Tony Rezko Photo Adds Fuel to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Feud

Hillary Clinton condemned Tony Rezko as a "slumlord" who contributed to Barack Obama's campaign.  But a photo has since surfaced that shows Senator Clinton and President Bill Clinton posing with Rezko, a Syrian national.  They were all smiles.

Clinton was shown the photo during an interview on NBC's Today Show this morning but told host Matt Lauer she did not remember meeting Rezko.

"No, I don't," Clinton told Lauer. "You know, I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures.

During a presidential debate Monday evening, Clinton blasted Obama for his relationship with Rezko, telling Obama she had fought Republican policies as first lady while "you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

The photo is undated but Lauer said NBC News believes it was taken during Bill Clinton's presidency.

In October 2006, Rezko was indicted for extortion of businesses seeking to do business with the Illinois Teachers Retirement System Board and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. In addition, he has been charged with wire fraud for staging false transactions of his pizza stores in order to secure $10 million in loans from GE Capital.

Rezko has raised funds for many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. These include Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich,Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, Comptroller Dan Hynes, former Cook County Board President John Stroger, and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Rezko has also raised money for former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and held a megamillion-dollar fund-raiser for President George W. Bush in 2003.

In November, 2006, Barack Obama drew media scrutiny because he had purchased his house in 2005, on the same day that Antoin Rezko purchased an adjoining empty lot. Obama subsequently bought from Rezko an adjoining strip of land from the empty lot. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama's purchase of the land from Rezko may have created an increased value to Obama's property beyond the actual purchase price by making the adjacent Rezko property difficult to develop.  However, Obama acknowledges that the exchange may have created the appearance of impropriety, and stated "I consider this a mistake on my part and I regret it."

At press time, Hillary Clinton had boosted her favorite status to become the next US President with odds of 6/5 while Senator Obama was listed at 3/1

Odds courtesy of Sportsbook.com

Get all the latest Political betting news from Gambling911.com Here

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Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com

Originally published January 25, 2008 1:25 pm EST