Yes, Obama performed just five billable hours of legal work for the Wilmette businessman, but his law firm--one with about 15 lawyers--did more. And one of his former name-partner bosses, Allison S. Davis, later went into business with Rezko. And many of the troubled Rezko apartment buildings, slums some of them, were in Obama's State Senate district--although Obama claims he didn't know about those problems.
In Obama's defense, housing violations fall under the jurisdiction of the City of Chicago. But the Illinois legislature is a part-time body, so he was in Chicago a lot--not camped out in Springfield.
Now if Obama wants to continue to fight back--and I believe he does--against Hillary Clinton, he'd be wise to bring up International Profit Associates, a Buffalo Grove, Illinois consulting firm.
For more on International Profit Associates, visit Reverse Spin. There are many more IPA stories on Reverse Spin, utilize that blogs search engine to learn more.
Two years ago the New York Times, in describing the plethora of problems at IPA, reporting that the Hillary Clinton campaign "will be reviewing" the contribution from IPA executives, which exceed $150,000.
Chicago attorney Myron "Mike" Cherry performs some legal work for IPA, and according the the New York Times, arranged some contributions for Senator Clinton, in short, he was a "bundler." Cherry is believed to be "Individual H" named in the first Tony Rezko indictment, however, Cherry has not been accused of any wrongdoing and his cooperating with authorities.
Cherry was one of twenty co-chairs of a Hillary Clinton fundraiser last summer in Chicago.
Add this to the mix: Last March, forty small businesses are filed suit against IPA, claiming the firm engaged in "racketeering and fraud to sell millions of dollars in often unnecessary consulting contracts." There is a web site about the suit as well.
Do you want more? There are allegations of rampant sexual harassment that have occurred at IPA.
From NBC 5 Chicago:
According to the lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of the class, the harassment started right at the top. One class member said the CEO offered her money to have sex with him and would regularly ask her for oral sex, which she refused to perform. Lawyers for the class said that set the tone of behavior.
Class members told NBC5 about as many as 60 male employees who have harassed more than 100 women over the course of many years. The women believe management knew about this.
The charges against IPA were even covered on the Oprah Show.
Numerous politicians have donated IPA-related contributions to charity, including Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, Wisconsin governor, Jim Doyle, Andrew Cuomo, and Barack Obama. Those politicians are Democrats, but late last year, Chris Lauzen, a Republican who is running for the congressional seat vacated by Dennis Hastert, returned $100,000 of IPA-tied money--an enormous amount of cash for a candidate seeking a House of Representatives seat.
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