You’d think that a campaign as well oiled as Obama’s could actually learn how to vet appointees. We’ve had multiple candidates with tax problems and now two with pay-for-play baggage. Adolfo Carrion, President Obama’s “urban czar”, took thousands of dollars from developers as Bronx borough president around the time the same companies received big contracts from the borough.

The man who is President Obama’s newly minted urban czar pocketed thousands of dollars in campaign cash from city developers whose projects he approved or funded with taxpayers’ money, a Daily News probe found.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion often received contributions just before or after he sponsored money for projects or approved important zoning changes, records show.

Most donations were organized and well-timed.

In one case, a developer became a Carrion fund-raiser two months before the borough president signed off on his project, raising more than $6,000 in campaign cash.

In another, eight Boricua College officials came up with $8,000 on the same day for Carrion three weeks before the school filed plans to build a new tower. Carrion ultimately approved the project and sponsored millions in taxpayer funds for it.

We’re not talking one instance on one occasion where the donations lined up with project approval from Carrion. We’re talking about many thousands of dollars over many years, all around the time Carrion would end up signing-off on contracts given to the donors. If this is all a coincidence, it’s probably the most remarkable in American political history.

You’ll recall that Governor Bill Richardson was appointed Commerce Secretary but pulled-out when it was discovered he was under investigation for pay-for-play. And that Hillary Clinton has had some of her own pay-for-play issues. Did we expect anything less from an appointer who grew up politically in the Chicago Machine? It’s all business as usual.