Obama's $100,000 boondoggle

You know the type. Office manipulators who can't do the job they have, but are always on the lookout for a promotion. Barack Obama is of that ilk. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, in 2000 he ran for Congress, when he received his only electoral loss, in 2002 he was reelected to the State Senate, but two years decided to run for the US Senate.

And after getting one of his bills enacted into law while in the upper chamber, Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president.

Last Friday the Chicago Sun-Times had a story about Obama's engineering of $100,000 of state money to build a botanic garden in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood in 2000. He was running for Congress at the time, and surprise, the cash went to an organization with ties to an Obama volunteer and campaign contributor. The Chicago Way!

Yesterday afternoon I drove down to Englewood to see the "garden" for myself.

Here's what the Sun-Times wrote:

Kenny B. Smith, whose nonprofit group got the money, said it was spent legitimately, mostly on underground site preparation. But he admitted Thursday that the garden is a lost cause because other government money never came through.

More...

But a reporter walked the site last week with a landscape architect from the Illinois Green Industry Association who found no evidence of the work Smith cited. The only major changes since 2000: A gazebo was added, and some trees were cut down.

Absolutely true. Find out for yourself, the Gazebo is on the corner of 61st Street and Princeton.

Here's what Obama said about the garden:

I will work tirelessly in Springfield and in Chicago to raise public and private dollars to fund this worthy endeavor.

But he has other priorities in mind now.

More from the Sun-Times:

Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said through a spokesman he wasn't responsible for monitoring the work; the staffs of Gov. Blagojevich and former Gov. George Ryan were.

Blame someone else, don't do the job you're being paid to do. That's The Obama Way.

I'm leaving the final words to PrairePundit:

This seems like a stereotype of Chicago politics, but it is too real. It is also typical liberalism. Throw money at something proclaim ones good intentions and never take responsibility for the consequences. The GOP should make an ad with this secret garden in the picture. It would instantly become more famous that Willie Horton or the Swift vets.

NOTE: My pictures seem shy this morning. Hopefully they will upload later.

Related post: Obama: What's going on with Cairo, Illinois' abandoned hospital?

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Election Democrats Illinois Politics real estate Chicago development Lisa Madigan