I'll Be Gobsmacked II
Is there something going around? First, the EU refuses to deposit anything in Cuba's tin cup. Now uberliberal Richard Reeves says that Terry McAuliffe should resign or be fired as the head of the Democratic National Committee.

This is what you need to know about his story: McAuliffe invested $100,000 in Global Crossing, one of the big companies that has screwed its employees, shareholders, customers and creditors, and then made $18 million on that investment when the company went public. Next, of course, it headed for disgrace and bankruptcy.

McAuliffe may have known nothing of the hype and hanky-panky that destroyed Global Crossing and the people who worked for it or believed in it. Doesn't matter. The fact is that anyone who can count knows there's something wrong here.

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McAuliffe, a protege of former President Clinton (he was going to loan the Clintons the money to pay for their new home before cooler heads prevailed), is one hell of a nice guy -- so they say. He has been chairman of the party since the beginning of 2001, after serving as Clinton's finance chairman. But, unlike former political finance guys, he was never the quiet type. When he was asked about his Global Crossing killing, he said that just showed the miracle of capitalism.

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But, whatever happens, if corporate corruption is the overriding issue, the Democrats will have to choose between their boy Terry and victory.

Mr. Reeves is rather too gentle in his condemnation of the Eddie Haskell of American politics. Some of Terry's other hijinks (courtesy of the New Republic) include:

More than almost anyone else, McAuliffe personifies Clinton-era sleaze. It was McAuliffe who, as Democratic finance chair, dreamed up the idea of parlaying White House hospitality into campaign cash. It was McAuliffe who broke down the barrier between hard money contributions, which are regulated and go directly to candidates, and soft money contributions, which are not limited but are supposed to be restricted to party-building activities. And it was McAuliffe who presided over Democratic fund-raising while the party surreptitiously sought illegal money from foreign donors--the scandal, you'll remember, that probably kept the Democrats from retaking the House in 1996.

And then there's the corruption drama that may ultimately bring McAuliffe down: the Democratic National Committee's role in Ron Carey's campaign against James Hoffa for president of the Teamsters. Four Democratic Party officials and Carey campaign workers have sworn under oath that McAuliffe tried to help Carey illegally launder contributions to his campaign through the DNC. Specifically, they say McAuliffe tried to convince donors who had no particular interest in the Teamsters to give money to Carey on the condition that the Teamsters would make equal or greater contributions to the DNC.

It looks like Terry will beat the rap on the Teamsters scam thanks to Mary Jo White's ineptitude which adds even more luster to his crown as Sultan of Sleaze.

The real question is how a young man of modest circumstances became a multimillionaire through a career as a political fund raiser. The question provides its own answer, but Byron York gives a brief catalog of some of the shadier deals. It's that darn miracle of capitalism again, eh Terry?