Those who live in glass houses....

Photo surfaces of Hillary Clinton and Tony Rezko

The Clintons, pictured with Tony Rezko. Hillary Clinton said today on the Today Show that she has posed for thousands of pictures and doesn't know the man. Frame photo by MSNBC.


By Mike Dorning

CHARLESTON, S.C.--A photo has surfaced that shows Hillary and Bill Clinton posing with Chicago developer Tony Rezko, a Barack Obama contributor whom Hillary Clinton condemned as a "slum landlord" supporter of the Illinois senator earlier this week.

Clinton was shown the photo during an interview on NBC's Today Show this morning but told host Matt Lauer she did not remember meeting Rezko.

"No, I don't," Clinton told Lauer. "You know, I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures."

"I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door. I don't have a 17-year relationship with him," Clinton added.

During a presidential debate Monday evening, Clinton blasted Obama for his relationship with Rezko, telling Obama she had fought Republican policies as first lady during the 1990s while "you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

The photo is undated but Lauer said NBC News believes it was taken during Bill Clinton's presidency.

According to a database of campaign contributions maintained by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Rezko made a $15,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee in March 2000, the last year of the Clinton presidency. Rezko also made a $1,250 contribution during the Clinton re-election campaign in 1996 to a Democratic party account that funded activities in Illinois to help win the election.

As the leader of the party, President Clinton and the first lady were active fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee during his presidency. They frequently hosted events for signicant contributors and party fundraisers that often included a chance to be photographed with the first couple.

At the time, "soft-money" contributions to the party were not limited in the same way that contributions are to federal political candidates. The Clintons, drew heavily on contributions to the party to support the Clinton re-election campaign and later the Al Gore presidential campaign, just as Republican presidential candidates did with contributions to the GOP.

Lauer asked Clinton “if there's no such thing as ever being able to fully vet who you come in contact with, is it appropriate to make this kind of an attack on your opponent?â€