political protégé, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has not been widely
publicized. Locally, the story generated some brief coverage, but the subject has been barely
examined by the mainstream media. Bloggers are familiar with the tale, but Obama has skated
on this subject with the general public. Some background is necessary: after spending a season
playing professional basketball in Greece, Giannoulias returned to the USA and enrolled in law
school at Tulane University in New Orleans, where every day is Mardi Gras. Less than three
years after being admitted to practice in Illinois, Giannoulias launched his campaign for State
Treasurer. With the financial support of his family banking business and US Senator Barack
Obama’s endorsement, this politically inexperienced individual secured the Democratic
nomination. In the general election campaign, State Democratic Party Chairman, Michael
Madigan, continued to keep Giannoulias at arm’s length. Madigan had supported a different
candidate in the primary and disseminated disquieting rumors about the business background of
Giannoulias, the former Vice President and Senior Loan Officer of the Broadway Bank, which
was owned by his family members. During his brief tenure in the banking industry, Giannoulias
appears to have approved loans to convicted felons with ties to organized crime. One such loan
applicant was a convicted bookmaker with an alleged sideline business promoting prostitution.
Our colleague Russ Stewart was one of the few who pointed out the fact that Obama played the
role of kingmaker in Giannoulias’ successful first time candidacy. At the age of thirty,
Giannoulias became the youngest treasurer in Illinois history. What qualified Giannoulias for
public office and earned him Obama’s endorsement? He plays basketball with Obama. No park
district field house or asphalt parking lot games for these two men of the people. When in
Chicago, Obama and his pal prefer to play at the exclusive East Bank Club. Throughout the
primary season, Giannoulias has hit the campaign trail to play Obama in pick up games on the
dates of the respective state primaries. Obama finds it relaxing to play hoops when ballots are
being cast. Apart from shooting buckets, it also helped that Giannoulias and his family members
have contributed so generously to the various Obama campaigns. Giannoulias and his family
are not absolutely committed true believers in the Democratic Party and its causes, however, as
they hedged their bets by contributing to the House Republican Congressional Campaign
Committee and to have also made campaign contributions to former Governor George H. Ryan.
(“A Consumer’s Guide to Obama and the Company That He Keeps,” Daniel J. Kelley, The
Chicago Daily Observer , May 22, 2008.)
Obama thus exhibits a pervasive pattern of graft through his policy of assisting his campaign
contributors to get their hands into the public till. This method of graft is applied to donors of all
ethnic groups and backgrounds, provided that they fork over campaign funds:
In 2001, for example, Obama steered $75,000 to a South Side charity called FORUM Inc.,
which promised to help churches and community groups get wired to the Internet. Records
show five FORUM employees, including one who had declared bankruptcy, had donated
$1,000 apiece to Obama’s state Senate campaign. As the grant dollars were being disbursed to
FORUM, the Illinois attorney general filed a civil lawsuit accusing the charity’s founder of
engaging in an unrelated kickback scheme. Just days after the suit was filed, Obama quietly
returned the $5,000 in donations. “I didn’t want to be associated with money that potentially
might have been tainted,” he said. FORUM founder Yesse Yehudah, who unsuccessfully ran for
state Senate against Obama in 1998, denied wrongdoing and, without admitting guilt, settled the
attorney general’s lawsuit by paying $10,000 to a charity. (Chicago Tribune, May 3, 2007)