The corruption history of Illinois State Legislators, especially Black Pols out of Chicago, is not a pretty one. These kind of stories may end up "ending" Obama.
Is The Tribune Covering Up For Obama?
RIEHL WORLD VIEW BLOG
The Chicago Tribune has a piece basically trashing Barack Obama's new found old friend while accusing him of black mail threats. But something doesn't sit right with this story.
"In confirming his friend's identity during a recent interview, Obama said he hadn't talked to him since high school. Informed that Kakugawa had been incarcerated, Obama replied: "I'm sorry to hear that. ... Keith's in prison. Is that right? ... That's a shame."
Okay, so the Tribune was onto this guy before he re-emerged in Obama's life.
"Repeatedly contacted by the Tribune, Kakugawa declined to answer questions, saying he was granting an interview to The Wall Street Journal because it was "going to be a positive story." The newspaper published an article about him in its Friday editions.
Kakugawa directed a Tribune reporter to the Obama camp. He did so on the advice of Devorah Adler, the head of the campaign's research department.
While the Tribune was attempting to contact Kakugawa, he called Obama's Senate office and "got patched through to the senator on his cell phone and the senator referred him to the campaign," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
"They had a nice conversation," Burton said."
Now comes the rub. The guy claimed to want to do a positive story and according to the Tribune, he actually referred them to the campaign. But the campaign is now saying they didn't warn him about talking to the press and the guy allegedly threatened to, in effect, black mail Obama with lies? Why would he have told the Trib to call the campaign if he was about that? I'm thinking this guy may have some stories from Obama's long past the campaign is looking to pre-empt before they get out.
Finally, if these guys were close enough to cause Obama to feature him in his book, forget about the cash, why didn't Obama make arrangements to at least hook up with the guy and talk - see if he might not be able to really help him out, apart from giving him money? Where's the great compassion in not doing that?
"Kakugawa told the Journal that Obama cautioned his old friend against talking to reporters, but Burton said that wasn't true. The senator told Kakugawa that he should call the campaign before speaking to the media, Burton said. "It wasn't to tell him not to talk to reporters."
Campaign officials said they told Kakugawa he was free to tell anyone whatever he wanted.
A request for cash?
Later, Kakugawa made the request for money, according to Obama's communications director. "He contacted our campaign and in discussions about wanting help, he asked that money be wired to him," said Robert Gibbs. "We told him we would be happy to make calls to social service agencies, but we could not and would not send him money."
According to Burton, Kakugawa explicitly raised the possibility that he could make up false stories about Obama, implying that he would do so if the campaign did not give him money. The campaign said it had not contacted any law-enforcement officials because of the threats."
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