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Money for Nothing or Gifts for the Anointed?
By Daniel J. Kelley
Posted in Our Columns on July 05, 2008 with 2 comments.
tags: Michelle Obama Sneed
I have to confess that reading columns by Michael Sneed is something of a guilty pleasure. Sneed’s column is one part gossip, one part political intrigue and one part scandal mongering. Journalistic accuracy, however, is not necessarily a prerequisite for the inclusion of an item in the column.
I was somewhat startled and surprised to read in Sneed’s column this morning that both Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama (formerly Michelle Robinson), have allowed their law licenses to become inactive. As Sneed pointed
out, both of the Obamas could complete some paperwork, pay the necessary fees and reinstate their law licenses. The item continued by stating that various politicians choose to go on inactive status when they are no longer engaged in the practice of law on a regular basis. For example, both Governor Rod Blagojevich and US Senator Richard Durbin have also elected to assume inactive status. Of course, in Blagojevich’s case, one might be tempted to suggest that
he did not renew his law license so as to avoid being subject to possible discipline by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois. The ARDC has investigatory powers in addition to registration recordkeeping responsibilities.
To return to the Obamas, it is worth noting that Michael Sneed omitted to state one curious fact in her column. Unlike her husband, Barack Hussein Obama (that reference is not a slur since that is exactly how Obama chose to be listed on his the Master Roll of Attorneys and on the face of his law license), who opted to voluntarily assume inactive status as an attorney in 2008, Michelle Obama has not registered with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission since (drum roll for emphasis) 1993. Since she was admitted to the
bar in the Spring of 1989, her entire career as a licensed attorney lasted less than five full years. As published, the item in the Sun Times would make one believe that Michelle Obama assumed inactive status within the past few months, not a decade and a half ago.
What is particularly mystifying about this fifteen year lapse in Michelle Obama’s registration status in that she is constantly identified as an attorney in print, notwithstanding her lack of a current law license, and she has held a series of high level employment positions in the interim. Absent her ability to practice law what precisely did she bring to the table in her various positions? What were her other qualifications?
Her undergraduate degree was from Princeton University where she majored in sociology with a minor in African American studies. Her inflammatory undergraduate thesis “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community” has stirred up a great deal of controversy and has been removed from circulation by the university library for the duration of the campaign. Nevertheless, the thesis has been available via the Internet and, taken together with her statement on the campaign trail that “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country… ,” as indicative of the fact that she is a militant radical filled with anger and resentment towards the USA. It has been reported that Michelle served to introduce Barack to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ and that she was far more active in the radical minister’s Afrocentric congregation than her husband.
For someone who complains about discrimination and inequality so frequently, Michelle Obama has certainly lived a charmed life. After attending two prestigious universities (Princeton and Harvard), she has enjoyed a luxurious standard of living and career opportunities not readily available to mere mortals.
Michelle Obama has served as an Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Chicago and as an Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. Her positions at City Hall belie the assertions that her husband was a truly progressive
politician entirely independent of the Democratic Machine. After leaving the Daley administration, Michelle Obama became the Executive Director of a not for profit organization, the Chicago Office of Public Allies. This organization
was supposed to encourage youths to accept positions with not for profits and public agencies. Were Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn a part of the this same project? They share a passion for similar types of organizing.
In 1996, the same year that her husband was first elected to the Illinois Senate, Michelle Obama accepted a position at the University of Chicago as the Associate Dean of Student Services. In 2002, she took a position as a hospital administrator specializing in community and external affairs. Curiously, her salary was increased significantly immediately after her husband was elected to the US Senate. Cause and effect? Although she has decreased her work load to a part-time status on account of her parental responsibilities, she
earned $273,618.00 in 2006. As a part-time employee, Michelle Obama earned more in salary than her husband did as a senator. More recently, Mrs. Obama has taken an unpaid leave of absence.
Untangling financial data is not always an exact science, but Michelle Obama’s unusual career path strongly suggests that the long hand of City Hall and the Democratic political machine have been guiding the careers and fortunes of the presumptive nominee and his spouse to a far greater degree than any official campaign biography would indicate. These are questionable ties without any reference being made to Tony Rezko.
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