Hi-O!
Posted on 09/19/2008 9:39:12 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
Barack Obama received a sweetheart land deal from his one time major fundraiser and now convicted Tony Rezko, that is old news. But what is new news is the fact that Joe Biden has ties into this whole money laundering scheme. Joe Biden has been a friend of Joseph Cari, who just pleaded guilty to extortion, for thirty years.
Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who’s pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.
So what was Cari’s crime?
In 2005, Cari admitted to taking part in an $850,000 kickback scheme that prosecutors say was part of a larger political fund-raising operation for Gov. Blagojevich overseen by Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals
Surely Joe Biden would condemn this criminal, wouldn’t he? Here is what Biden said about his longtime pal, Joe Cari:
“All I know is Joe Cari is a friend, and he’s an honorable guy, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”
He is an honorable guy? Joe Biden comes to this man’s defence and offers himself as a defacto character witness. They say that you can judge a man’s character by the company that you keep, and there is allot of truth to that. Judging by the company that Joe Biden has kept for thirty years I would say that his integrity has been soiled. We are to believe that Cari laundered and extorted all of this money and none of it ever went to Joe Biden? We are to believe that Joe Biden either had no knowledge of Cari’s dealings or did and didn’t care. Either way this indictment of Cari is an indictment on Joe Biden and his integrity, judgement, and questionable associations.
Have you ever heard of guilt by association? Joe Biden is guilty.
Hi-O!
Now we know why the 'O' picked Biden. Keep a possible Stoolie Close at hand.
...
Your silence is deafening!
ROTFLMAO
He was probably ordered to by his Chicago buddies.....
What’s upChuck?
And here I thought I kept getting kicked out of the library for talking too much!
Joseph A. Cari, Jr. (born 8 October 1952) is an American lawyer, businessman, private equity investor, and public policy expert from Chicago Illinois. Cari is a Senior Managing Director at Integration Capital & Trade, Inc., is on the Advisory Board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch in New York New York.
Cari was indicted by the U.S. Attorney for extortion and reached a plea agreement with the U.S. in 2006 for a case involving state officials. He awaits sentencing.
Previously, Cari held the position of Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilson Center (appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1995). In 2001, Joe Cari Jr. was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Legislative Assistant, US Congressman Martin Russo (D-Illinois), 1974 - 1975
Political Advisor, Biden for President, 1987
Chairman, Democratic National Finance Committee, Gore for President, 2000
Chairman, US Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, Finance Chair 1995
When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden’s Midwest field director in his failed 1988 bid for president.
Biden took $2,000 in campaign contributions from Cari in the early and mid-1990s, federal campaign-finance records show.
Two other donors whose names surfaced in the Rezko case — Chicago lawyers Myron “Mike” Cherry and Anthony Licata — donated to Biden’s U.S. Senate campaign, as well. Cherry has given Biden $5,900, while Licata gave $1,000. Neither Cherry nor Licata has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.
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“A veteran Democratic fundraiser (Cari) testified Tuesday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich once offered to give him his pick of contracts and state business in exchange for help building a nationwide political money machine as a prelude to a presidential run.
“The governor said ‘that there were contracts, legal work, investment banking work and consulting work to be awarded to people who helped,’ Joseph Cari recalled as he took the stand in the federal corruption trial of Blagojevich insider Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
“The allegations by Cari, once a finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, were the most explicit accusations of pay-to-play politics leveled against Blagojevich at a trial where he is not even the defendant.”
The degrees of separation between a ‘rat and a criminal? 1 or ZERO in too many instances.
“Independents” are you reading, watching?
Thanks to all like-minded lurkers.
Joseph Cari, Jr., the former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, testified that Blagojevich was at one time attempting to form a national fundraising presence in hopes of a run for President of the United States.
Joseph Cari, a 52-year-old Chicago lawyer and major Democratic party fundraiser for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and others, allegedly conspired with Highland Park businessman Stuart Levine, a former member of the Illinois Teachers Retirement System. The two were attempting to extort $850,000 in kickbacks from a Virginia investment firm that was seeking an $850 million contract to invest the money of 325,000 retired teachers.
“Cari called the firm and told the firm they had to sign the contract by the end of the day or their application for the money would be pulled off the table. He made clear this is the way things are done in Illinois,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney.
Clearly this isn’t Joe Cari that Joe Biden thought he knew.........
So when’s Blagojevich going to be charged?
It was the bubble gum under the desk if you must really know. :^)
Joseph Cari, Jr: pulled out his checkbook 137 times from 1993 on, giving $193,836 under Joseph and $8958 under Joe to candidates for federal office, mostly to Dems. Further donations from family members incl $1000 to Bill Clinton in 1995. Biggest Cari donations went to the DNC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Individual donations, usually $1000 apiece, to Dem candidates across the country incl the natl figures—Gore, Kerry, Kennedys—and others incl Robert Torricelli in NJ, Chuck Robb in VA, and even the late Paul Wellstone in MN ($250).
Cari donated $2000 to Bill Clinton in 1995, another $1000 to Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm, $500 and $1000 to Hillary Clinton in 2000 and 2003, and donated twice to HILLPAC in 2002. The Hillary Clinton campaign has apparently returned the $1000 but not the other donations.
Cari also donated several times to Southern Wine & Spirits, a PAC donating to both major parties which has also donated to both Clintons. Cari has also donated to several Illinois Democratic candidates including Gov. Blagojevich and former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski. No contribution to Obama individually is listed, but the Obama campaign has returned $1439 from apportioned committee contributions.
******
JOSEPH A. CARI - Lobbyist
At Firm: UNGARETTI & HARRIS for 2005
2005-06-30 Consumer Issues / Safety / Protection, Health Issues, Manufacturing
ALLEGIANCE HEALTHCARE CORP
2005-06-30 Apparel / Clothing Industry / Textiles, Energy / Nuclear KERR-MCGEE
2005-06-30 Apparel / Clothing Industry / Textiles, Insurance USAA
2005-06-30 Agriculture, Apparel / Clothing Industry / Textiles, Environmental / Superfund
STEPAN COMPANY
2005-06-30 Apparel / Clothing Industry / Textiles, Budget / Appropriates, Health Issues, Medicare / Medicaid
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO HOSPITALS
2005-06-30 Apparel / Clothing Industry / Textiles, Energy / Nuclear, Fuel / Gas / Oil
PEOPLES
******
Chicago lawyer and onetime mega-fundraiser Joseph Cari has advised Biden and his campaigns on and off since 1984, serving in posts as varied as a Senate adviser on crime to the Midwest Political Director for Biden’s aborted 1987 presidential bid. In 2005 Cari helped arrange private meetings for Biden with potential supporters, as the senator explored another run for the White House. He has also worked to raise money for Biden.
******
A spokesman for Cari said Sunday that Biden knew nothing of Cari’s role in the fraud scheme, and when Cari informed him in 2005 he might be under investigation, Biden cut all ties with his longtime friend.
“From the moment Joe informed Biden there was an investigation of him – that was the last time they ever talked,” said Ken Jakubowski of Sirius Enterprises, a crisis communications firm representing Cari. Jakubowski, a friend of Cari’s, also worked on Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign.
For Cari, the saga was a fast fall from grace for a man who had spent more than two decades as a prominent figure in the Democratic Party as an adviser and fundraiser, to Biden and a host of others.
The longtime Delaware senator in particular received tremendous support from Cari, who has called Biden “a good friend” and a personal hero.
“Joe Biden went through a presidential campaign, and the thing blew up,” Cari told the Illinois Legal Times in 1998 . “Joe then had a brain aneurism. He worked his way through that. More than anything I think Joe Biden wanted his reputation back. So what did he do? He got his health back and after all of this, he just went back to work. No press release — he just started showing up at work every day.
“When you go through a life-threatening event like that, I can tell you from personal experience, when you just show up and do your job, you’re a hero. I saw the absolute pain that this thing caused him and I saw the absolute class he handled it with. He didn’t make excuses, he just went back to work. That tells me a lot about someone.”
I often thought Clinton chose Gore because he wanted someone who was no stranger to lying and corruption. Maybe Biden was chosen for the same reasons.
I was going to ping you, Tiger. Ha! You beat me to it I see.
For more opinions, see his posts:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2086360/posts#2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2086142/posts#9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2085249/posts#29
This is one of them "Zen Koan" things, right? There are no degrees of separation between 'rats and criminals, because they ARE criminals. I get it.
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