"Where did Hillary get $5 million to loan a presidential campaign?"

Ed Morrissey wants to know:

Where did Hillary get $5 million to loan a presidential campaign? Bill and Hillary have done well on the speaking circuit, and Bill recently got $20 million or so for backing out of his partnership from Ron Burkle. At the time, speculation had Bill wanting to eliminate any potential conflicts between Burkle's business and Hillary's election.

Now, however, one has to wonder whether Burkle may have attempted to float money into Hillary's campaign while bypassing campaign-finance regulations. Did the $20 million, which came just two weeks ago, actually represent a fair-market settlement for Clinton's services and ownership stake in Yucaipa? Or did Burkle inflate it in order to allow Hillary to "loan" herself $5 million to keep pace with a surging Obama campaign?

The Clintons always seem to live at the nexus of questions regarding cash and politics. Whether we talk about Norman Hsu or Ron Burkle, their opacity in financial operations suggests a very, er, flexible attitude towards ethics in government -- and serves as a reminder why so many people oppose a Clinton Restoration.

The loan was reported yesterday, although I didn't notice many headlines, nor did I see much speculation about the ultimate sources of the funds.

Well, there's a notable exception. When Glenn Reynolds linked the story yesterday, he did a better job of issue-spotting than the MSM, because he linked this:

Apparently, Hillary is considering using some of her own money to finance her campaign.

If she does, I can guarantee there'll be questions about the millions in foreign money Bill Clinton has racked up in speaking fees that's likely stashed in their joint checking account.

I wrote about this in the first chapter of my book .

Since leaving the White House, Clinton has earned more than $20 million in speaking fees from foreign sources in places like the People's Republic of China and Dubai, according to her Senate financial disclosure forms. They also share a joint checking account according to those same forms.

If Hillary uses that foreign money to finance her campaign she will have successfully exploited a loophole in campaign finance rules that forbids the use of foreign money in U.S. elections.

I dunno about you, but it sounds like the beginning of another classic Clinton financial scandal. And this comes on top of recent news that Bill's been courting uranium deals for the benefit of his foundation in Kazakhstan and looming questions about whether Bill would be more of a renegade global ambassador than First Gentleman in the White House.

I mean, really. Why isn't the possibility of illegal foreign campaign money laundering considered more of a story? (Including, quite possibly, money from Holocaust deniers?)

You'd think that there'd be no way the MSM would ignore a scandal of such epic proportions.

Not with all their legendary teams of crack investigative reporters! I mean, being a blogger, all I can do I sit around in my imaginary pajamas. But the "real" reporters, are they looking into this?

Can we expect to see something in tomorrow's New York Times? The LA Times? Maybe even my local Philadelphia Inquirer?

Come on guys, let's see a little hsu leather reporting!