Well, Democrats, you went and ignored the massive illegal fundraising in the Obama effort, and look where its getting you:

President-elect Barack Obama took big money from a man at the center of a federal probe that has forced one of Obama’s top Cabinet picks to withdraw.

Financial records show the Obama campaign got more than $30,000 from California financier David Rubin, the target of an investigation into donations and possible “pay-to-play” deals involving New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama’s pick for commerce secretary.

Now, we can figure that Rubin was doing “pay for play” with Richardson, but only giving money to Obama because Obama is just a swell hope-n-change kinda guy, or we can presume that Rubin was figuring on cashing in during the Obama Administration. Which do you think it is?

Ah, what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Had you liberals been a little more interested in, you know?, the safety and well being of the United States, you might have paid some mind to the fact that The One was awash in a sea of illegal campaign money…that, in fact, his storied fame as the recipient of the little guy donations was just so much BS, much as the whole Obama narrative would qualify as a fairytale, if it were a bit more believable. Rubin was just chucking some money into the Obama kitty – buying a seat at the table, as were so many other fat cats out there.

This is the key to the future of our nation – that you liberals start holding your side accountable. We conservatives have done it with our side. Our tainted members are out – and if any more arise we’ll give them the boot, too. But yours are in, and staying in…and there’s no reason for people like Rubin to think other than “business as usual” because you liberals have shown, again and again, that the only thing you care about is that the guy with a “D” after his name wins. You need to wake up from your liberal stupor and start realizing that the good of your nation requires you to hammer harder on your own than you do on the other side.

Or, you can just smugly assume that everything is fine…and we’ll see you in 2010. Your choice.

More at Democrat Corruption… The Obama File… The Richardson File…

Citing an ongoing federal probe into a pay-to-play scandal, NM Governor Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name for Comrade Obama’s Commerce Secretary.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Sorry, liberals – you thought that you had elected Selfless Liberals to save America from the effects of Chimpy McSmirk BusHitler…well, turns out you’ve placed in power a bunch of corrupt, partisan hacks and you’re now praying that Obama is actually clean, but there is that fact he arose out of the very sewer of Democrat corruption known as Chicago.

Have fun!

Will the last person in the Obama Administration not touched by scandal please turn out the lights on liberalism:

A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, did similar work in New Mexico after making contributions to Governor Bill Richardson’s political action committees.

The grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into Beverly Hills, California-based CDR Financial Products Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority in 2004 after donating $100,000 to Richardson’s efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and pay for expenses at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, people familiar with the matter said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked current and former officials from the state agency if any staff members in the governor’s office influenced CDR’s hiring, said the people, who declined to be identified because the proceedings are secret. Richardson, who is President-elect Barack Obama’s designate for Commerce Secretary, has a staff of at least 30 people.

“They’re looking at everything related to CDR,” William Sisneros, the finance agency’s chief executive officer, said of the FBI probe. “They’re just trying to evaluate all the relationships to see what CDR was doing for the money.”

Par for the course in Democratic politics, to be sure – but deadly for the incoming Obama Administration which got us all hopeful about change, and such…

Depending on when you ask Obama it peaple who make under $250,000 or $200,000

If you ask Joe Biden, it’s under $150,000.

If you ask Obama surrogate Bill Richardson, it’s under $120,000.

In the end. the only thing we can count on is that if you pay taxes now, Obama would have you pay more, so he can spread the wealth around to those who don’t pay any taxes at all.

Hillary reportedly said to Bill Richardson that Barack Obama “cannot win,” but has since given a rather unconvincing denial that she ever made such a comment. Honestly, I don’t see why a denial is even necessary. Well, okay, that’s not entirely true. If Obama does get the nomination it wouldn’t look good at all if Hillary had made the comment. But let’s face it, the longer she and Obama campaign against each other, they both move further and further away from being electable.

And it’s not just the Democratic Party that is divided over the Hillary/Obama race… The liberal blogs are getting even more nasty than they usually are if you thought such a thing was possible.

Things aren’t looking any better for our friends on the left… The party is looking to Howard Dean to bring end to the primary stalemate.

I’m loving it. Hillary has repeatedly declared her intention to stick to it until the bitter end, and since this race is ultimately going to be decided by the so-called super-delegates, it’s going to get even nastier at the convention. I didn’t watch the Democratic National Convention back in 2004, but I think this year it will be worth tuning into. Hillary is now saying she’ll try convert Obama’s delegates.

Sit back and enjoy the chaos. They’re going to destroy each other.

Contrast this to the grudging acceptance in the GOP of Huckabee’s entirely quixotic campaign:

Top supporters of Senator Barack Obama, joined by at least one prominent but uncommitted Democrat, raised the pressure Sunday on Senator Hillary Clinton to bow out of the presidential nominating race if she fails to score clear victories in two big-state primary contests Tuesday.

“I just think that D-Day is Tuesday,” said Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a former Democratic presidential hopeful who has yet to throw his weight behind either leading candidate. He said the increasingly negative campaign advertisements aired by both Democrats made it more urgent that the party unite quickly behind a nominee…

…Richardson, saying that it was vital to Democrats’ hopes in the November election to mount a positive, unifying campaign, said on CNN that “whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee.” For that to be Clinton, she would have to dramatically exceed the results predicted by polls, which now show Texas a virtual toss-up after weeks of steady progress there by Obama, while Ohio voters narrowly favor Clinton.

Boiled down, they are getting so worried over in Democrat-land that even if Hillary wins Texas and Ohio, they want her out – because by now there’s enough polling data to show that she’s by far the weaker candidate to run against McCain. They’re not so much worried about what she’ll do to Obama – they’re worried that after all is said and done, she might beat Obama, and then go on to get beaten by McCain and if there’s one thing Matt and I discovered in writing Caucus of Corruption, the only thing which scares a Democrat is the prospect of losing a race. So much for loyalty; so much for letting the people and the delegates decide – regardless of what the people want, the Democratic leaderships wants Hillary out and Obama in.

Personally, I think that either candidate brings strengths and weaknesses to the table – and while it would be sweet to beat a Clinton, I think that we can just as well beat either of them, or lose to either of them if we screw it up. Naturally, the longer the Democratic contest goes on, the better for we GOPers…but, still, there is something unseemly in senior Democrats trying to declare it over before it actually is.

Rasmussen says so:

Barack Obama, fresh from his victory in Iowa, now holds a ten point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race found Obama with 37% of the vote while Clinton earns 27%. John Edwards is the only other candidate in double digits, with 19% support. Bill Richardson is the choice for 8%.

We’ll see if this is just a blip, or whether it indicates a definitive choice by the Democratic party that they want someone who 100% against everything President Bush is identified with, including and especially the liberation of Iraq.

The AP had an interesting piece this evening on the coffee tastes of the presidential candidates. As serious coffee addict, I had to check it out…

DEMOCRATS:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Sometimes black, sometimes with cream

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: Doesn’t drink it

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: Black, but rarely drinks it

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: Cream

REPUBLICANS:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Splenda, Sweet’n Low or Equal, whichever is available

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: Splenda

Arizona Sen. John McCain: Cappuccino or coffee with cream and sugar

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: Doesn’t drink it, has been known to have hot chocolate

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson: Cream

Myself… my day must begin with a venti cup of drip coffee from Starbucks, with half-and-half. What really amuses me about this is that most of the answers were consistent. Most either like it black, with cream, or with sugar (or a sugar substitute)… and then there is Hillary who said she has her coffee sometimes black, and sometimes with cream.

Sounds like her ridiculous answer to Tim Russert’s question about which team she would root for if the Cubs and the Yankees ever met in the World Series. Hillary said, “I would probably have to alternate sides.”

It seems like this is another typical have-it-both-ways response from Hillary. Over something as trivial as a coffee preference.

Polls are weak reeds, especially this far out – but any hint of vulnerability on the part of Hillary Clinton will put her entire campaign plan at risk:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday.

Clinton’s top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed.

Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five percentage points in the direct matches.

In July, Clinton narrowly led McCain, an Arizona senator, and held a five-point lead over former New York Mayor Giuliani, a six-point lead over former Tennessee Sen. Thompson and a 10-point lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Romney.

The narrative for Hillary Clinton is that she is unstoppable in the Democratic primaries and this is mostly because she is the one Democrat who supposedly can win the White House for the Democrats – I’ve never bought either part of this narrative, and with her flubs in debates, her flip flops on immigration/border security, the left’s distaste for her continued quasi-support for the campaign in Iraq, Obama’s possible lead in Iowa and now this poll showing her being beaten by all five of the top GOP contenders, I think that a lot of Democrats will question the narrative as well.

Time will tell, of course – but I think that both Obama and Edwards have obvious openings here…but, additionally, some good moves by the second tier (Richardson, eg) can have an impact. And, finally, a hint of Hillary collapse could bring both Kerry and Gore into the race as late entrants who are more credible than any of the other non-Hillary Democratic candidates.