Clinton plays up Obama's ties to Rezko
In an aggressive attempt to derail Barack Obama's presidential bid, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has reached into the Illinois senator's past and pulled out both fresh and dated campaign ammo.
Clinton is taking aim at Obama's tally of voting "present" on key proposals in the Illinois legislature to paint him as a politician afraid to take a stand.
The former first lady has also latched onto recent accounts of Obama's ties to indicted political operative Tony Rezko, a key figure in the federal probe of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration.
"We're just getting warmed up," Clinton said at a fiery point in Monday's contentious CNN debate.
Indeed, the verbal jousting continued on the campaign trail Tuesday with no signs of cooling before Saturday's South Carolina Democratic primary. But it remains to be seen whether Clinton can elevate Illinois issues to the national stage and make them count on election day.
After all, voters here have heard at least one of Clinton's charges before -- from challengers Obama defeated.
"It's inexcusable," Democratic primary opponent Blair Hull was quoted as saying in 2004 about Obama's "present" votes at the state Capitol.
The allegations seemed to get little traction with voters then. But Hull's campaign collapsed just before voters went to the polls when accusations of spousal abuse were uncovered in divorce filings.
Unlike most states, Illinois lawmakers are allowed to vote "present" on legislation. The vote has the same effect as voting "no," but it allows lawmakers to say they didn't officially vote against a measure. Voting "present" comes into play often with controversial legislation.
"Now we are playing this out on a national stage, rather than the Illinois stage. At first blush it is a little hard to explain to people," said Kent Redfield, interim director of the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Clinton's Rezko allegations largely remain untested with voters. They cut to the bone of Obama's image as an ethics champion -- a perceived strength compared to the Clintons' history of fundraising scandals and financial probes.
"Appearances at this point are so important," said Redfield.
Specifically, Clinton took issue with Obama acting as Rezko's lawyer while the developer was, authorities allege, operating slum housing. Obama argues he was just a rookie at the law firm Rezko hired. He said he spent only five hours on Rezko cases.
But Obama's Rezko ties go deeper. Rezko has long been an Obama key fundraiser. Rezko also bought vacant land alongside the $1.65 million Chicago house Obama purchased in 2006. Rezko later sold a piece of the land to Obama to increase the senator's yard space.
The relationship was not a public issue until Rezko was indicted in late 2006 on charges he organized a scheme to trade state pension business for campaign donations to Blagojevich. The governor has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Rezko has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Illinois politicians, including Chicago congressmen. At the same time, he has made money putting his fast food restaurants in state facilities and developing property tied to government subsidies.
"It would be hard to find someone who came up through Chicago politics and didn't have some kind of connection to Rezko," Redfield said.