I’m separating the final two items from the Thursday edition of the Morning Jolt . . . first, a development that I find particularly delicious . . .

Will We Someday See Jon Corzine ‘Frog-Marching in Handcuffs,’ to Borrow a Phrase?
The judgment of the voters of New Jersey just looks better and better:
Jon Corzine, now the center of an FBI investigation into the handling of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in his securities firm, was one of the leading Wall Street fundraisers for President Obama’s campaign and suggested to investors that he might take a top administration post if the president were re-elected.
His new legal troubles, sparked by the bankruptcy filing of his investment firm, MF Global, could complicate the president’s efforts to raise money from the financial community given Corzine’s central role in those efforts.
A recent list of top “bundlers” or elite fundraisers released by Obama’s campaign listed Corzine in the highest category — reporting that he had raised more than $500,000 for the campaign. A substantial chunk of those funds were collected at a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser that Corzine hosted at his wife’s spacious Fifth Avenue apartment last April — an event that was touted at the time as part of a concerted effort by the president’s campaign team to reach out to well-heeled Wall Street donors who had been alienated by some of his policies and previous public comments.
The Ace of Spades scoffs at the title “volunteer fundraiser.” “Oh, is that all he is? Just one of your volunteer fundraisers. Cute little note: Corzine’s company issued bonds that promised a 1% extra bounty if Cozine were called to DC by Obama to take a top administrative job (Treasury, it is assumed) . . . I think it’s a good time to ask Obama and Nancy Pelosi again if some Wall Street guys, like, specifically, Jon Corzine, should just be carted off to jail.”

How did Jon Corzine win his first Senate seat? By throwing an immense amount of money around the state, first in the Democratic primary, then in the general election. The same thing occurred when he was running for governor. I covered him in his senatorial days for a wire service that provided articles to the Bergen Record; he was always personable enough, and relatively clean by New Jersey standards (remember, these were the Torricelli years), but he never had any immense political or governmental leadership skills.

Once he was in office as governor, the state continued its slide, and he never seemed that bothered by the rising tide of corruption, mismanagement, and waste. He preferred to bang the drum on predictable demonization of Republicans as a bunch of zealots. If he had never had his fortune, he never would have had either office; I’m not sure too many Democrats felt much emotional attachment, either. No one seemed all that surprised that Corzine went back to Wall Street after running the governorship, and only a New York Times columnist seems all that surprised that he returned to the world of immense payouts for obscure, and increasingly risky, financial transactions. If he were a Republican, all of the “soulless, greedy, Gordon Gekko” stuff that the Left is throwing/will throw at Romney would be coming at him. Instead, all of his political allies turn a blind eye because he’s on their side.