[Ninong]

Pennsylvania Primary Tomorrow

There are about a dozen different polls covering the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. If you average them all out, Hillary Clinton should win by about seven points. That's a lot less than the 20-point margin she held just a few weeks ago.

It would be nice if Barack could surprise everyone with a one-point win but that seems unlikely. On the other hand, there is virtually no chance that Hillary will advance her chances of winning the nomination. She has virtually no chance whatsoever of overtaking Barack in the pledged delegate count. Her only hope at this point is that she can catch up to him in the popular vote and that something really bad will come out in the news affecting Barack's poll numbers vs. McCain in the general.

If Hillary can overtake Barack in total popular vote and if she is polling better against McCain, then she will try to persuade two-thirds of the uncommitted superdelegates to vote for her. My friends, here's the straight talk on that: It ain't gonna happen!

Currently Barack has a lead of more than 800,000 votes in the popular vote total. Hillary wants to count the popular vote in Florida and Michigan. That ain't gonna happen. For one thing, Barack's name wasn't even on the Michigan ballot, so he has zero popular votes in Michigan. As long as the delegates from Florida and Michigan remain unrecognized, so will the popular vote from those two states.

In order to come close to Barack in the popular vote, Hillary needs to beat him by 25 points in Pennsylvania, AND she needs a turnout of more than 2 million. She would then need 20-point victories in West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico, plus a really huge turnout in Puerto Rico -- more than a million. In addition to all that, she would have to break even with Barack in North Carolina, Indiana, South Dakota, Montana and Oregon. That ain't gonna happen either.

Even if Hillary could pull off all of those miraculous wins, she would still trail Barack in pledged delegates. The truth of the matter is that it is all over for Hillary but she refuses to quit. No doubt her campaign operatives are busy going through the hard-drives of all those stolen Obama Campaign laptops looking for donations from Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri or maybe some pictures of Obama with someone other than his wife.

Bloomberg has a good article explaining just how slim Hillary's chances really are.

P.S. -- Game 7 between the San Jose Sharks and the Calgary Flames comes on at 9 o'clock my time tomorrow night, so I'll have something to watch besides Hillary's gloating. No doubt she has rehearsed tomorrow night's victory speech a dozen times already. Will she finally pass Obama in the Whoop-De-Do speech threshold? No way! It will be "a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

[Ninong]

FOX News: Liberal = Anti-American

Talking head on GOP TV (aka FOX News) saying that "Barack Obama is sooo liberal, he's anti-American."

Watch the video

FOX has been spreading one lie after another about Barack Obama and his positions. They have lied about what he has said and distorted his positions on the issues and some of the other corrupt corporate media have repeated the same lies.

[Ninong]

Redneck Retard Pastor in South Carolina Puts Up Sign



Pastor Roger Byrd of Jonesville Church of God put the sign up which reads "OBAMA OSAMA HUMM ARE THEY BROTHERS?"

Pastor Byrd says the sign is not meant to be racial or political but rather to make people think. "His name is so close to Osama I have a feeling he might be Islamic therefore he doesn't recognize Christ," Pastor Byrd said.

Pastor Byrd told News Channel 7 he would ask his congregation to vote on whether to keep the sign. They voted unanimously to keep the sign up Sunday night.

Jonesville Church of God does not have any African American members.

Here.

P.S. -- Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed. What a bunch of ignorant, hate-filled imbeciles. They're a disgrace to the human race. Pastor Byrd and his flock should stick to playing with snakes and not worry their tiny lizard brains with such weighty matters.

P.P.S. -- A recent AP poll reported that 15% of the public thinks Barack Obama is a Muslim. These people get all of their "news" from FOX.

[Ninong]

South Carolina's other famous retard. At least she's just stupid and not evil like that Pastor Byrd jackass.

Pastor Byrd. Big Bird. Are they brothers?

[Ninong]

Hillary Promises To Nuke Iran If They Attack Israel

YouTube - Hillary Clinton - 'Would Obliterate Iran'

Either she's been throwing back too many shots of Crown Royal of she's just trying to prove she's more gung-ho than Juan McCain, the Panamanian strongman the Republicans are about to nominate.

Do we really want somebody like Hillary answering the red phone at 3 a.m. in the White House? What if she had a few too many boilermakers the night before?

Does Hillary sound presidential? Nah, I don't think so either. She sounds like a desperate loser who is pissed that she won't get the Democratic party's nomination now or ever.

P.S. -- Note to Sen. Clinton: Iran knows we have nukes. Everyone in the world knows we have nukes. NEVER threaten to use them. NEVER even mention them. NEVER answer any reporters' questions about whether you would ever use them and under what circumstances.

[Ninong]

Hillary Supporter Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania Praising Louis Farrakhan

YouTube - Pennsylvania Governor Rendell Praises Farrakhan and N.O.I.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell praising Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. (P.S. -- Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia at the time.)

Does Hillary know about this? Shouldn't she now renounce Gov. Rendell? Wait a minute, "renounce" isn't strong enough. She must both renounce and reject Gov. Rendell, right? That's what she said Barack Obama had to do. Barack had to both renounce and reject Louis Farrakhan because Farrakhan announced his unsolicited endorsement of Obama.

Yes, I believe it's time for Hillary to renounce and reject Gov. Rendell and cast him out from her campaign. Maybe they should even take him outside the walls of the city and stone him?

[Ninong]

Andy Warhol Was Right: We All Get 15 Minutes of Fame, Even Hillary



Hillary's one-point advantage over Barack in the Gallup daily tracking poll lasted just a little bit longer than 15 minutes -- one day to be exact. He has now opened up a 7-point gap.

Matt Drudge is reporting that the Clinton Campaign's own internal polls show Hillary winning Pennsylvania tomorrow by 11 points thanks to two-to-one margins in some of the rural areas of the state. Other polls released today show her winning by at least five points and as much as 13 points.

I think it will be closer than that. She will win but by less than nine points. Hopefully no more than five points. Either way she will be mouthing off about how she has finally put a stop to Obama's momentum.

[Ninong]

Julie Nixon Eisenhower Supports Barack Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of President Nixon's daughters, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, apparently supports a Democrat in this year's presidential contest -- Barack Obama.

Eisenhower has contributed the maximum amount allowed during the primary season to Obama's campaign: $2,300. Federal Election Commission records show she gave Obama's campaign $1,000 on Feb. 4, another $1,000 on Feb. 18 and $300 on March 5.

What about John "What's this thing called the economy?" McCain? I wonder why she isn't supporting him? Oh, that's right. Obama's an elitist, so he gets support from other elitists whether they're Democrats or Republicans.

P.S. -- Julie Nixon Eisenhower is co-chair of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Birthplace Foundation. Her sister-in-law, Susan Eisenhower, wrote an op-ed endorsing Barack Obama.

[Ninong]

Pennsylvania Polls Close In 30 Minutes

Hillary is having her hair done right now in preparation for her big victory speech. It should be possible for the networks to call it for her shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. (EDT).

I think the best we can hope for is that her victory will be less than seven points. Anything over ten points would be unfortunate because she would never shut up about how she has momentum now.

It would be nice if a dozen superdelegates would announce for Barack tomorrow. That would really rain on Hillary's parade.

[Ninong]

Hillary won Pennsylvania as expected. At least it was single digits (9.4%). Hillary 54.70%, Barack 45.30%.

Hillary said the "tide has turned" and she's ready to go all the way. One little bitty problem. Her campaign is flat broke. In fact, they're in the hole. Barack made her blow all of her resources on Pennsylvania. He still has more than $40 million on hand for Indiana and North Carolina. Last month, Barack raised $42.8 million to Hillary's $20 million. Poor John "What's this thing called the economy?" McCain raised a paltry $15 million even though he's the only Republican left. That means the two Democratic candidates outraised the one Republican candidate four to one.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

P.S. -- Game 7 between the San Jose Sharks and the Calgary Flames comes on at 9 o'clock my time tomorrow night, so I'll have something to watch besides Hillary's gloating.

Sharks won 5-3. They take on Dallas in round two.

No doubt she has rehearsed tomorrow night's victory speech a dozen times already. Will she finally pass Obama in the Whoop-De-Do speech threshold? No way!

Hillary definitely will never pass Obama in the Whoop-De-Do speech category. Her delivery is awful. It just isn't natural.

It will be "a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Hillary thinks "the tide is turning." Haha! Poor Hillary. She's becoming the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic party. The tide will not help a sinking ship. Hillary's just rearranging the deck chairs.

[Ninong]

Hillary Did Not Meet Expectations In Pennsylvania

With more than 99.5% of precincts reporting, the official count shows that Hillary won Pennsylvania by a margin of 9.2%. She won Ohio by 10.5% and her campaign was hoping to do better than that in Pennsylvania. The mainstream corporate media continues to claim that she won by double digits but they're not even smarter than a fifth grader.

She is now on a one-state winning streak. Somehow or other the mainstream media seems to believe that she has arisen from the dead and now has momentum. That's because the mainstream media is mostly a bunch of corporate prostitutes who perform like monkeys on a string.

To review: After February 5, Hillary lost 11 in a row! On March 4, she won two (Ohio and Rhode Island) and lost two (Texas and Vermont). She then went on to lose Wyoming and Mississippi. She doesn't count Wyoming and Mississippi because those are red state. And she doesn't count any states that hold caucuses instead of primaries, unless she happens to win.

So now Hillary is on a one-state winning streak. She has lost 15 of the last 18 contests but "the tide is turning" and she fully expects to be the nominee of the Democratic party. She doesn't expect to overtake Barack in pledged delegates because that's mathematically beyond reach but she hopes to convince many of the delegates pledged to Barack and many of the superdelegates who have already committed to him to change their minds and vote for her.

P.S. -- Barack entered Pennsylvania with a pledged delegate lead of 171. Hillary's victory in Pennsylvania will reduce that lead by about a dozen delegates.

[Ninong]

Tweety Is So Obnoxious It's Pathetic

Last night Chris Matthews offered this personal observation: "Barack Obama is winning African Americans and white liberals and Hillary Clinton is winning regular people." Let me see if I get this. Liberals, especially if white, are not "regular people." And African Americans, as everyone knows, shouldn't even be allowed to vote because they are most certainly NOT "regular people." Just ask Chris Matthews or Pat Buchanan.

On the same program, Pat Buchanan accused Dr. Rachel Maddow of being "Marxist." MSNBC retains Buchanan as a representative of the Nazi wing of the Republican party. It's hilarious to see Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan together on a program because Pat can't stand gays or feminists and Rachel is both. And he can't stand uppity women and Rachel has a Ph.D. in political science. Pat (and his father) were defenders of Sen. McCarthy. Pat was Richard Nixon's main speechwriter (he even married Nixon's secretary). Pat was an outspoken defender of the white apartheid government in South Africa. Pat wrote a book* warning us that because white people in America are not having babies fast enough, America will be destroyed because it will be overrun by non-white people, who don't share "our" values. In fact, it's not just America that will be destroyed, civilization will be destroyed!

*The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization (2001)

Just a few minutes ago Chris Matthews repeated the lie that Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania by 10 points last night. You can't round up 9.2 to make it 10. That's not the way it works. You can say she won by 9 points or you can say she won by 9.2 points, you just can't say she won by 10 points.

[Ninong]

The Low Road to Victory

Editorial in today's New York Times accuses Hillary Clinton of engaging in negative campaign tactics that are harming the Democratic party. Let's not forget that this paper endorsed Hillary.

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

Hillary has no intention of pulling out of the race, not even if enough superdelegates commit to Barack after the last primaries on June 3. She and Bill have both said that they are taking this fight all the way to the convention in Denver in late August. Hillary will initiate a divisive floor fight to get both Michigan and Florida counted. Even if they were to be counted, that still wouldn't put her over the top.

I saw Hillary on teevee a few minutes ago making the absurd claim that she is now ahead in total popular vote. She said that is based on counting the popular vote in both Michigan and Florida. In other words, Hillary wants to count the votes she received in Michigan and yet not give Barack credit for any votes at all in Michigan, not even the 45% that voted "uncommitted." Hillary received 55% of the Michigan vote because she sneakily left her name on the ballot after Barack, John Edwards and the other Democratic candidates asked that their names be removed in compliance with instructions of the Democratic National Committee. And, in her count, Hillary is NOT counting Washington state, where Barack beat her by a wide margin because Washington has NOT released any official popular vote totals.

Hillary and Bill Clinton want to make sure that if Hillary isn't the nominee, then Barack won't win in November. She is determined to destroy the Democratic party one way or the other because she is FURIOUS that the party is trying to deny her the job she has been working toward for the past two decades. Let's face it, that's the main reason she stayed married to Bill. Hillary's scheme to get the nomination will NOT work, but even if it did, she would be unelectable. And if Barack somehow loses the election in November, Hillary and Bill will be blamed. Hillary is in a no-win situation and she and Bill are the only people on the planet who don't see that. If she gets the nomination, she will lose the election. If Barack gets the nomination and then loses to McCain, Hillary will be blamed and she will NOT be the nominee in 2012.

[Ninong]

At Least Chelsea Still Supports Her

Hillary's traveling companions are all deserting her. Sheryl Crow joins Sinbad in supporting Barack Obama:

Supporting Obama

I could not be happier or more relieved to hear a presidential candidate of our beautiful but struggling country speak about consciousness and the idea of aiming for lofty goals without the cynicism we have all become accustomed to. I refuse to embrace the rhetoric that says that the kind of hope and ideals Barack Obama speaks of cannot be acheived without having the kind of leadership that has become mainstream in this country; leadership that is based on special interest monies or based on well executed fear campaigns facilitating the greed of a few and the demise of our honorable standing in the world theatre. I am proud to support Barack Obama in his desire and mission to see America return to her greatness.

I have carefully watched, like everyone else, the campaigns of both the democrats, as well as the republican candidate, and I could safely say that only one candidate is speaking to the beliefs I feel this country was founded on.

I believe, like Barack Obama, that we can change our future, but not by repeating our history. It's my belief that the idea that Barack Obama cannot do the job because of his lack of experience is an empty argument for we have put our faith in experienced Washington insiders who have lied and cheated and look where that has gotten us. And, I will not be deterred in my support of Barack Obama because of ad campaigns that are meant to incite fear in us where our security is concerned, when the candidate running the ad voted to take us into war.

Here.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

The Low Road to Victory

I saw Hillary on teevee a few minutes ago making the absurd claim that she is now ahead in total popular vote. She said that is based on counting the popular vote in both Michigan and Florida. In other words, Hillary wants to count the votes she received in Michigan and yet not give Barack credit for any votes at all in Michigan, not even the 45% that voted "uncommitted." Hillary received 55% of the Michigan vote because she sneakily left her name on the ballot after Barack, John Edwards and the other Democratic candidates asked that their names be removed in compliance with instructions of the Democratic National Committee. And, in her count, Hillary is NOT counting Washington state, where Barack beat her by a wide margin because Washington has NOT released any official popular vote totals.

Hillary NOT Even Close To Being Ahead In Popular Vote

Hillary's claim that she is ahead in the popular vote is based upon a tabulation which includes Michigan and Florida but omits Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington. Those last four states do not release vote totals, just totals of delegates elected for each candidate. Obama won three of those four states and he won Washington by a wide popular vote margin. Hillary isn't counting any of the popular vote from those four states because they don't release official numbers.

Hillary is counting the popular vote for her in Michigan and giving Barack credit for ZERO votes from Michigan. She agreed that the primaries in Michigan and Florida would NOT count but now she's counting them anyway. She probably forgot what she agreed to, what with dodging all that sniper fire in Detroit.

Barack Obama has a lead of at least 600,000 in the total popular vote right now without counting any of those six states: FL, MI, IA, NV, ME and WA. If you add in all six states (including even Michigan), then Obama is still ahead by at least 300,000 votes.

Hillary will do anything and say anything to get the nomination. It ain't gonna happen. It's all over for Hillary.

P.S. -- Hillary's strained calculations are even more outrageous than I thought. According to CNN, she's NOT counting any of the caucus states. None! Her sneakily worded claim is that if you count "the people who actually voted," and she's not counting caucuses as representing "actual voting." Obama won almost all of the caucuses. All except one, if I remember correctly.

She had another hilarious claim to fame a couple of days ago when she pointed out that if the Democrats were using the same rules as the Republicans (winner take all in all states), she would be ahead of Barack because she has won most of the really big states. So let's see if I understand what Hillary is saying here: If Democrats were Republicans, then she would be ahead. That's a very big if.

[Ninong]

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter On Gender & Age Gaps

It was the "Grandma Primary." Barack Obama lost Pennsylvania mostly because white working-class women over 60 dominated the contest to an astonishing degree, and they backed Hillary Clinton by more than 2-1. The big question is what that means for November.

Obama carried men and younger and middle-aged voters, but that wasn't nearly enough.

Women made up an amazing 58 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania, a huge edge for Clinton right there and for any Democrat in the fall (the gender gap ain't going away). Whites comprised 80 percent of the electorate. Three quarters of voters earned under $100,000. More than half had no college degree, with that number moving much higher among seniors. Most important, 40 percent of the voters in Pennsylvania were over 60, which is not surprising considering that Pennsylvania trails only Florida as the oldest state in the union.

Obama gets this. "If you look at the numbers, our problem has less to do with white working-class voters [than] with older voters." he told reporters Wednesday. "They are very loyal to Senator Clinton. And I think part of that is they've got a track record of voting for not just Senator Clinton but also her husband."

Obama did better among seniors in Pennsylvania, where he lost 59-41 percent, than in Ohio, where Hillary crushed him by 41 points in that age cohort. That 69-28 drubbing tells us almost everything we need to know about why Hillary won Ohio by 10 points on March 4.

Here.

This is a more accurate description of what happened in Pennsylvania than Chris Matthews' snarky comment that Obama gets African Americans and white liberals and Hillary gets "regular people."

It's true that older voters (especially those who are retired) turn out in greater numbers percentage-wise than younger voters. There are two reasons for that: they are wiser and more responsible and they have nothing else to do.

Now if we could just get all those little blue-haired old ladies to stay home and look after their eleven cats instead of going out to vote for Hillary, we would have it made.

Barack usually wins the overall male vote because he gets 96% of the African American male vote and he usually beats Hillary among younger white males. Hillary managed to get 11% of the African American female vote in Pennsylvania.

She also gets a huge majority of the Catholic vote (mainly the white Catholic vote). In Pennsylvania she received 70% of the overall Catholic vote (72% of the white Catholic vote). I'm worried about how the white Catholic vote will go in the general election between Barack Obama and John McCain. Barack needs to get at least 48% of the white Catholic vote. It would be a lot better if he got 55% of it but I'm not sure that's possible. It used to be that Democrats could count on getting 55% of the Catholic vote in national elections but that hasn't held up lately.

I can't figure out why Hillary is creaming Barack among white Catholics. Is it race? Hillary and Barack have very similar positions on the so-called Catholic issues. Besides, the majority of Catholics do NOT agree with their church's positions on the so-called Catholic issues anyway. The Catholic church is strongly opposed to the death penalty but the majority of Catholics fall in line with the majority of Americans on that issue. They are less enthused about the death penalty than fundies but there is still a clear majority in favor of retaining the death penalty.

The Catholic church is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq but Catholics are not any more opposed to the war in Iraq than other Americans. So I'm not sure if that issue will work in favor of the Democratic nominee in November. It might help but I'm not sure it will make any difference as far as whether Catholics might be more anti-war than other Americans.

The Catholic church is strongly opposed to gay marriage. Fifty-two percent of American Catholics favor gay marriage. The Catholic church is extremely opposed to abortion. Two-thirds of American Catholics are pro-choice. The Catholic church is even opposed to contraception. Only Ricky Santorum favors a ban on contraception. I would guess that 98% of Catholics see nothing wrong with contraception.

[Cas]

Ninong:

Rezko is one of Obama's earlist supporters and purchased and resold a vacent lot next door to Obama at a huge loss to Obama, so that Obama would not have to deal with his neighbors.

Maybe know you will understand why Obama is considered bi-partisan, its because the Dems and Repubs in Illinois are all crooks and turn a blind eye to each others crimes.

Feds: Witness says Rezko tried to oust Fitzgerald




In the midst of a corruption trial that has provided plenty of fodder for political cynics, prosecutors alleged that political insiders in Washington and Illinois claimed to be working to choke off a criminal investigation launched by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.

At the trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, prosecutors revealed Wednesday that former Rezko confidant Ali Ata was prepared to testify that Rezko told him in November 2004 of a plan to pull strings with then- White House political director Karl Rove to have Fitzgerald fired.

Prosecutors also sought to add the testimony of another admitted schemer suggesting that two of the state's most powerful Republican operatives wanted to take the heat off Rezko by dumping the hard-charging prosecutor.

Rove denied the allegations, as did the two Republicans, GOP National Committeeman Robert Kjellander and Springfield power broker William Cellini.


The developments add political intrigue at a trial in which testimony has linked Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pay-to-play politics, highlighted Sen. Barack Obama's long friendship with Rezko and held up an ugly X-ray of the sometimes malignant inner workings of Illinois government.

Ata, a former official in the Blagojevich administration, on Tuesday pleaded guilty in connection with Rezko-related corruption, saying that Blagojevich was present in the room when Ata and Rezko discussed swapping a $25,000 campaign contribution for a job in the administration.

On Wednesday, outside the jury's presence, Assistant U.S. Atty. Carrie Hamilton told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve that Ata was prepared to testify that Rezko told him Kjellander was working with Rove "to have Fitzgerald removed."

At the time, Fitzgerald also was leading a high-profile investigation into a Bush administration leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, a probe that eventually led to the perjury conviction of a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Despite his party affiliation, Kjellander quickly developed close ties with the administration of Blagojevich, a Democrat, after he became governor in 2003. Still, Kjellander disputed the allegations attributed to Ata, as did Kjellander's close friend, Rove.

"I never have discussed with Karl Rove or any other person on the White House staff the proposition that U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald should or could be removed from his office," Kjellander said in a statement. "I have never told anyone that I would discuss with Karl Rove or any other person on the White House staff the proposition that U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald could or should be removed from his office."

Kjellander once served as the treasurer of the Republican National Committee, but is listed as the vice chairman of the national party's committee on arrangements.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said his client "does not recall" Kjellander or anyone else arguing for Fitzgerald's removal. "And [Rove] is very certain that he didn't take any steps to do that, or have any conversations with anyone in the White House—or in the Justice Department—about doing anything like that," Luskin added. Rove, the former deputy chief of staff to Bush, is a private consultant in Washington.

In her presentation to St. Eve, Hamilton did not indicate whether Ata believed the alleged plot to get Fitzgerald dumped ever got beyond the talking stage, but if it did, clearly nothing worked. Fitzgerald, appointed to his Chicago post in 2001, remains in it today.

Hamilton said the 2004 conversation she wanted Ata to testify to was triggered by a question from Rezko about whether Ata had been interviewed by federal agents.

"Mr. Rezko's explanation, according to Mr. Ata, is that Mr. Kjellander is working with Mr. Rove to have Mr. Fitzgerald removed so that someone else can come in to the U.S. attorney's office and individuals who have been cooperating in this investigation will be dealt with differently," Hamilton explained.

Ata's name did not appear on the prosecution's pretrial list of prospective witnesses, and St. Eve did not rule Wednesday on whether she will allow him to testify nonetheless.

St. Eve did say, however, that she would not allow testimony along similar lines from another witness, Steven Loren, a former lawyer for the state pension board. Prosecutors said they wanted Loren to repeat testimony he gave to the grand jury about a conversation he had about Fitzgerald with Cellini around the same time that Ata and Rezko allegedly had their talk.

Loren told grand jurors that he asked Cellini what he knew about an investigation by federal agents into activities of two state boards Rezko was later accused of corrupting, prosecutors said. They added that Loren claimed Cellini then told him: "Bob Kjellander's job is to take care of the U.S. attorney."

Cellini has not been charged in the case, but prosecutors have labeled him a co-schemer with Rezko in plots to rig the actions of the two state boards in exchange for kickbacks.

Cellini's lawyer, former U.S. Atty. Dan Webb, flatly denied the allegation.

It did not happen," Webb said in a statement. "It is a complete and utter falsehood. Mr Cellini never made an effort to contact anybody regarding Mr Fitzgerald's service in office."

If Rezko was involved in an attempt to oust Fitzgerald, his timing couldn't have been worse. From a public-relations standpoint, it would have been difficult for the Bush administration to get rid of Fitzgerald in 2004 while he was investigating its involvement in the Plame leak.

Even so, the allegations evoke memories of a controversial Bush administration effort after the 2004 elections to purge U.S. attorneys across the country. The resulting furor over those firings led to the resignation last year of Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales.

As part of that initiative, Justice Department officials ranked all 93 sitting U.S. attorneys from "strong" to "weak." Fitzgerald was lumped in with several that were deemed to have "not distinguished themselves," an assessment with which many in the legal profession strongly disagreed.
Thursday was not the first time Rove's name has come up in connection with an alleged attempt to manipulate the selection of a U.S. attorney for Chicago. Fitzgerald, an import from New York, was nominated for the top prosecutor's post in Chicago in 2001 by then-U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican often at odds with the state's political establishment. Peter Fitzgerald, who is not related to the U.S. attorney, said Rove had tried to stop him from picking someone from outside Illinois.

Peter Fitzgerald said Rove later told him that the selection of Patrick Fitzgerald had "ticked off the base," a comment the former senator said he took to mean that influential Illinois Republicans were angry about the tough-line the prosecutor quickly adopted on corruption cases.

With the timing of Ata's trial testimony still up in the air—he may not be allowed to take the stand at all—prosecutors continued to stack up evidence against Rezko as his trial plodded ahead, calling to the stand one of his former business associates who had worked at Rezko's North Side offices.

Michael Winter was a former banking executive who testified that Rezko got him involved in seeking what prosecutors contend were bogus "finder's fees" from investment firms after business with state boards.

One such fee was to be split three ways, Winter said, and Rezko was trying to get the biggest chunk by making a simple argument.

"There were other people he had to take care of," Winter explained.

Tribune reporters Mark Silva in Washington and Ray Long in Springfield contributed to this report.

[Ninong]

March 16, 2008 Editorial in the Ultra-Republican Chicago Tribune:

When we endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination Jan. 27, we said we had formed our opinions of him during 12 years of scrutiny. We concluded that the professional judgment and personal decency with which he has managed himself and his ambition distinguish him.

Nothing Obama said in our editorial board room Friday diminishes that verdict.

That was the conclusion of the Trib's editorial board after a 90-minute discussion with Sen. Obama on his connections to Tony Rezko.

[Ninong]

Local Republicans Already Running Against Obama

The North Carolina state Republican party is running ads in North Carolina against the Democratic gubernatorial candidate that feature Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The tie-in is that the Democratic candidate endorsed Obama, therefore the Republican state committee in North Carolina is running the famous clips of Jeremiah Wright saying "God damn America" over and over again against a North Carolina Democratic candidate for governor. Brought to you courtesy of the same Republican party that created the Willie Horton ads. They know they aren't getting the black vote so they have nothing to lose in stirring up racial tensions. I smell Karl Rove's hand in this.

Sen. John McCain asked them to cut it out and and they told him to drop dead. McCain, the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting, has absolutely no influence with the Republican party in North Carolina??? I suspect that this is all a charade and that McCain is going along with it. Every time an ad featuring Jeremiah Wright is run, McCain will denounce it and it will then get even more attention in the media but the GOP will continue to run it. McCain is trying to have it both ways. He's running a decent campaign and he's not responsible for all the really nasty ads that other Republicans are running. If McCain cannot get ads like this pulled, then it means that the Republican party has absolutely no respect for him. It puts him in a very bad light. Either he's tolerating these ads or he's powerless to stop them. Either way, not good for McCain.

North Carolina is not the only state where the Republicans are running against Obama in local elections. Down here in Louisiana, the NRCC is funding ads against a local Democratic congressional candidate by tying him to Barack Obama. The ads, which have a decidedly racial undertone, claim that the Democratic candidate "supports Barack Obama and his radical agenda." A vote for the Democratic candidate is a vote for "the