V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 211The disclosure requirement “revolutionized Illinois’s system,” said Cindi Canary, executive
director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. By giving journalists immediate access
to a database of expenditures and contributions, it transformed political reporting. It also, she
said, “put Senator Obama on a launching pad and put the mantle of ethics legislator on his
crown.” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times,
July 30, 2007)OBAMA AS “THE WHITE MAN IN BLACKFACE IN OUR COMMUNITY”
Obama by now was receiving largess from a number of foundation payrolls, so he could afford
some clean government posturing which some of his colleagues could not. This again led to
conflicts:
By many accounts, there was already friction between him and Mr. Hendon, whose West Side
Chicago district is among the poorest in the state, and Mr. Trotter. When Mr. Trotter and Mr.
Obama both ran for Congress two years later — unsuccessfully, it turned out — Mr. Trotter told
a reporter that Mr. Obama was viewed in part as “the white man in blackface in our
community.” Mr. Dillard said, “I remember Rickey chiding Obama that, ‘What do you know,
Barack? You grew up in Hawaii and you live in Hyde Park. What do you know about the
street?’ To which Obama shot back: ‘I know a lot. I didn’t exactly have a rosy childhood. I’m a
street organizer by profession and a lot of my area, once you get outside the University of
Chicago neighborhoods, is just as tough as your West Side, Rickey.’ In an interview, Mr.
Trotter said Mr. Obama had arrived “wanting to change things immediately,” as though he
intended “to straighten out all these folks because they’re crooks.” ... Mr. Hendon, who says he
is writing a book on electoral politics called “Backstabbers,” said ethics reform would have
passed with or without Mr. Obama because of scandals that preceded it. He said the sponsors of
ethics bills tended to be “wealthy kind of people, the same kind of people who vote against pay
raises, who don’t need $5,000 a year. Whereas senators like me from poorer communities, we
could use that $5,000.”’ (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New
York Times, July 30, 2007)ILLINOIS STATE SENATE: A RACE OF BETRAYAL
Of course, it was not just the old Weathermen who were mobilized to support Obama’s bid for
public office. Many parts of the left countergang scene were mobilized to advance the career of the
candidate chosen by the Trilateral financiers: As one ultra-right-wing observer notes,
Obama’s socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the
Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat.
Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to
eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the “champions” of “Chicago’s democratic left” and a long-
time socialist activist. Obama’s stint as a “community organizer” in Chicago has gotten some
attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been
generally ignored. (Cliff Kinkaid, http://www.aim.org/aim-column/Obamas-international-
socialist-connections/)