V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 209Already at this point in his life, Obama was exhibiting all the telltale signs of consuming
ambition for higher and higher public office, a quest wholly divorced from any notion of
achievement or public service on his part. This trait is so marked that even Obama acolytes
ventured to offer timid criticisms:
His critics say Mr. Obama could have accomplished much more if he had been in less of a hurry
to leave the Statehouse behind. Steven J. Rauschenberger, a longtime Republican senator who
stepped down this year, said: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his
eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a
great legislator.”’ (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York
Times, July 30, 2007)
All mincing of words aside, Obama was a thoroughgoing mediocrity in Springfield.
In a pattern which Americans have now come to know: after a short stint in the State Senate and
precious little to show for it, Obama tried to grab a seat in the US House of Representatives. But
this time he had a serious opponent in the person of Congressman Bobby Rush. Another pattern of
Obama’s public life is that he has been unable to win public office in any seriously contested
election, and his resounding defeat by Bobby Rush confirms this rule. But losing his congressional
race only made Obama more greedy for advancement, this time into the United States Senate with a
significant helping hand from Emile Jones of the Combine.
Within three years of his arrival, Mr. Obama ran for Congress, a race he lost. When the
Democrats took control of the State Senate in 2003 — and Mr. Jones replaced James Philip,
known as Pate, a retired Pepperidge Farm district manager who served as president of the
Senate — Mr. Obama made his next move. “He said to me, ‘You’re now the Senate president,’”
Mr. Jones recalled. “‘You have a lot of power.’ I said, ‘I do?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Tell me
what kind of power I have.’ He said, ‘You have the power to make a U.S. senator.’ I said, ‘I
do?’ He said, ‘You do.’ I said, ‘If I’ve got that kind of power, do you know of anyone that I can
make?’ He said, ‘Yeah. Me.’” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and
Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007)
But these are not two drifting individuals who meet by chance; they are two cogs in The
Combine.
BETRAYING ALICE PALMER TO GET INTO THE STATE SENATE UNOPPOSED
In making his first run for the state Senate, Obama went out of his way to have all of his
opponents thrown off the ballot with the help of a high-priced election lawyer who appeared out of
nowhere as if by magic at precisely the right moment to help Obama’s career – no doubt an
example of Trilateral magic.^82 One of the victims of this operation was a veteran black female civil
rights leader who had been something of a benefactress to Obama – long-time State Senator Alice
L. Palmer. With his usual ruthlessness and brutality, Obama had Palmer thrown off the ballot along
with the others without so much as a second thought:
Three years later, a congressman from the South Side of Chicago was convicted of having sex
with a minor. A Democratic state senator from his district, Alice L. Palmer, decided to run for
the seat. Carol Anne Harwell, Mr. Obama’s first campaign manager, said Ms. Palmer invited
Mr. Obama, then 35, to run for her seat. But after losing in the primary, Ms. Palmer had second
thoughts. A delegation of her supporters asked Mr. Obama to step aside. He not only declined,
but his campaign staff challenged the signatures on Ms. Palmer’s campaign petitions and kept