Will Justice Department Punish Obama Like It Did Stevens?

The Bush Justice Department won a conviction against Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) yesterday on seven counts of hiding nearly $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. Stevens' indictment and conviction in the middle of his re-election bid ensures his defeat. Democrats are celebrating Stevens' conviction, hopeful now of capturing 60 Senate seats in this year's election. Ironically, Democrats have been accusing the Bush administration for the past 8 years of engaging in political prosecutions of Democrats. Let's see, the Justice Department prosecuted Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, GOP powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff, U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham, U.S. Robert Ney and U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi. It is currently investigating at least a half dozen other GOP members of Congress.

So what about Sen. Barack Obama. After all, his convicted political fixer friend, Tony Rezko, put about $300,000 in his pocket to help him and his wife, Michelle, purchase their South Side mansion. After hearing rumors that Rezko was helping funnel cash to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagoyevich to help with remodeling work on his home, Sen. Obama called on his good buddy Rezko for help. It seemed a co-worker of Michelle's at the University of Chicago Hospital had this beautiful Hyde Park home, but they insisted the buyer purchase the vacant lot next door. Obama couldn't swing the more than $2 million the sellers wanted. So Obama takes Rezko over to the house for a walk through and Rezko comes up with a plan. He had his wife, Rita, purchase the vacant lot at an inflated price of $650,000. If you don't believe me on that, just ask the bank appraiser who lost his job and has filed a whistle blower lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court accusing Mutual Bank of tossing his lower appraisal in favor of the inflated appraisal and withholding that information from a federal grand jury looking into the transaction. At the same time, the sellers knocked off $300,000 from the selling price of the home for the Obamas, who received a discounted jumbo mortgage to purchase the home for $1.6 million. Later, Rezko improved the lot with a privacy fence and sold a portion of the lot to the Obamas, thereby rendering the balance of the lot worth significantly less than the original purchase price on it. You can shake that up in a brown paper bag however you like, but when you open it up, it is still a shady land deal designed to personally enrich the Obamas.

Where's the Justice Department? Let's see an indictment of Obama now so the voters will know that Obama is just a typical Chicago politician on the take. This deal is no different than the set of transactions for which you just prosecuted Sen. Stevens. If it's fair to indict and convict Stevens in the middle of his re-election, then it's fair to indict Sen. Obama.