Obama linked to shady developer

Just came across this one. Normally I would ignore "guilt-by-association" hype. It's not Obama's fault that he's worked with a shady character. But I am troubled by this line:

"Shortly after his election to the U.S. Senate, Obama bought a house for $300,000 below the asking price. The same day, Rezko's wife bought the lot next door for full price. Months later, Obama bought a sliver of the Rezko land to expand his yard."

It's not clear WHO Obama bought the house from (it doesen't say Rezko), or how he got it on the cheap. But this is pretty much the same thing progressives have rightly slammed Ted Stevens (R-AK) for doing. I don't like it. At least, I'd like to hear more. Obama said that his mistake was "buying a sliver of land" from Rezko...I don't care about the sliver, I care about the house.

Update: I've been trying to research this, but other than some investigative articles from the Chicago Tribune, there hasn't been much to find. It seems that most people have poked around and decided to leave it alone or that there wasn't much there.

The house deal is still a bit weird to me. He didn't buy it from Rezko, but Rezko somehow helped Obama get a good deal. The house was 1.6 million historic home and bought for 300,000 under "asking price" (which is not necessarily the same as appraised). So Rezko didn't benefit directly from that. It appears to have been totally legal. Whoever sold it to him wasn't under any obligation, and whoever sold it to him received no direct or indirect benefit that I can find. So, at best, Rezko used his influence to get Obama a great deal. Perhaps hoping that Obama would later do him a favor (which he did).

Rezko bought the lot next to it, and a few months later, sold a piece of the lot to Obama to extend his back yard. That did benefit Rezko, but not greatly or unfairly, and although that is what Obama has apologized for, it really seems hardly worth the ink to write about. There doesn't seem to have been a real quid pro quo. Obama did some work on behalf of Rezko as a lawyer, but that seemed to be very straightforward, and he never represented Rezko directly when he was in the legislature.

About the only possible quid pro quo I found was that Obama sent a letter to some agency advocating Rezko's development company to create housing for senior citizens. That landed Rezko a good profit, and in turn, Rezko contributed to Obama's future campaigns. But, Rezko says he didn't ask Obama to write the letter, and Obama could not directly influence the outcome--he had no real control over what the agency chose to do, and the housing wasn't even in his district (although he says it benefited the people in his district). It's not like he "earmarked" a bunch of money to Rezko like a certain senator from Alaska.

So, it seems to be at the level of a political favor similar to Gov. Sebelius appointing Six to the A.G. job. Not squeaky clean, but not breaking any "rules."