by John McCormick
The question has lingered since it arose last week during the federal corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko: Why, just weeks after winning the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in 2004, would Barack Obama attend a party for a controversial Iraqi-born billionaire whom Rezko was trying to lure into an investment?
In an interview Friday, Obama didn't deny the assertion by Stuart Levine, the government's star witness in the Rezko trial, about the party honoring Nadhmi Auchi, a British citizen who is appealing a fraud conviction in France. Obama said he didn't recall the event.







Comments
Obama's constantly-forgetting memory of Rezko and Auchi is on a par with Hillary's memory of those Bosnian snipers shooting at her.
Posted by: Bruce | April 26, 2008 11:28 AM
If I was him I won't recall it either. Don't worry Obama you will be found out very soon. LIAR.
Posted by: sd | April 26, 2008 11:39 AM
Funny, some of the far left people he used to get ahead he no longer remembers. People, listen up, Obama is a phony and liar. Stop listening to the media that is selling him to you. Wake up you fools!!!
Posted by: Bubba | April 26, 2008 11:43 AM
Until he's indicted, it's a non issue anyway. His campaign needs to remember that the next time they attack Hillary over other
NON ISSUES.
Real issues?
HEALTH CARE
THE ENVIRONMENT
ENDING THE WAR
ENDING THE VIOLENCE(gun)
Posted by: What? | April 26, 2008 11:51 AM
'I don't recall' is a phrase that has been used by average politicians when they have been found out. Obama is no different from any other politico who ducks, dodges and obfuscates questions.
Is this the 'new' thing he's bringing to the voters?
Posted by: David Adams | April 26, 2008 12:19 PM
Hey, it worked for Reagan...
Instead of not recalling, why not just say, "Oh yeah, nice party. The crab hors d'oeuvres were delicious...don't remember the Iraqi though."
Posted by: DD | April 26, 2008 12:33 PM
who does he think he's fooling? barack obama is just another lying politican trying to worm his way into the hearts and minds of the american people..his 15 minutes will soon be over
Posted by: brigitte | April 26, 2008 12:49 PM
Forgotten again....Just like he forgot he was given almost 250,000 dollars in donations from Rezko, and the dates his parents met, and that his Grandmother is the one that actually raised him, and he votes present when it is controversial, or he hit the wrong button when he voted "wrong", or he voted for tax breaks for big oil companies, or he voted to continue the war, or he forgot to hold a Senate council meeting for Afghnastan, or he forgot that he has received millions from large corporations, lenders, brokerage house, oil company executives, the wives of the biggest lobbyist in D C, he forgot he did call Wright his mentor and spiritual advisor in his book, he forgot that Wright teaches black theology, and he forgot that he said in 2006 that he did not have the experience to run for President, and he forgot that he marched with Farankhan, and he forgot that Ayers blew up the Pentagon, and on and on and on! He also must have forgot that he was a "new kind of politician". How old is he? A little young for memory loss?
Posted by: Core Democrat | April 26, 2008 1:15 PM
This non-story will fizzle like the hatchet job, the media tried with the Reverand Wright sound bytes!! Where are the likes of Edward R. Morrow, when you need them!! Let's get back to the issues, which makes for a much better story and you would be doing the nation a great service!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | April 26, 2008 1:16 PM
Rezko is like a minor league wannabe compared to Clinton fundraiser and friend Norman Hsu who is currently a convicted felon serving time in a federal lockup.
While reading the WAPO article below, I picked up this little gem on Shillary Clinton.
Woah! 70 of her top donors defected in March. This is another reason why Hillary is $15M in the hole.
"Pennsylvania did the job of calming any nerves that existed," said Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson. "It showed that the big states around the country think she's the best person to be president."
But that opinion is far from unanimous. More than 70 top Clinton donors wrote their first checks to Obama in March, campaign records show. Clinton's lead among superdelegates, a collection of almost 800 party leaders and elected officials, has slipped from 106 in December to 23 now, according to an Associated Press tally.
"If you have any, any kind of loyalty to the Democratic Party, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy and bow out gracefully in order to save this party from a disastrous end in November," Rep. William Lacy Clay (Mo.), an African American Obama supporter, said in an appeal to Clinton.
There are signs that the anger voiced by some African Americans is beginning to extend to the Democratic donor base. Campaign finance records released this week show that a growing number of Clinton's early supporters migrated to Obama in March, after he achieved 11 straight victories. Of those who had previously made maximum contributions to Clinton, 73 wrote their first checks to Obama in March. The reverse was not true: Of those who had made large contributions to Obama last year, none wrote checks to Clinton in March.
"I think she is destroying the Democratic Party," said New York lawyer Daniel Berger, who had backed Clinton with the maximum allowable donation of $2,300. "That there's no way for her to win this election except by destroying [Obama], I just don't like it. So in my own little way, I'm trying to send her a message."
The message came in the form of a $2,300 contribution to Obama.
Donors are not the only ones who have made the leap. Gabriel Guerra-Mondragón served as an ambassador to Chile during Bill Clinton's presidency, considered himself a close friend of Sen. Clinton, and became a "Hill-raiser" by bringing in about $500,000 for her presidential bid.
But he had a fitful few weeks as the battle between Clinton and Obama turned increasingly negative. Last week, he decided he had seen enough.
"We're just bleeding each other out," Guerra-Mondragón said when asked why he had decided to join Obama's finance committee. "Looking at it as coldly as I can, I just don't see how Senator Clinton can overcome Senator Obama with delegates and popular votes. I want this fight to be over -- the quicker, the better."
The Obama converts include William Louis-Dreyfus. The billionaire New York financier said he had been impressed by Clinton's performance in the Senate and distressed by eight years of the Bush administration when he donated the maximum to her campaign last August. Then, he said, he began watching more closely.
"However much one might have supported the Clintons, or one might support the usual suspects in the Democratic Party, I began to believe Obama represents a new approach. He gives off such a sense of relevance that he's sort of irresistible," Louis-Dreyfus said.
He also expressed, as did other big givers who crossed to Obama, exasperation about the tone of the Clinton campaign and frustration with the candidate herself.
"At the end of the day, all she had to do was open her mouth for me not to believe her," Louis-Dreyfus said.
Posted by: she doesn't know when to leave the party, she thinks she should be the Queen, quick, someone drag he | April 26, 2008 1:22 PM
He doesn't "recall"? Was he too drunk?
Posted by: Barry O'Bamma | April 26, 2008 2:37 PM
This is so funny!
"I don't recall" is standard legaleze for denial (you nailed it, David Adams). If he had said "I don't remember" then he could run into problems in a court-of-law in the future... which it seems my be in the Messiah's future.
Tee-he-he.
Posted by: Barry O'Bamma | April 26, 2008 2:47 PM
And the Demos want us to elect a president who has such a faulty memory? So much for the Obama brilliance.
Posted by: Jeffrey | April 26, 2008 3:17 PM
"I don't recall" is standard legaleze for denial (you nailed it, David Adams). If he had said "I don't remember" then he could run into problems in a court-of-law in the future... which it seems my be in the Messiah's future.
Tee-he-he.
Posted by: Barry O'Bamma | April 26, 2008 2:47 PM
Yep, it kind of brings back memories of Shillary "mis-speaking" about her Bosnia trip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc
Tee-he-he!
Posted by: John E | April 26, 2008 3:17 PM
So, "she doesn't know/ Angellight/JulieMack"/WTF---
WHAT DID YOUR KOOLAID MAKER TAKE ON HIS CARRIBBEAN 'VACATION'--IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CAMPAIGN?
ANYTHING THE A.G. MIGHT HAVE WANTED TO SEE RE: REZKO OR ANY FOLKS WANTED BY INTERPOL?
Posted by: CASH OR DOCUMENTS? | April 26, 2008 6:53 PM
'I don't recall' is a phrase that has been used by average politicians when they have been found out
"I did not" is a phrase used by proven liars and phillanderers to continue to stuff in-the- face of the uneducated, apathetic voter who somehow thinks he's getting something for backing said politician. Wake up Jethro - the Clintons don't have your back - they're making money off of breaking it - and they're laughing at how easy you are to manipulate to boot.
Posted by: karl | April 26, 2008 10:19 PM
Obama could give Jim Carey a run for his money. Liar Liar Liar.
Posted by: Jerry | April 27, 2008 9:55 AM
Man, when Obama starts running for an office, he certainly throws himself into it completely. When he was running for Senate,couldn't remember meeting a major fundraiser at a party. When he was running for President, couldn't remember to hold a hearing in Congress that might have helped US efforts in Alfganistan.
Posted by: texas jina | April 27, 2008 3:36 PM
Man, when Obama starts running for an office, he certainly throws himself into it completely. When he was running for Senate,couldn't remember meeting a major fundraiser at a party. When he was running for President, couldn't remember to hold a hearing in Congress that might have helped US efforts in Alfganistan.
Posted by: texas jina | April 27, 2008 3:38 PM
Read it.
Weep about it.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/rezko/2008/04/aiham_alsammarae_and_tony_rezk.html
Then join HIllary and her REAL supporters in beating the repubs in the Fall. It's over.
Posted by: CASH OR DOCUMENTS? | April 27, 2008 6:50 PM