Republican campaign strategists aching for the chance to link Barack Obama to Tony Rezko, the controversial Chicago political operator now on trial for fraud, have a problem: the current vice chairman of the Republican National Convention was much more deeply involved with Rezko than the Democratic presidential hopeful.
Now, Illinois Republicans are calling on Bob Kjellander to step down from his planning role for the St. Paul convention, according to Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Monitor.
In the Rezko trial, Kjellander was named as having "received $809,000 in consulting fees for the 2003 sale of state bonds, much of which prosecutors believe was funneled through a Rezko associate to Rezko assignees," Birkey reports.
Republican plans to attack Obama for his dealings with Rezko would be undermined if a leading Republican had much more significant ties to the indicted man.
Kjellander, who claims to have a three-decade old friendship with Karl Rove, faces a tough choice: Will he deny personal wrongdoing and thus help insulate Obama from much more flimsy allegations? Or will he fall on his sword for the sake of Republican negative campaigning?