Marathon Pundit: Obama: No changes on Rezko explanation

When its time to change, you've got to rearrange
The Brady Bunch, "Time to Change," circa 1973.

Roger L. Simon could be right. Maybe Barack Obama doesn't really want to be president.

That could explain why Obama won't make an attempt to put the Tony Rezko issue to rest.

Obama's latest campaign slogan is "Change We Can Believe In." If he wants to win the presidency, he's going to need to make one change.

The senator was a guest on George Stephanopoulos' "This Week" program on ABC News this moring.

From the Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog:

Obama was asked specifically about a paragraph in an endorsement in Sunday's editions of the Chicago Tribune that calls on him to "divulge all there is to know about that relationship."

More from that editorial:

Until you do, the journalistic scrubbing and opposition research will intensify. You should have recognized Rezko as a political seducer of young talent. But given that you've not been accused of any crime or ethical breach, your Rezko history is not a deal-breaker."

But Obama doesn't agree.

More from The Swamp:

"This is a story that has been out there for a year and has been thoroughly gnawed on by the press, both in Chicago and nationally," (Obama) said. "Tony Rezko was a friend of mine, a supporter, who I had known for 20 years. He was a contributor, not just to myself, but Democrats, as well as some Republicans throughout Illinois. Everybody perceived him as a businessman and developer. He got into trouble that was completely unrelated to me, and nobody has suggested that I've been involved in any of those problems. I did make a mistake by purchasing a small strip of property from him, at a time where at that point he was under the cloud of a potential investigation. I've acknowledged that was a mistake. But again, nobody has suggested any wrong-doing, and I think at this point, it's important for people to recognize that I have actually provided all the information that's out there about it."

Host George Stephanopoulos then asked whether Obama would return any additional money he has raised during his political career that has ties to Rezko.

"Absolutely," Obama said. "What we've done is we've traced any fund that we know of that we think were connected to him, and if there are other funds that were connected to him that we're not aware of, then we will certainly return them."

I don't know how many times I have to say this, but the way the Obama-Rezko land deals looks to me, it appears that through his wife Rita, Tony Rezko arranged a scheme that allowed the Obamas to purchase a home that they otherwise couldn't afford. The Obamas would slowly repurchase the "Rezko lot," until the whole parcel was reunited. The home and the lot, prior to the Obama-Rezko purchase, had always been sold as one unit.

Besides that, Obama's law firm, which had about a dozen attorneys, did a lot more than the five billable hours he acknowledged in last week's debate.

And then there are those slum buildings in Obama's old State Senate district. Scroll down one post for more on that.

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