The Daily MuckSen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) ties with indicted Chicago developer Antoin Rezko are back in the news after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) brought them up in last Monday’s Democratic presidential debate. Obama has “been accused of no wrongdoing” in the case against Rezko - who is scheduled to begin trial next month - but his relationship with the businessman dates back to before the beginning of his political career in the early 1990s. (Chicago Tribune)
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R-MO) announced yesterday that he will not be seeking re-election. In a statement Blunt, whose administration has been caught up in scandal, said that he was retiring “with the knowledge that we have achieved virtually everything I set out to accomplish.” (Kansas City Star)
Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) recently appeared in court papers of a diamond executive in Botswana because he accepted four funded trips there beginning in 2001. Jefferson violated House ethics rules because he failed to report three of the trips which were designed convince Jefferson to oppose bans on “blood diamonds.” In 2001, Jefferson had co-sponsored the “Clean Diamonds Act” but he withdrew his support just before taking his first trip to Botswana. (The Hill)
Senator Stevens (R-AK) loves his pork so much that last year he attempted to get fellow Republican Senator DeMint (R-SC) removed as leader of the conservative Steering Committee. Stevens became infuriated when DeMint urged the GOP to reduce earmarks. DeMint acknowledges that his stance on earmarks has “made a lot of enemies” but he asserts that “some of these folks have the responsibility to show what it means to be a Republican.” (The Hill)
Two Afghan men testified yesterday - via video link - that last March a Marine convoy opened fire and killed 19 Afghans without provocation. Though the Marine convoy had been attacked by a van laden with explosives just moments before, when the Marines opened fire, witnesses say that nobody was firing at the convoy and Aghans had pulled their cars to the side of the road. After the shootings, a U.S. Army colonel apologized to Afghans by stating that the killing and wounding of “innocent Afghans at the hands of Americans is a stain on our honor.” (LA Times)
Although global warming has become a major political issue in recent years, none of the presidential debates hosted by CNN and sponsored by the coal industry group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices have included questions about the issue. (Think Progress)
Jury selection has begun in a second trial of the men accused of plotting to blow up Sears Tower. The first trial resulted in the acquittal of one of the accused and a hung jury for the other six men, all of whom are now being retried. (USA Today)