McCain attacks Obama on Rezko

Sen. John McCain's campaign is fighting back against questions about his house holdings by opening a website focusing on past questions about Sen. Barack Obama's dealings with controversial Chicago businesssman Tony Rezko.

The campaign was getting the site ready Thursday afternoon. McCain surrogates on television were being armed with facts about Rezko's relationship to Obama's purchase of his Chicago home in 2005.


Previewing the message the campaign will seek to drive, a McCain spokesman said: "In an attempt to make something stick, Barack Obama has re-aired his dirty laundry with convicted felon Tony Rezko that led to a highly questionable land deal. Rezko’s dirty dealings are well-documented and his relationship with Barack Obama goes back 20 years."

When Obama purchased his current home in June 2005, he and his wife paid $1.65 million — a hefty sum but $300,000 less than the asking price. In February 2008, his campaign largely defused questions about the sale when the couple from whom the Obamas bought their house said the senator had submitted three bids, starting with an offer of $1.3 million, before his final offer was accepted.

In January 2006, Obama bought one-sixth of an adjoining lot from Rezko’s wife, Rita, paying her exactly a sixth of the sum she had paid for the property.

Obama later said it was “boneheaded” of him to accept help from the Rezkos in his real estate dealings.

During the Democratic primaries, Obama came under attack for his relationship with Rezko, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told Politico on Feb. 11: “We still don’t have answers about Sen. Obama and his dealings with Mr. Rezko.”

In June 2008, a federal jury convicted Rezko of 16 counts of corruption in a probe that has implicated Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, an Obama supporter.