“Change” Candidate Obama Used Earmarks To Shower Millions On His Buddies

• July 17, 2008

Including Rev. Michael Pfleger and, ironically enough given his recent threat to castrate Obama, Jesse Jackson:

He also pumped cash into St. Sabina Catholic parish, the South Side church whose pastor is the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken supporter whose comments in a May sermon about Obama’s former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, landed the priest in trouble with Cardinal Francis George. St. Sabina got $100,000 to help rebuild its community center.
And a venture capital fund linked to the Rev. Jesse Jackson — who apologized last week after making a crude remark about the Democratic presidential hopeful — got $200,000, thanks to Obama.
In all, Obama doled out more than $3.6 million in state grants in just the last half of his state legislative career, records show.

Ed Morrissey points out one egregiously cynical example of Obama’s largess:

Englewood [Chicago suburb] got $100,000 for its botanical garden even though it was outside of his state Senate district. Obama needed votes from the neighborhood when he ran for Congress — but after he lost, he reneged on a promise to complete the project. Nothing but a plywood gazebo and a field of weeds sits on the garden plot now.

A rather sad commentary for someone who is campaigning as the “change” candidate.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Politics

http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Of course you’re right. Obama is even worser than McCain.

However the corruption angle is going to hurt McCain this fall because the press will focus on it. Obama will be able to keep his hands clean.

It’s easy pickings for them to do so because all the dirt on McCain is a matter of public record.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

The Senate “ethics” committee found that McCain used poor judgment when he tried to intervene with regulators to benefit a donar.

Clearly that was inappropriate. The ethics panel acted as a whitewash because both parties would have been hurt by a real investigation. (In fact McCain was the only nominal Republican along with four Democrats.)

Clearly McCain should have been kicked out of office then, shouldn’t have received the nomination and certainly isn’t going to win the election when the Democrat surrogates resurrect the story this fall when it will do the most damage.
Bat One

There is nothing in this report about Obama’s generosity with taxpayer money that should come as any sort of surprise. Despite all the rhetoric about “new politics” and “Change“, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old-school, corrupt, Chicago politician who has always rewarded his friends and supporters by helping them feed at the public, tax-payer funded trough.

From ABC News:

In a speech to the Urban League last July, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., boasted of his efforts in 2001 to help a handful of African American-owned investment firms in Chicago get a larger share of business with Illinois state pension funds. “And in six months, they got about a half-billion dollars’ worth of business simply on their excellence,” Obama said.

What he did not say in his speech was that the owner of one of the investment firms, John Rogers of Ariel Capital, is a principal campaign fundraiser. Nor did he reveal that employees of the firms he helped have since contributed to or helped to raise more than $765,000 for his campaigns, according to campaign documents. Nor did he mention that two of the firms have allowed him to use their private jets. Nor did he mention that two of the firms have since been dismissed by the state pension fund for “underperformance.”

John Rogers was a college roommate and basketball teammate of Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson.
robert108

That should be “political buzzword“.
robert108

…after R108 elegantly made a case that they are not worth talking about?

Not what I said; I suggest you speak for yourself and stop trying to speak for me. Making “earmarks” a political bizzword simply distracts from the truth about entitlement spending. I don’t think govt should be confiscating and spending our money for anything other than the legitimate purposes of the federal govt, as described in the Constitution.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Making the country as totally corrupt as Obama is counts as change.
FlyOnTheWall

He rose to the top of CHICAGO politics. Half the country expected something else.

Shakes head… Mumbles…
robert108

Let him who hath no sin cast the first stone.

And yet, you lefties keep gibbering on about “Republican corruption”. Hypocrite.
Bat One

Washington connections. Corruption. Scratch my back, I’ll scrath yours.

ellinas,

Not exactly! This isn’t a Washington story. Obama hasn”t been in Washington long enough for that, and these events, and many more, took place when he was merely an up and coming corrupt Chicago political hack.

The thing to remember is Obama is the protege of the Chicago machine… he’s Dick Daily’s boy, and not his own man at all!
robert108

When are you going to talk about the Keating 5 scandal.

What does that have to do with Obama’s corruption?
When are you going to talk about the House banking scandal?
ellinas

John Rogers was a college roommate and basketball teammate of Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson.
Bat One on July 17, 2008 at 11:45 am

Washington connections. Corruption. Scratch my back, I’ll scrath yours. The nature of the beast.
Let him who hath no sin cast the first stone.
ellinas

I think earmark reform is needed, but I don’t think it’s nearly the problem entitlement spending is.
Rob on July 17, 2008 at 10:30 am

Is it your answer then that the ones that elegantly defended earmarks are talking out of their anus?
ellinas

Are you guys going on record opposing earmarks/porkbarel after R108 elegantly made a case that they are not worth talking about?
I suggest y’all take a closer look what some of our expert coservatives wrote about earmarks/porkbarel.
Bat One

When are you going to talk about the Keating 5 scandal.[sic]

We covered that about 20 years ago. The Senate Ethics Committee, chaired by a Democrat, cleared both McCain and John Glenn of all charges. Next?
Hawk

When are you going to talk about the Keating 5 scandal.
robert108

Again, this doesn’t justify or excuse Obama’s corruption in any way.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

“a plywood gazebo and a field of weeds”

Sounds like a great campaign slogan! Better than “40 acres and a mule”!
robert108

What part of “I think earmark reform is needed…” didn’t you understand?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Are you guys going on record opposing earmarks/porkbarel after R108 elegantly made a case that they are not worth talking about?

I think earmark reform is needed, but I don’t think it’s nearly the problem entitlement spending is.

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“Change” Candidate Obama Used Earmarks To Shower Millions On His Buddies

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