RNC’s Obama attack ignores convention planner’s own Rezko baggage

The Republican National Committee and its chairman, Mike Duncan, launched an attack on Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday over the Democrat’s past ties to an Illinois political heavyweight who was recently convicted of fraud. But Duncan and the RNC should be careful. After all, they’ve got Bob Kjellander on the payroll.

"On the day Barack Obama hoped to unite his party after wheezing over the finish line and claiming the Democrat nomination, a jury in his hometown of Chicago convicted his longtime friend and fundraiser Tony Rezko of multiple felonies," Duncan said Wednesday. "This is further proof that Obama’s high-flying rhetoric is just that and in no way represents the kind of change our nation demands."

If anyone’s rhetoric is high-flying, it’s Duncan’s. As he works to prepare the Republicans and St. Paul for his party’s September convention, Duncan is working side by side with RNC vice chairman Kjellander (pictured), a committee member from Illinois who’s cozy dealings with Rezko have been scrutinized.

Rezko’s conviction centers around defrauding businesses working with the Illinois Teachers Retirement System Board and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. Kjellander represented the much-criticized Carlyle Group in a deal to secure that group the ITRSB pension fund. That deal netted Kjellander $4.5 million from the Carlyle Group, a payment that raised eyebrows in Illinois, resulting in both an investigation and legislation targeting the type of deal Kjellander made.

In the Rezko trial, Kjellander was named as having "received $809,000 in consulting fees for the 2003 sale of state bonds, much of which prosecutors believe was funneled through a Rezko associate to Rezko assignees." And those assignees seem to have given the funds back to Rezko. Prosecutors say he then gave $600,000 to Rezko associate Joseph Aramanda, who in turn handed $450,000 of it to four people, many of whom reportedly gave much of the money back to Rezko.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve called the scheme an "unnecessary diversion," adding it could itself become a "mini-trial."

Kjellander has asserted for years that he has done nothing wrong, and no charges have been filed against him. But his appearance of impropriety has led to numerous calls for his resignation by the Illinois Republican Party, including recent gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis and 70 percent of the vote at the Illinois Republican state committee.

For Obama’s part, he’s made amends for picking the wrong friends. Rezko was once a fundraiser for Illinois Democrats, including Obama, who had donated most of the funds to charity. Rezko also raised millions for President Bush as well as Republican former Illinois Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan. Also among the criticisms levied against Obama was a land deal involving Rezko’s wife, a deal that involved more coincidence than impropriety.

Duncan, who works closely with Kjellander, surely knows much of the controversy surrounding Kjellander. They partnered to plan the convention in New York in 2004, and Duncan worked as the RNC’s general counsel while Kjellander was the committee’s treasurer. And while anyone even remotely attached to the name Rezko carries a whiff of corruption’s stench, Kjellander was  so closely involved with Rezko that Kjellander invited him to a White House party in 2003 at the urging of longtime friend Karl Rove. As Duncan no doubt knows, his colleague is much more intimate with Rezko than Obama ever was.

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass made the hypocrisy crystal clear on Thursday. "[E]ven as the Republican National Committee uses Rezko to thwack Obama, the RNC has a Rezko problem of its own," he wrote. "And they forgot to mention it on Wednesday. It’s a big Rezko problem. A big fat one known as Big Bob Kjellander."

And he’s in charge of managing and planning John McCain’s big party in St. Paul.