Virginia’s ex-Governor Bob McDonnell and wife should have taken hold of the Clinton’s champagne glass and learned from the masters.  If they had been more driven, more nefarious, more diabolical, they could have merely followed the template laid out by the master money people of Washington.  Now he and his wife are in jail. 

The McDonnells completely missed the foundation game.  An inappropriate gift of a Rolex watch from one’s own foundation, one that does “good work,” is so much more innocuous than a gift from a contractor doing business with your state.  Though the dots are close together and easily connected, the word “foundation” must contain too many letters for investigative journalists (any left?) to surmount.  Story?  What story?

Kevin Williamson’s article in the National Review discusses some of the manners in which money can change hands, and if the maneuver is too complicated, the story dies.  Real estate deals in which property passes between parties at levels very beneficial to one party and commodity futures trading in which a payer loses to someone he wishes to pay, from one account to another (and also write off as a trading loss), are deemed just too complicated for the “Jonathan Gruber” citizen.

Yet to be proven, but optically unpleasant, are the copious travels by our former secretary of state and the resultant copious contributions from around the world into her foundation.  “Look at Hillary traveling about.  She set a record for travel by a secretary of state.  What motivates her so?”  We begin to learn.

Though the money is “the foundation’s,” it is under the direction of and use (in many instances) for her activities, including travel and staff.  If you receive allowances for travel, food, clothing, and shelter from your foundation, exactly what else do you require?  Last year the foundation spent over 8 million dollars on travel alone.  And when your family is all on the payroll, well, party on!  Who would dare audit and punish a foundation that is doing “good work” somewhere?  Lois Lerner?

Hank Paulson, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, and others have “foundations.”  (Surely Republicans also.)  They are quick to note they do not “solicit” outside contributions.  They do not, however, say they refuse outside contributions. 

And for the money to begin flowing into your foundation, all that is required is an epiphany of sorts, a moment in which the potential donor suddenly realizes the wonderful work the foundation accomplishes.  To wit, it has been reported:

WASHINGTON — An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.

Small ball, like futures “trading.”  On to the secretary of state.  If we know that a dog bites, the dog is considered a biter.  Knowing that the arguably most successful cattle futures trader of all time quit after just one round, knowing that contractors in New York were suddenly drawn to the family’s foundation after some “good work,” we know Hillary is a biter.  The foreign money flowing into her foundation looks bad – so bad that it has been stopped, halted, but more likely diverted or delayed.  Those canines are honed sharp, from experience.