Barack Obama is a political animal, not the transformational figure he advertises himself to be. He demonstrated in Chicago a willingness to put his good name behind just about anyone, no matter how crooked. Now Obama has formally endorsed Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), who made CREW’s list last year as one of the 18 most corrupt members of the House of Representatives.

As of June, Scott owed approximately $154,000 in back taxes to the IRS, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has also come under fire for paying family members and their company $643,000 from his campaign funds — a practice which he stopped after Politico wrote a story on his dealings last May.

The Obama endorsement comes immediately after a recent poll showed Scott in an unusually tight race (43 to 38 percent) against his Republican opponent, Deborah Honeycutt, who like Scott is African-American. Scott defeated Honeycutt with 69 percent of the vote in 2006, and John Kerry carried this district (Georgia’s 13th) with 60 percent of the vote in 2004.