Trib: Obama and Rezko

This is more of Democrats running as the party of the easily bamboozled.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said Monday he never received complaints about poor living conditions from residents of deteriorated properties owned by one of his early and prominent political supporters, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Obama, a Democratic presidential contender, also said "nobody's been more disappointed than me" in learning of the controversial history of Rezko, who pleaded not guilty after being indicted last fall on federal influence-peddling and fraud charges.

"One of the perils of public life is that you end up being responsible for, or you're held responsible for, associations that you didn't necessarily know were a problem," Obama told the Tribune after making a major address to outline his foreign policy goals.

Democrats claim Bush misled them on Iraq. Obama claims Rezko misled him on slums. What a pit the party has dug for itself.