FROM:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09052007/news/nationalnews/obamas_mob_tie_idekick.htm
NY Post article:
“By CHARLES HURT Bureau Chief
September 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - A man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure will host a Windy City fund-raiser tonight for Sen. Barack Obama.
Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000 for the senator’s Oval Office bid.
Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution. “
Read more here:
Consider the following:
“Much in the same way that Obama was groomed for his elections by people in power in Chicago, and much in the same way that Obama supported the corrupt Stroger family even when he could have supported a reform-minded (liberal Democrat) opponent to the Strogers, the Obama-Giannoulias relationship seems one of political payback.”
“The close association of Obama with a man who seems clearly to be involved in some shady deals with convicted criminals is yet another example of questionable judgment at best and typical dirty Chicago politics at worst. I wonder if Giannoulias will turn out to be the next in Obama’s never-ending series of “He’s not the man I knew”.”
Read more here:
http://www.rossputin.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/27/will-alexi-giannoulias-be-obama-s-next-n
Saw that, by the time I got to the computer it was over.
According to Hannity, “Alexis Giannoulias was at one time considered such a political libality, he was mentioned in the same breath as Bill Ayers” (Obama’s domestic-terrorist-turned-professor pal, who served with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago) and Jeremiah Wright” (Obama’s longtime racist pastor and spiritual advisor who embraces Marxism).
Giannoulias, an heir to the Broadway Bank fortune, helped Obama get “seed money” for his first political campaign and provided him with an entree to the Chicago Greek community.
Obama returned the favor by endorsing Giannoulias when the latter ran for state treasurer, calling him “one of the most outstanding young men I ever hope to meet.”
Despite that endorsement, Giannoulias has a checkered past. According to the Chicago Sun-Times:
That bank, Broadway Bank, has brought Giannoulias some controversy over the years because of loans it made to organized crime-linked figures and convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. But Giannoulias himself did not make the loans and ended his ties to the family bank.
When Wells Fargo threatened to cut off the line of credit on Des Plaines-based Hartmarx, the president’s tailor, Giannoulias threatened to yank the $8 billion in state funds they managed, Giannoulias told the crowd. The bank relented and the workers’ jobs were saved.
Not to mention Obama’s suits!