'Lie Down with Dogs, Get Up with Fleas'

I have a guest blogger today who does a great job over at Kharma Futures. Here, Rev. Kharma examines the nature of the corrupt Chicago Political Machine and its tendency to infect everyone who touches it.

Lie Down with Dogs, Get Up with Fleas
Posted by revkharma on February 19, 2009

Let’s take a quick walk around the cesspool known as Chicago Style Politics. We don’t even need to go to the roots of the Daley machine. To get a feel of how things can become totally corrupted, we can look at just a couple of offices in the Illinois congressional delegation. Remember Dan Rostenkowski. a loud, pushy congressman from Illinois who was eventually indicted and convicted for fraud in relation to the House Post Office corruption scam. After he went to jail (incidentally keeping his deluxe House of Representatives pension) his seat was filled by a place holder then was filled by none other than Rod Blagojevich. Rod went back to the Land of Lincoln, where he tried to sell the US senate seat vacated by the Great and Powerful Obama. He eventually appointed Roland Burris. Now Burris is being investigated for perjury, as it appears he was less than candid when testifying before Blago’s impeachment committee. He somehow forgot that he had several conversations with the Gov’s brother about rounding up some cash for ‘campaign funds’. Seems his memory was refreshed when it looks as if the FBI has tapes of the conversations.

Loop back again.. Blagojevic was succeeded by Rahm Emanuel. He of the ‘ take advantage of a crisis’ fame. A fierce fighter, he is reputed to be a vicious bully witha long memory and longer reach for revenge.

Blago has long standing ties to Tony Rezko, A felon convicted on corruption charges. Rezko bundled millions of dollars of contributions for Blagojevich, and many of his associates later found jobs in state government. Rezko also has long standing ties to The Great and Powerful Obama. There has still never been any in depth look at the connection, but one look at the real estate deal that resulted to Obama owning the lot adjacent to Rezko will show just how easily corruption can be swept under the rug.

So, let’s look here, Rostenkowski, Burris, Blagojevich, Emanuel, Obama. All these dogs seem to lie in the same pen, and my guess is that all of them share the same fleas. I just want to know why no one seems willing to do something about the fleas jumping all about the Great and Powerful Obama.

He has surrounded himself for years with many corrupt people. One look at the fiasco that is his cabinet will clue anyone in. How many people either stepped down or withdrew nominations because of corrupt practices? Even his Treasury Secretary admitted to non payment of his taxes, but the Great O managed to slip him in anyway. Just how long will his dishonesty and outright corruption go unremarked in the media?

Keep the Faith
The Rev