Political patronage is bad, and ABC News seems to have the Hillary Clinton State Department dead to rights giving a long-time Clinton donor, Rajiv Fernando, an advisory board gig he was … well, let’s just say he probably shouldn’t have been first in line for it.

Read the whole thing if for no other reason than as a reminder of how relatively clean the Obama administration has been, and how big of a departure that is from the preceding administrations.

But also, notice the timeline implied by the article. ABC first inquired about Fernando in August 2011. State stonewalled to protect Clinton and other senior State officials, Fernando resigned, and that seemingly killed the story. Five years later, after Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, the conservative group Citizens United shipped ABC internal State emails that reveal how State selected Fernando in the first place, and the steps officials took to stymie ABC, and now the whole truth comes out.

This is, of course, standard practice for partisan opposition researchers, and reporters. It looks like a clean hit, and it should surprise no one that it landed the day after Clinton accepted Obama’s endorsement. And it’s why you won’t see a bunch of liberals whining like so:

It’s almost as if the media was just sitting on horrible Trump stories until he was the nominee. Gee... I’m shocked. https://t.co/KdjY7X8oWk — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 13, 2016

Why choose?



Seriously though, anyone have any idea who said media would turn on Trump after primary mos ago? https://t.co/RfeFLDdwyn — Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 5, 2016

Sometimes you’re paranoid, but they’re really out to get you. And sometimes you’re paranoid because assuming people are out to get you is easier than acknowledging your fuck ups or adapting to the reality of the world you live in.