For all my shots at the Los Angeles Times lately, let me salute their brilliant journalism legwork in laying out the case for a quid pro quo between Hillary’s campaign and the short-lived ego-trip “campaign” of Tom Vilsack.

Shortly after endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack received nearly $90,000 in donations to his defunct presidential campaign from some of Clinton’s major backers, campaign finance reports show. The donations, disclosed in Federal Election Commission filings over the weekend, came from Clinton fundraising bastions of New York, California, Texas, and Washington, D.C. None came from Iowa, where Vilsack served two terms as governor… In March he endorsed Clinton, and his Democratic organization is viewed as key to her chance of winning in Iowa six months from now. In May and June, at least 45 Clinton donors contributed $87,000 to Vilsack’s presidential campaign account. Vilsack used part of the money to repay himself $55,000, part of a personal loan he had given to his campaign. He paid other bills as well.

Cha-ching! Now, I thought I was a cynic, but read the comment from the political scientist quoted in the story:

San Jose State University political science professor Larry N. Gerston, noting that such arrangements were not unusual, called it “a pretty good investment by Hillary Clinton,” given Vilsack’s standing among Iowa Democrats.
“He is a ‘name’ there, and that is a wide-open race,” Gerston said. “Is this anything new? It is not. Far be it from me to say it is wrong, because there are few wrongs. There are far more opportunities than there are wrongs.”

Eh, you know what? Vilsack trading on his name and offering an endorsement – okay, allegedly offering his endorsement to a candidate in exchange for cash to retire campaign debt? I think that’s wrong! Yes, it’s possible he would have endorsed Hillary anyway. But this arrangement makes it appear that Vilsack would have endorsed Mike Gravel or Dennis Kucinich if they could have called on the right donors.