F.O.B. used to stand for “Friend of Bill.” This was an abbreviated description for a variety of hustlers, camp followers and jet setters that used to pony up money for their main man from Arkansas, William Jefferson Clinton. Invariably, most of these folks came to a bad end: Webster Hubbell, the husband and wife team of banking and real estate swindlers, Jim and Linda McDougall, Vince Foster, and others were members of the casualty list. The final accounting included multiple prison terms, a questionable suicide, several disbarments and other sordid examples of political excess and brazen corruption by people in high places.

The media attempted to shield Clinton, but, eventually, the numerous misdeeds and scandals were publicized. Curators at the Tennessee historical site which honors President Andrew Johnson had to revise and update a plaque inscription which referred to Lincoln’s successor as the only chief executive to have been impeached. Clinton was the second to be impeached and acquitted following a Senate trial.

How long will it be before the press and the pundits begin referring to “Friends of Barack” at cocktail parties? David Axelrod will be in full denial mode shortly.

The most infamous Obama crony, Tony Rezko is biding his time in federal custody as he awaits sentencing. Given the repeated continuances in his long delayed sentencing hearing, one wonders what  type of colorful stories he is telling to prosecutors? If Rezko continues to cooperate and provides valuable evidence, it is likely that a recommendation will be made that his sentence will be of short duration. Nobody in the mainstream media mentions Rezko too often these days, but Obama’s  expensive Kenwood neighborhood mansion on Greenwood Avenue was acquired with Rezko’s assistance.

Another “Friend of Barack” is under increased scrutiny these days, but only a mere handful of media reports have linked Obama with Allison Davis. Once upon a time, Davis, Obama and Rezko were as thick as thieves. Davis and Rezko relied upon their friend and politically ally, Barack, to promote their plans to redevelop dilapidated slums into affordable housing for low income residents of the former legislative district represented by State Senator Obama. Tax dollars were misspent and pocketed by the developers, while the minority tenants continued to live in substandard apartments. Obama managed to bob and weave throughout the primaries as he ducked the malfeasance allegations and the issue was ignored in the general election. For his part, Davis dismissed the numerous building code violations by blaming the impoverished  tenants for their own misfortunes.

More recently,  Mayor Richard M. Daley has been place on the defensive by the simmering city pension fund scandal. While the members of the complicit media focus their short attention spans on the mayor’s nephew, Robert Vanecko, less has been said about Vanecko’s wily business partner, Allison Davis. This an angle that needs to be more examined closely.

Davis has developed relationships that have made him wealthy as a consummate political insider without ever having held elected office. He  helped promote Obama long before he became a member of the state legislature. Along with his law partners, Davis gave Obama his first position as an attorney at a politically connected firm. Obama never developed much of a courtroom reputation as a practicing attorney, but like his Columbia and Harvard degrees, the legal position that he briefly occupied was important to him solely as a resume credential. Like the disgraced Rod Blagojevich, Obama seems to have spent much of his career gathering a succession of prominent job titles without producing any significant accomplishments while in office. Blagojevich’s eventual fall coincided with his election to an executive position. It is easier to be a backbencher in the legislature than to be a do nothing executive. Obama still has time left to prove his mettle.

Money is the mother’s milk of politics. Too many politicians have succumbed to temptation and chosen bad associates when dollars were placed in front of them. Obama is no exception. He has been preoccupied with money, both in his personal and political life. He has lived well without doing too much more than being fitted for well tailored suits. He did not earn a sizeable income until after 2004. While his past dealings with Rezko have been analyzed, Allison Davis has contributed more than twenty-five thousand dollars to Obama’s senate and presidential campaigns. Some of those dollars may well have been profits taken from taxpayers from numerous ill advised schemes.

Davis is a minor celebrity of sorts in his own right.  Anthony Hopkins played a fictional character modeled after Davis in the motion picture “The Human Stain.” Hopkins played an African American male with a light complexion who was able to pass for white. Davis, himself, played a minor cameo role in the 2003 drama. He appeared as an irate train passenger who quarrels with a dining car porter and makes disparaging racial remarks. To the Hollywood elites, it was simply hilarious to cast Davis as an angry white male. The premise of the script, itself, is not especially new or unique: Sinclair Lewis covered the same ground when he wrote “Kingsblood Royal” (the protagonist of the roman clef novel was patterned after Walter White of the NAACP) more than sixty years ago.

If nothing else exposing Davis would serve a higher purpose: publicizing the blatant hypocrisy of the phony activists who are really reliable cogs in the Democratic Machine. A one time civil rights protester, who marched outside of City Hall, Davis proved to be someone who could be bought off by the system. His one time protégé, Obama means to overhaul the American economy and engage in a massive expansion of the size and scope of government activities. Like Davis, Obama, exempts himself from the rules and intends to live a life of ease and plenty. The president can jet off for a dinner date on Broadway without worrying about the hypocrisy of simultaneously asking all of us commoners to pay higher taxes and make sacrifices while reducing our wasteful use of energy and limiting our pollution causing habits.

Posing as a community activist is a tried and true way to advance your political and financial career in Democratic Chicago: the Shaw brothers, Bob and his late brother, Bill, were supposedly fair housing activists; Dorothy Tillman attended Chicago Board of Education meetings where she shouted down Angeline Caruso, a former acting school superintendent, and ridiculed Caruso’s frumpy appearance in the name of education activism; Luis Guiterez marched with Communists and Puerto Rican Nationalists, some of whom were later accused of committing acts of domestic terrorism; Marilyn Katz ran with the campus radicals, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and protested the Viet Nam war while hurling missiles at the police before she became a public relations expert for the political machine; Jan Schakowsky and her unapologetic, convicted criminal spouse, Robert Cremer, are two other fakers. Interestingly enough, despite their varied backgrounds, these folks have something in common: all of these individuals seemed to fall into line as soon as their personal needs and wants were gratified and they were given a place at the head table. They have all been feeding from the public trough ever since. The former Soviets called such privileged leaders “the vanguard of the proletariat.”

Obama has accepted bushel baskets of money from Davis in the form of campaign contributions. He lobbied to place housing redevelopment funds in the hands of Davis and Rezko.  Perhaps, a few dollars from the pension fund profiteering ended up in Obama’s campaign war chest too. Only time will tell as the investigation proceeds.

Someday soon, the president needs to explain his relationship with both men. Calling it another “boneheaded” move or claiming “This is not the Allison Davis that I once knew” may not cut it indefinitely. Laundering clean a stained reputation is not an easy task. Club soda does not remove all types of spots.

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Daniel J. Kelley is a regular contributor to “The Chicago Daily Observer.”

image Grove Parc Plaza, site of a unique public private property development involving Tony Rezko, Allison Davis and Barack Obama