A lot is being made about Obama's Chicago connections.  I thought it would be useful to look at some previous political "talent" from the Windy City. 

U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun (D) IL
First woman and first Black from Illinois elected to the Senate, the seat Obama now holds....
  Was the subject of a 1993 Federal Elections Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted campaign funds. The agency found several violations, but took no action against Moseley Braun, citing a lack of resources. Moseley Braun only admitted
to bookkeeping errors.

Ah yes, the questionable campaign cash.  Must be that south side bookkeeping system, recently updated to exclude credit card name matching for online donations, a feature, not a bug....

In 1996, Moseley Braun made a private trip to Nigeria, where she met with dictator Sani Abacha. She subsequently defended Abacha's human rights records in Congress.

So it appears questionable associations are business as usual for South Side Chicago pols.

In 1998, after George Will wrote a column reviewing the allegations of corruption against her, she responded to Will's comments, saying that "I think because he couldn't say nigger, he said corrupt." She also compared Will to a Ku Klux Klansman, saying "I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I'm concerned."

Braun is not quite as subtle at playing the race card as Obama but it was a lesson not missed on the One.

U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds (D) IL
in August 1994, he was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse[1] for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer that began during the 1992 campaign. Despite the charges, he continued his campaign and was re-elected that November; he had no opposition. Reynolds initially denied the charges, which he claimed were racially motivated. On August 22, 1995 he was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. He resigned his seat on October 1 of that year.

Will that deck ever run out of cards?

Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison and expected to be released in 1998. However, in April 1997 he was convicted on 15 unrelated counts of bank fraud and lying to SEC investigators. These charges resulted in an additional sentence of 78 months in federal prison. Reynolds served all of his first sentence, and served 42 months in prison for the later charges. At that point, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentence for bank fraud. However, Reynolds had never applied for presidential clemency, which is the first step to be considered for a presidential pardon. As a result, Reynolds was released from prison and served the remaining time in a halfway house.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D) IL
No criminal record but there's this membership thing....
The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist/Maoist African-American organization established to promote Black Power and self-defense. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s.

But I forgot, we are not allowed to judge one by the company they keep. Oops, never mind.
 
All above courtesy Wikipedia. 

Googled corrupt Chicago politics and found this little tidbit...
Between 1995 and 2004, 469 politicians from the federal district of Northern Illinois were found guilty of corruption. The only districts with higher tallies were central California (which includes L.A.), and southern Florida (which includes Miami). 

Please note this is all BEFORE Rezko started to talk....

And since this is an equal opportunity site it would be unfair not to acknowledge Jack Ryan, the most recent Republican Governor of Illinois is serving a prison term right here in Wisconsin, obviously to keep him safe from all those Democrats in the Illinois penitentiary. 

No allegations against Obama or anything here.  Simply noting the primordial ooze from whence he came.  Just sayin...