A belated link to the Wash Times’s expose this morning of influence peddling by Obama and the DNC. It’s a worthy read, but the problem with stories like this is that neither side has much reason to get upset. Both parties have been guilty of similar shenanigans in the past (although that didn’t stop the RNC from issuing the obligatory indignant statement this afternoon), and as for the present, conservatives long ago came to realize that the Lamb of God is basically a Chicago machine politician with the same circle of cronies that any big-time operator attracts. Why, entire books have been written on the subject. In fact, the salience of the Times piece is best captured by an exchange the boss had when she appeared on “The View.” Behar challenged her by noting that all politicians are corrupt to some degree and that Obama is, after all, just a politician. To which MM replied, essentially: Exactly. So much for Hopenchange. Try to act surprised that a guy who’s already notorious for running a “perpetual campaign” would be selling briefings with his advisors to liberals flush with cash.

But there’s another point worth noting. Go back and re-read Patterico’s post from just before the election, presciently titled, “The price of a money machine: Obama would owe more favors than any president in history.” The point of that piece was that the media hype over how much money Obama received from small donors was basically a myth: He did rake in more cash in small contributions than previous candidates thanks to the availability of the Internet, but proportionally Bush took in even more than he did. Which is to say, The One depended primarily on the kindness of very, very rich strangers for his massive haul last year and now those strangers turned “friends” want something in return. This Times piece was, thus, literally a year in the making. And as he gears up for a reelection campaign that’s likely going to depend even more on limousine liberals next time, it’s only going to get worse.

Fun fact in closing: We got a tip today that this isn’t the last you’ll be hearing of this story. Stay tuned.