LEBANON MONEY BRINGS JAILING OF OBAMA DONOR REZKO

A transfer of $3.5 million from Lebanon led to the jailing yesterday of a Chicago developer and former fund-raiser for Senator Obama, Antoin Rezko. Judge Amy St. Eve revoked the bond for Mr. Rezko, who is facing federal fraud charges, after prosecutors said some of the money transferred from overseas went to repay associates who pledged homes and other property, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors said the payments could ease the way for Mr. Rezko to flee but his lawyer said the developer, a Syrian native, would not bring money into America if he was planning to disappear. Mr. Obama has given to charity more than $80,000 in campaign funds linked to Mr. Rezko. At a debate last week, Senator Clinton accused Mr. Obama of doing legal work for the developer, whom she called a “slum landlord.” The Illinois senator said the work was minor and involved non-profit groups working with Mr. Rezko. A photo later emerged of Mr. Rezko, Mrs. Clinton and President Clinton together at what appeared to be a political fund-raiser several years ago. The former first lady said she had no recollection of meeting the developer. Mr. Rezko is set to go on trial next month in federal court in Chicago.

ROMNEY, McCAIN CALL EACH OTHER ‘LIBERAL’

On the campaign trail in Florida yesterday, each of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney, warned that the other is too liberal to be president. Mr. Romney noted Mr. McCain’s leading role on a campaign finance law, a failed immigration overhaul, and a proposal to limit greenhouse gases, measures he described with derision as “McCain-Feingold,” “McCain-Kennedy,” and “McCain-Lieberman.” “If you ask people, ‘Look at the three things Senator McCain has done as a senator,’ if you want that kind of a liberal Democrat course as president, then you can vote for him,” Mr. Romney said, according to the Associated Press.

“On every one of the issues he has attacked us on, Mitt Romney was for it before he was against it,” Mr. McCain said, evoking a successful Republican critique of the Democratic nominee in 2004, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts. “The truth is, Mitt Romney was a liberal governor of Massachusetts who raised taxes, imposed with Ted Kennedy a big government mandate health care plan that is now a quarter of a billion dollars in the red, and managed his state’s economy incompetently, leaving Massachusetts with less job growth than 46 other states,” the Arizona senator said in a statement sent to the AP.

ENDORSEMENT WATCH

Governor Rell of Connecticut is picking Senator McCain in the Republican presidential race. “John McCain is a longtime friend,” Ms. Rell said, according to the Hartford Courant. “I have known him for a number of years and greatly admired and respected him for even longer.” Ms. Rell’s only hesitation was said to be over abortion rights, which she supports and Mr. McCain opposes.

LABOR MONEY SPLITS IN MARYLAND CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY

Rep. Albert Wynn of Maryland, who is fighting a Democratic primary challenger backed by liberal groups and large labor unions, is getting a boost from the National Education Association. The prominent teachers’ union is spending more than $100,000 on radio ads praising Mr. Wynn for having “led the fight to fix” the federal No Child Left Behind education law. A spokesman for the Maryland branch of the union noted that the ad does not mention the upcoming election, where Mr. Wynn is facing a foundation executive, Donna Edwards. Some liberal Democrats have targeted Mr. Wynn because he voted to authorize the Iraq War and for bankruptcy and energy legislation.