Also note that Marc Rich's firm, Glencore, has major operations in Nazarbayev's little empire (99% ownership of Kazzinc, the dominant zinc producer).

No one's dug into Bill's Dubai connections yet, either. It's only going to get worse.

Yeah! And while we're at it let's get Barack's from his years in the Illinois state senate! You know, the ones from the Rezko years he refuses to disclose, or lost, or the dog ate or....

Same rules for everybody, right? Right?

schrek2000, I'm not sure what you're getting at. Didn't he already disclose everything? And hasn't the Rezko connection been investigated and investigated and investigated? And hasn't he already admitted that it was "boneheaded" to take support from this man? And hasn't he then raised his funds for his presidential campaign without any PAC or special interest funds?

And with the Clintons, the list of sleazy connections is so long and so deep, pulling out the ONLY name that anyone can hold up against Obama is so lame.

Asnevitt -- no, Obama's law firm records are mysteriously missing and he doesn't recall whether he kept all his state senate records.  

That doesn't mean the Clintons shouldn't release the records though -- two wrongs don't make a right.

For real, lymon?  Huh.  Well, up against McCain that'll look like nothing.  May the words Keating 5 ring loud and clear.  But next to Hillary?  McCain can't hold a candle.

The $131 million went to the Clinton Foundation, not the Presidential Library. Whatever your views, Mr. Peretz, the foundation does do a lot of good work; and it's much different than if the money went to the library.

Still...$131 million? Wow.  

"For real, lymon?  Huh.  Well, up against McCain that'll look like nothing."

Really, molly? Well you must know something I don't know. So what's in the records lymon1 described?

And thanks to lymon1 for adding clarity to my point. One set of rules and expectations for everyone guys. How's that for a concept?

I'm all for fair and legal disclosure, but there is a huge disconnect in putting Rezko and Clinton papers in the same dog pile.  

DB -- but that's arguably because Obama was in the minor leagues so his deals are by definition going to be smaller scaled -- the point is he seems to have been doing the same kind of stuff (the value of the internship he traded in-part for the land deal has been debated to death here, but anyway...)  I think the best statement on this is that both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times endorsed Obama but issued stern qualifications that he's been disingenous on Rezko and nothing else better come out.  And again, I'd point out that Obama has never bucked the Chicago machine by supporting reformers, even after 2004 (neither have the Clintons).  

But in fairness to Marty's point, the Clintons are being much like George W. Bush here -- they really do have influence, if not outright power, over the release of their white house records.  

lymon, give it up. The Kazakh deal was pretty much straight up evil. Clinton facilitated an effort by which a Canadian crony made over a billion dollars off the backs of slave labor, where the hell do you think that 131 million came from? It is the worst kind of blood money imaginable. And I would love to know the disposition of that 131 million in his foundation. How much for "overhead" financing Bill's private jet so he can fly all around the world getting his picture taken. Obama is a parking ticket, Bill is a hit and run. Stop comparing the two. I will tell you what, I will live in a Rezko slum, you be a Kazakh miner.

Blackie:  It's 31 million.  Let's not get carried away--although I know the Clintons have that affect.    You're last line is genius.

Schrek:  To paraphrase M&M, Give it up, it' too old, it's over, nobody care about Rezko.  

molly, no it is 131 million, 100 million is promised for the future, reread the article. He got 31 million up front. Marty's figure above is correct if the additional 100 million is delivered as promised.

Blackton: state senator is to President of the United States what a parking ticket is to a hit and run.  Now, extrapolate (downward) that Rezko slum by the difference in power between those positions and you'll be lucky to be the miner -- more like a young non-Arab woman living in Darfur.

Happy to talk about the Keating 5, but you're to have to trash John Glenn, who was the other Senator (like McCain) who was unjustifiably connected with Charles Keating.  The other 3 - DeConcini, Riegle and Cranston, if memory serves, had much greater involvement.  Of course, MCain was the only R, put in for ideological balance, no doubt.

lymon, ha ha, good one. When Harry Truman left the white house his only income was a military pension of 112 dollars a month from his service in WW1. He refused to do any endorsements for money or sit on any corporate boards as those would diminish the office of the Presidency. He made some money from his memoirs but not much. Congress, feeling shame, voted him and all ex-Presidents a pension. Herbert Hoover (who was independently wealthy) took it so Harry wouldn't feel embarrassed to take it himself.

Harry Truman is to Bill Clinton, is the same as Mother Theresa is to crack whore. Yeah, get around that one please.

It's about ** uranium **, dude. In a gangster-ridden Wild East bandit/police state where Marc Rich also plays.

Blackton:  Now that one I must cede.   Though nobody has had a better post-presidency imo than Jimmy Carter and I'd never want to restore his administration...