Welcome to the Kerry Administration! Spend a cool G, get a plush government job. . .

If someone donated money to a specific senator’s campaign warchest, and that same senator just happened to nominate you for a government commission days later, would you call that coincidence? Or the definition of special interest politics? John Kerry calls it circumstance:

“John Kerry is grateful for their support, and we should be thanking them for their service, not questioning it,” she added. “The timing of the contributions was completely circumstantial.”

But a longtime government watchdog says it is common for Washington appointees to donate just before or after they are nominated.

“This is just business as usual in Washington,” said Larry Noble, the former chief lawyer for the Federal Election Commission who now heads the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. “Kerry is out there saying he is not being part of that game, yet he is the product of the same money system.”

I’d bet he’s grateful for their support!