For years there have been under-reported connections between organized crime, Illinois Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias and President Barack Obama. But it has just gotten tougher for the president's main stream media accomplices to keep under reporting and Mr. Giannoulias may be the next Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers for the administration.

Continued...

According to this morning's Chicacgo Tribune, the bank owned by the Giannoulias family loaned a pair of Chicago crime figures about $20 million during a 14-month period when Giannoulias was a senior loan officer. Broadway Bank had already lent millions to Michael Giorango when he and a new business partner, Demitri Stavropoulos, came to the bank in mid-2004. Although both men were preparing to serve federal prison terms, the bank embarked on a series of loans to them. Alexi Giannoulias took a senior position at the bank at about the same time and used it as a launching pad for his political career. But as he campaigns to step up from state treasurer to the US Senate, he has tried to distance himself from the bank's business with the pair and has been reluctant to detail his role. (source)

The connection between Alexi Giannoulias and Barack Obama is much more than just the fact that Mr. Giannoulias is running for the US Senate seat once held by the current president:

• The two met in the late '90s, playing basketball at the East Bank Club in Chicago.
  
  
• Mr. Giannoulias and his family were early supporters of Obama's 2004 Senate campaign and the president returned the favor in 2006 when he showed heavy support for Giannoulias in his run for state Treasurer. (source)
  
  
• In September of 2007, a fundraiser for then Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was hosted by Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. The fundraiser was omitted from Mr. Obama's public schedule. (source)
  
  
• In October of 2009, Mr. Giannoulias stopped by the White House during a trip to Washington to discuss his prospects for winning the Democratic party's nomination for Senate. He met with Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod. (source)
  
  
• Just last month Mr. Giannoulias told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed another meeting at the White House Tuesday netted him a chat with President Obama. Giannoulias also claims U.S. Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Olympia Snowe and Lindsey Graham, "who have an average age in their 60s, were all talking about me being the next senator from Illinois and joking how young I was, saying how nice it would be to get some youth in the U.S. Senate." (source)
  

Alexi Giannoulias is the quintisential Chicago politician; equally at ease whether joking with US Senators or doing business with mobsters. Befriended and supported by the ultimate Chicago politician: President Barack Obama.