Over on the home page, a look at Creigh Deeds, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia.

A short part that got got trimmed from the piece examined Deeds’s 2008 effort to get a lawyer from Bath County, Laura Dascher, appointed as a judge to the state’s Juvenile Domestic Relations Court. Deeds reportedly threatening to hold up two circuit-court appointments over the appointment. Dascher had contributed $2,500 to Deeds’s campaign fund five months earlier. Deeds defended Dascher by saying she had been endorsed by the bar association and he felt it was important to have a judge from that part of the district.

Now, $2,500 is a pretty small amount to raise a stink over. But even if we presume that Ms. Dascher is a fabulous lawyer, I put the question to the Deeds campaign of whether there is a reason for the public to be skeptical, troubled, or concerned when lawmakers use their influence and leverage to put campaign donors into important state positions. They declined to answer this or any other question.

In response to another controversy, about serving as a state legislator while working at a law firm that employed state lobbyists, Deeds responded, “If I thought I were doing anything unethical, I would step away from it.” But that’s the point. The human mind is capable of remarkable feats of self-justification; that’s why “trust me, my motives are pure” is usually insufficient in these circumstances.