Obama hires felonious activist to teach campaign volunteers

By Thomas Lifson

Barack Obama's pose as a fighter against cynicism does not comport very well with his employment of a convicted felon to instruct youngsters in the art of campaigning. Blogger Tom Roeser has an exclusive account:

Robert Creamer, the husband of U. S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) who was sentenced to jail for running a community group and paying himself big bucks while banks held the bag, has been teaching a group of young (mostly) volunteers for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama....

Nothing wrong with Creamer earning a living. Indeed not long ago he surfaced as a registered lobbyist working against the Senate confirmation of UN ambassador John Bolton, paid by the George Soros-funded "Open Society Policy Center." But the idea of a convicted felon who kited checks lecturing the supposedly idealistic Obama campaign on how to raise money and get elected is a bit much.

Creamer taught at "Camp Obama," a week-long summer camp last month held at the presidential candidate's office in Chicago for campaign interns and volunteers-just a few blocks away from the federal court where on August 31, 2005 he pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes... on charges brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Roeser quotes and links to a page at mybarackobama.com, containing a breathless account of Creamer's tutelage of the young Obama enthusiasts. And (surprise!) the embarrassing page seems to have been removed.

Now some might say that it is a worthy enterprise to rehabilitate criminals. But that presupposes that the criminal has turned over a new leaf. I am certain that I will be called a cynic for questioning Creamer's rehabilitation. If he instructed the volunteers in the perils of following his path, I would be delighted to see the evidence.