Tuesday, February 26, 2008

SKELETON EXCAVATIONS

Lifted from an excellent blog.
CHECK IT OUT : True Blue Liberal
Obama skeleton du jour:
A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.
A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million. Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15. Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko’s still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.
Mc Cain skeleton du jour:
The right has been going nuts over the McCain lobbyist scandal and how evil the New York Times is, but thanks to the DemRapidResponse Channel on YouTube, who dug up some CNN clips from the 2000 presidential campaign, we are reminded that George W. Bush went after John McCain for the very same issue that he and the GOP are now attacking the Times for in 2008 — lobbyists.
Bush, using a 2000 Wall Street Journal article on McCain’s lobbyist ties, attacks him for being a D.C. insider, flying on corporate jets and taking big money from lobbyists in return for favors. And it bears repeating — Drudge ran with this story months before the New York Times. Maybe it’s time for the president and the right wing pundits and politicians to dial back the indignation?
BUSH: “It’s important on campaign funding reform that we have campaign funding reform. But it’s also important for people to know that my friend is raising money from people who have business in front of his committee. Nothing illegal about that, but I just want to make sure the facts are laid bare.”
BUSH: “What I need to do is make it clear and not let Senator McCain get away with this Washington double-talk.”

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