There' s A Pattern Here

Last year's election cycle saw the Democrats raising more money than ever before. Suddenly, however, we are starting to see a pattern of behavior that might explain some of the reasons behind that record money grab.

When the Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested, the phrase or label of "Pay to Play" was used to describe his activities. In essence, "Pay to Play" is taking campaign money or other funds for favorable benefits to the party making those contributions. In the Blagojevich case, the big "Pay to Play" scheme (among many others) was to award Obama's former Senate seat to the player that wanted to or was willing to pay.

This weekend, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and the Obama-nominee for Commerce Secretary had to withdraw his name for that Obama job because, guess what, he too might be involved in another "Pay to Play" situation. The accusation in his case was that contributions were made to his Political Action Committee (PAC) for favorable consideration to a California-based, financial services company that was bidding for New Mexico State contracts (See Full Story).

With lessor press, Hillary Clinton was connected to another possible "Pay to Play" situation. In this alleged case, Hillary may have given a New York contractor some favorable consideration after $100,000 was given to hubby Bill's foundation (See Full Story).

Starting to see a pattern? It seems like a lot of back-door and under-the-table stuff was going on and we are only a few weeks past this last election cycle. God only knows what other skeletons will pop up in the next few months.

Oh, by the way, there was one more "Pay to Play" situation for the Democrats. In this case, the Democrat was the "pay-er." That case was the former Governor of New York, Elliot Spitzer. That "Pay to Play" was money given to a hooker by the name of Kristen for highly favorable consideration(See Full Story).

Lastly, I find it almost laughable that three of the Democrat's Presidential candidates have, or might have, been caught in ethical problems. The three I'm talking about are John Edwards and his extramarital and possible child-out-of-wedlock problem, and Bill Richardson and, possibly, Hillary Clinton in "Pay to Play" ethics problems. Who's next? Obama?

Image by Simon Davison's photostream on Flickr with Creative Commons Licensing. Some rights retained. (Click to View Other Works).