Malkin: The real wives of Crook County

Michelle Malkin digs into the dirt of Illinois' Cook County and finds the real wives in National Review Online this morning.

I'd like to add that I live in Cook County, and Mrs. Marathon Pundit is nothing like the wives Malkin writes about.

Potty-mouthed Patti (Blagojevich) is the daughter of famed Democratic Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. Hardball ward politics runs in her blood. "Pay to play" is the family way. As a high-powered realtor, the Chicago Tribune reported, Mrs. B. raked in more than $700,000 in commissions on business deals after Hot Rod began raising money in 2000 for his first gubernatorial campaign. The feds have been investigating for years.

Close political observers are waiting for the other shoe to drop on Mrs. B. — or be used as leverage to force her hubby, to whom she has been fiercely loyal (to the point of alienating Daddy), to 'fess up.

Corrupto-convict and Barack Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko was one of Mrs. B.'s biggest clients of the last decade. Behind him stood his housewife-in-hot-water, Rita, who whiled away some of her time as a patronage appointee to an obscure Cook County government board before getting entangled in the land swap couples' deal between her husband and the Obamas — the one the president-elect called "boneheaded." On Tuesday, Rezko’s sentencing was postponed, suggesting he’ll be singing even more to the feds.

Michelle Obama was apparently friendly with the sordid sorority, according to Chicago Magazine. Writer James Merriner reported on a fashion show/political back-scratching gala chaired by Mrs. Rezko and co-chaired by Mrs. Blago two days before the November 2006 elections:

Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic U.S. senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama, was a special guest that day (even though the news had just broken about Rezko's participation in a funky real-estate transaction involving the Obamas' Hyde Park home). The fashion show attracted little if any media coverage, which may have been exactly as its organizers and sponsors had hoped. Just three weeks earlier, Tony Rezko had been indicted on charges of extorting kickbacks from businesses seeking contracts from the Blagojevich administration.

Related post:

Rita Rezko's contribution to America's worst government, Cook County

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Democrats Illinois Politics Cook County Rezko Blagojevich