TAINTED MONEY FROM POLITICIANS:

Ellen Roman, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Connecticut, said her organization got $4,000 from Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT), who received the funds as a donation from fallen mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corporation. Roman said if she had known where the contribution originated she might have asked her charity’s national office to review it, but added that “it’s very challenging times right now [and] I do have to look at what kind of resources I have.” . . .

Deciding which donations to accept, especially at a time when public sensitivities about financial improprieties are running high, can be a complicated calculus for charities and nonprofit organizations. “Organizations weigh how much of an assault on their integrity this is, and whether they have the credibility to withstand that assault,” said Gene Tempel, president of the Indiana University Foundation. “You either damage your integrity a little bit, or you don’t serve some people.”

What’s a little damage to integrity, if there’s money in it? Nothing that bothers our leaders!