Pantsuit Payola

It's always something shady with the Clintons.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign reached a deal to pay a key South Carolina black leader's consulting firm more than $200,000 just days before he agreed to endorse her run for president, it was revealed yesterday.

The arrangement involves South Carolina state Sen. Darrell Jackson, a well-connected African-American leader and pastor whose support is coveted by national campaigns.

Nothing illegal necessarily, but why not mention it before the endorsement?

Jackson acknowledged that his financial dealings with the Clinton camp should have been mentioned on Tuesday, when his support for the Democratic front-runner was revealed by a South Carolina colleague.

But Jackson balked at suggestions that his political support for sale.

"It's not about the money - there were some other candidates who offered to double [Clinton's] offer," Jackson told The Post, though he declined to say which candidates. He said his firm, Sunrise Enterprises, is the "oldest, largest and the best" in the state.

Meanwhile, it seems not everyone is sold on Barack Obama.

Jackson's support first came to light when a colleague, state Sen. Robert Ford, told reporters on Tuesday that he and Jackson had decided to support Clinton.

Ford said he himself was swayed by personal calls from both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and he said Obama could end up being a drag on every other candidate on the Democratic ticket if he is the nominee "because he's black and he's top of the ticket. We'd lose the House and the Senate and the governors and everything."

Hmm. Playing the race card so early?

UPDATE: NY Post editorial says The Old Hillary is Back. I don't think she ever left.