Did Hillary Buy More Endorsements In South Carolina?
Ed Morrissey
On Monday, I posted about the curious relationship between the Hillary Clinton campaign and Darrell Jackson, an African-American state legislator from South Carolina who had surprised some by endorsing Hillary over John Edwards and Barack Obama. Robert Ford, another black legislator in the same state, joined Jackson in dumping Edwards for Hillary, and explained that an Obama-led ticket would get killed in a general election. However, it turned out that Jackson had more mercenary motives for his endorsement of Hillary -- namely, a $10,000-per-month consulting contract.
Today, Hillary faces new questions about other South Carolina endorsers who also will benefit from the same consultancy: ...
It's hard to come up with any explanation other than payoffs. Politicians issue endorsements all the time without getting hired as consultants; they wind up working as figurehead "chairs" of campaign committees, which allows them to extend their own influence in the party. They don't get hired as paid consultants, which brings up all sorts of potential conflicts of interest.
Rarely has bagman politics been played out so publicly. It's a measure of the Democratic Party that Hillary feels comfortable enough to think she will get away with it.
