Opinion: Barack Obama pal ‘Tony’ Rezko faces Vegas gambling-debt charges
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As if Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko didn’t have enough to worry about, now a Las Vegas judge apparently has issued a felony arrest warrant against him in connection with $472,000 in alleged unpaid gambling debts at Caesars Palace and Bally’s.
Rezko, you’ll recall, is the Chicago friend who has given Barack Obama some headaches already in the campaign cycle, including questions about Obama’s purchase from Rezko of a strip of land next to his Chicago home. And with a federal jury still deliberating Rezko’s fate on corruption charges in Chicago, a fresh batch of legal charges from Vegas will probably put Obama’s relationship with the onetime political fundraiser back in the political spotlight.
The image folks inside the Obama campaign have to be wincing over the timing after Obama this week in North Las Vegas cracked wise about TV news cameras making it impossible for him to sit down at a Vegas blackjack table himself.
-- Scott Martelle
