The drip, drip, drip on Obama
June 19, 2007
Some practitioners in politics, law enforcement and journalism call it "scrubbing": the process of examining someone's past in search of illegalities, or serious embarrassments, or innocent but peculiar actions that will be difficult to explain. In high-profile campaigns, every candidate's staff scrubs opponents' background. A smart staff scrubs its own candidate first. That allows him or her to disclose -- and, with luck, put to rest -- potential problems early.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama is being scrubbed as he never has before. His prior campaigns were for lower offices. And in his 2004 U.S. Senate race, attention focused less on him than on primary and general election opponents who had their own serious problems.
But this campaign cycle's scrubbing of Obama leads to another water analogy: News stories that raise ethics questions about his relationship with indicted dealmaker Antoin "Tony" Rezko have become a steady drip, drip, drip.
Obama needs to divulge all there is to know about that relationship. Until he does, the scrubbing likely will intensify as more news organizations -- and, you can bet, rival candidates -- explore Obama's Rezko connection.
Obama indirectly asked for this scrutiny in January 2006, when he let then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) exploit his pristine reputation. With Republicans ensnared in Capitol Hill scandals, Reid named Obama the Democrats' point man on ethics proposals in Congress.
None of the press disclosures thus far about Obama implies any wrongdoing on his part. Taken together, though, they suggest that Obama, and his campaign, have been carelessly self-exculpatory in some of their responses to inquiries about decisions Obama previously has made. This early in a presidential cycle, some of that can be written off to first-time amateurism. But that excuse will evaporate if press coverage escalates -- even as the U.S. Justice Department pursues its aggressive case against Rezko.
Back on Nov. 3, this page carried two sentences summing up the need for Obama to fully and quickly explain his connections to Rezko: "One fulcrum on which Obama's future tips may well be the speed with which he acknowledges how susceptible he has been to people who want a piece of him -- and how his skill at recognizing that covetousness needs to rise to the same stature as his popular appeal. At a time when others are fiercely tempted to judge him, Obama has courted unkind judgment."
Those words are no less true today. Consider:
* That editorial appeared shortly after the Tribune reported Rezko's involvement in Obama's purchase of his Hyde Park home. That transaction occurred after it was common knowledge in Chicago that Rezko was the subject of a federal investigation. After that disclosure, Obama distanced himself from Rezko and said he had made a mistake in judgment.
* On June 8, the Tribune reported that Obama was giving charities some $16,500 in campaign donations from two Chicago businessmen who had financial ties to Rezko. A spokesman for Obama offered no details about Obama's relationship with the contributors. The story said this marked the fourth time that Obama's campaign has shed contributions made by Rezko and associates to Obama's campaigns -- contributions totaling more than $33,000.
* On June 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that as a state senator, Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens. The Sun-Times said the deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama's former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama's state Senate district. Obama's campaign responded that Obama's letters weren't intended as a favor for Rezko or Davis, but rather in the interest of the people in the community who have benefited from the project. An attorney for Rezko, who has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of influence peddling and bank fraud, told the newspaper that Rezko never sought a letter from Obama in connection with the project.
* On June 14, The New York Times weighed in with a front-page story on the Obama-Rezko relationship. The story reported that Rezko "is known around Chicago as a collector of politicians" and added: "Mr. Obama has portrayed Mr. Rezko as a one-time fund-raiser whom he had occasionally seen socially. But interviews with more than a dozen political and business associates suggest that the two men were closer than the senator has indicated. ..." The story didn't break much new ground. But its appearance on the front page of the Times elevated the Obama-Rezko relationship to new and, for Obama's campaign, uncomfortable heights.
* On Monday, the Sun-Times reported that during his 12 years in politics, Obama has received nearly three times as much campaign cash from Rezko and his associates as he has acknowledged. "Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle," the newspaper reported. "Obama also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s." Seven months ago, Obama told the paper his best estimate was that Rezko had raised "between $50,000 and $60,000" for him during his career.
Obama got where he is in part by avoiding the Illinois culture of political sleaze that devours so many promising careers. Our experience tells us that he has behaved with uncommon integrity. But our experience also tells us the drip, drip, drip of articles about his relationship with Rezko will continue until he frees his campaign from having to respond defensively to this level of scrutiny at so many turns.
Barack Obama and his campaign aides need to divulge the findings of their own scrubbing of the candidate. Better to disclose every dimension of Obama's ties to the indicted, increasingly notorious businessman and be done with it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0619edit1jun19,1,6246970,print.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
