The Chicago Boys

The Wall Street Journal

For the past seven years, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has time and again put the Chicago machine through the prosecutorial cleaners. Come next week, a product of the Windy City's political culture may be on his way to the White House. Now would be a good time to know if a President Obama would keep the pressure on his friends back home.

One of the first Obama political boosters, Tony Rezko, is at the center of the state's highest profile corruption case. Recall that in June the Chicago real-estate developer and Democratic fundraiser was convicted on 16 counts of influence peddling. His sentencing was delayed this month to let Mr. Rezko "engage in discussions" with prosecutors. In other words, Mr. Fitzgerald wants him to spill the beans on Illinois corruption, possibly up to Governor Rod Blagojevich, perhaps in return for a shorter prison term. (Mr. Rezko still faces trial in Chicago in a $10 million business fraud case, as well in Nevada over unpaid casino-gambling debts.)

The Blagojevich administration has been under investigation for years. Mr. Rezko, who raised money for the Governor, solicited $7 million in kickbacks from private firms in exchange for steering state contracts their way. Prosecutors are now interested in toll highway vendor contracts granted by the administration with Mr. Rezko's involvement. They also are looking into who paid for the renovations of the Blagojevich home in Chicago; Mr. Rezko's defunct construction company was the contractor on the project. Meantime, the Governor's approval ratings have sunk to 13%, and Democrats in the state House may move to impeach him.

Mr. Obama has a Rezko image problem himself. The Democratic candidate met the Syrian-born businessman in his final year at Harvard Law School, and they stayed on friendly terms in the next two decades. When Mr. Obama started his run for the state Senate in 1995, Mr. Rezko gave him $2,000 on the first day of the campaign. The Illinois Senator says his political career didn't start in Bill Ayers's living room, but the Rezko wallet certainly launched him on his way. Over the next decade, Mr. Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for him and served on the Obama Senate campaign finance committee in 2004.

A year after his election, Mr. Obama bought his home in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood with Mr. Rezko's help. At the time, he was the subject of a (then rumored) federal investigation. The men together looked at a house listed at $1.95 million. The seller insisted an adjoining lot must be sold simultaneously, though it was bound by a restrictive covenant that severely limited what the purchaser could do with the lot.

Nevertheless, on the same day that the Obamas offered $1.65 million -- the highest bid on the property -- Mr. Rezko's wife put in for the lot at the listed price of $625,000. (Mrs. Rezko earned $37,000 a year at the time and had assets of $35,000.) In 2006, Mrs. Rezko sold a 10 foot wide strip of her property to Mr. Obama for $112,000 to expand his garden. He paid nearly double the assessed value, but the sale made the Rezko lot less attractive to develop.

As Mr. Obama considered a Presidential run, he gave $159,000 in past donations traceable to Mr. Rezko to charity, and he called the house purchase "boneheaded" and "a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest or appearances of impropriety." Speaking of Mr. Rezko earlier this year to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama said, "He hadn't asked me for favors." Mr. Rezko hasn't yet told his side of the story. Following his conviction this summer, Mr. Obama said, "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew." The Senator said the same about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, after his longtime pastor's "God D--- America" YouTube turn this spring.

Mr. Obama was never the formal target of a government investigation or Senate ethics probe, or charged with any wrongdoing. "I think that I have done a good job in rising politically in this environment, without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics," he told the Tribune.

Chicago is a small political town, and other politicians, including the Daley family and prominent city Republicans, are linked to Mr. Rezko and feel the heat from Mr. Fitzgerald. Before the Rezko case, the prosecutor won a racketeering conviction against former GOP Governor George Ryan. He has indicted a number of aides to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for corruption in hiring practices at City Hall.

Along with John McCain, Mr. Obama explicitly pledged he wouldn't dismiss Mr. Fitzgerald. But does that mean the prosecutor won't be "promoted" out of Chicago? And while we're at it, will Mr. Obama rule out a pardon for Tony Rezko? Clarifying both points could keep the wheels of justice turning against corruption.

There's a different question for American voters. Mr. Obama pledges to clean up our nation's politics and outpolls John McCain on honesty and ethics. Yet in Chicago, he moved with the Tony Rezkos and endorsed pols like Mayor Daley and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Can a politician so steeped in his hometown's ways really be an agent of change in Washington?