Will Blago Take Away the Halo?

My gut feel is that this story won't have enough legs to significantly tarnish the Obama magic, but with another tip of the hat to STR in the Chicago office, we have this well-researched piece from the blue collar paper there, the Sun Times.

It can get a little confusing, which can at least slow down a story's mojo, but the gist of it is that the oft-mentioned Rezko (who also has a famous picture with the Clintons, showing the incestuous nature of it all!), among other things, was pushing and extorting people to donate money to the campaigns of Senator Obama and Illinois Governor Blagojevich (seen above, on the left).

From the information we have here, Obama seems to have done the right thing post-hoc in giving the money he knew came from dirty hands away to charities, but could this uncover some ugliness about how he climbed the ladder to the top of Mt. Olympus where he now resides comfortably?

Again, I don't know how much this story will differentiate him from other pols who did not enter politics as self-financed or otherwise financially pure, but it at least gives us a little more understanding about what happened as he came up in the ranks.

Well, I'm getting geared up for the big debate tonight...the snow is shoveled and I have a cannoli from Presti's waiting for desert...yum.