Monday, December 03, 2007

Time To Discuss Real Estate

The polling world is all agog over the news. Barack Obama has taken the lead over Hillary Clinton. So will she now begin to discuss some rather odd real estate transactions?

The case against mover and shaker Tony Reczko continues in a Chicago court room, but his dealings with Barack Obama have slipped off the political radar. How long will Mrs. Clinton let matters rest before reminding voters that her rival is not so squeaky clean as he would appear?

Back when the Obama family decided to purchase a very posh residence in a very upscale Chicago neighborhood, they found that they couldn't afford both the house and its side yard. Can Mrs. Clinton raise enough questions in voters' minds with the details of the transaction? How was it, she might ask, that Mr. Reczko purchased the side yard at an inflated price, while the Obama family bought the house at a discount? On the same day? And why did Mr. Obama then pay a premium for a slice of that side yard to expand his lot?

If that doesn't catch a voter's attention, Mrs. Clinton might demonstrate a link between Barack Obama and the hot-button murder mystery in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Creating innuendo from current events is sure to generate some buzz.

What connection, you ask? It's all wrapped up in the complexities of the Chicago political machine, the same organization that turned a blind eye to men like Don Tomczak. He ran a patronage army, got out the vote, and made a small fortune in renting trucks to the city. His son Jeff wanted to be the state's attorney in Will County, so daddy sent his workers to get out the vote for his boy.

Jeff Tomczak was the state's attorney when Drew Peterson's third wife had her so-called accident. Besides the eyebrows being raised over that performance, he also presided over the arrest of Kevin Fox, charging him with murdering his daughter and vowing to seek the death penalty. DNA evidence proved someone else did it, and Will County is facing some very unpleasant days ahead. Jeff Tomczak settled outside of court, leaving his former employers (i.e. Will County taxpayers) to clean up after him.

And what of Barack Obama in all this? Do you think that Don Tomczak only raised money and campaigned for his offspring? No, indeed, Mr. Tomczak went to bat for Mr. Obama as well, to make sure that the Democrat was elected to the Senate.

Mr. Tomczak has since been indicted and is now in jail. How long before Hillary Clinton paints Barack Obama with the "guilty by association" brush? How much of it might stick?

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