Hoosier Daddy? Part II

Yesterday, I noted the resignation of Bush's budget director, Mitch Daniels, supposedly to run for the governorship of Indiana. But is there another reason? Well, maybe. Steve Soto speculates that Daniels may have been pushed out in advance of this story breaking. The state of Indiana has issued subpoenas to many Indiana business bigwigs as a result of an investigation of shady insider trading with an Indiana utility company, where over $71 million worth of stock got dumped just before the stock tumbled. Included in the list of subpoena recipients is none other than Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., who accounted for nearly a million and a half of the sum.

I yield the floor to Mr. Soto:

No matter how much Karl tries to bury the insider trading taint of this administration, going all the way to the top with Bush’s own Harken sleaze papered over by his dad’s SEC, bad apples will keep appearing. It would take an enterprising member of Congress (hello Henry Waxman) to have a dedicated staff to start digging through records and see how many current and former Bush Administration officials have profited from similar transactions. Such information could then be used to roll out and reintroduce this issue for next year’s election so that the issue of trust and integrity can be place front and center with Bush, and chip away at a cornerstone of Rove’s strategy.

As I said, Rove has never had to face an opponent who went right after Bush on the issue of trust and integrity. He has always been able to smear opponents through surrogates (see McCain, John - South Carolina) while keeping Bush from overreacting and creating more problems. It is time to develop this information and possible line of attack further and use the information gained to come after them relentlessly on it.