bho-rezko

NBC-5 here in Chicago just reported live on air that convicted felon (and Obama’s personal friend) Tony Rezko will be sentenced on January 6th. And they made a point to note that’s just two weeks before Obama’s inauguration.

Rezko had been cooperating with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, giving him information on other political figures in Illinois, but appears to have clammed up after Obama won the national election. We’re sure that’s just a coincidence, and that Rezko just has a really bad case of laryngitis.

According to NBC-5, Rezko pushed for a solid sentencing date because he’s tired of being in solitary confinement and tired of talking to Fitzgerald.

The very next story reported was about Obama and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich meeting, for the first time in months, at the Governor’s Meeting in Philadelphia held today (where Blago asked for millions to bail our state out of the mess Blago got us into). NBC-5 said, specifically, that Obama and Blago had been avoiding each other because Rezko not only raised money for both of them, but Rezko is also a personal friend of them both.

We thought that was highly unusual for the local news here, to draw such clear attention to the links between Obama-Blago-Rezko.

Then, NBC-5 ran about a minute of Blago rambling outside Independence Hall in Philly, looking like a little boy, saying how neat he thought it was that this is the first president he knew before he became president. It made the Governor look foolish.

The story, in total, really made it seem like Rezko expects a pardon from Obama at some point in the future, and that Blago is now more confident than ever that he won’t be indicted (since Rezko stopped talking).

It also said Blago would appoint Obama’s Senate replacement “by the end of the year”, which reporter Maryann Ahern noted was “just 29 days from now”. That replacement, according to everyone on the ground here in Chicago, will be Illinois state senate president Emil Jones.