The Clintons: No Interests Left To Be Conflicted Over

Is there anyone these grifters didn't shake down for contributions? Better yet, is there anyone they refused money from? No wonder Bubba was so desperate to keep the list of donors secret. Every Arab oil tick imaginable is on the list.

It's time to get Bubba fitted for a burnoose.

Arkansas good ol' boy Bill Clinton turned the ancient lands of Arabia into his personal ATM over the past decade, raking in tens of millions of dollars worth of donations to his private foundation, records disclosed by the former president yesterday show.

Desert-dwelling donors, including Gulf states, billionaire Saudis and Arab-focused charities, gave big to his William J. Clinton Foundation in what could be called the world's biggest sheik shakedown.

The oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone gave between $15 million and $35 million to the nonprofit.

In all, more than 200,000 individuals and entities gave to Clinton - for a total of nearly $500 million. And that means 200,000 possible conflict-of-interest headaches for wife Hillary, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for secretary of state.

For years, Clinton steadfastly kept his donors' identities more hidden than Ali Baba's cave, even as Hillary campaigned for president and watchdogs called for transparency.

But, to help ease her upcoming Senate confirmation hearing, Clinton finally said "open sesame" to his foundation's books and provided the names of every donor plus broad range amounts of the gifts.

The largest gifts, either to fund his presidential library or global poverty-fighting charity initiatives, came from the Saudis.

Friends of Saudi Arabia, a government-sponsored agency that fosters ties between the kingdom and the United States, gave an additional $1 million to $5 million on top of the direct $10 million to $25 million from the kingdom itself.

And Saudi billionaires Sheik Mohammed H. al-Amoudi and Nasser al-Rashid donated in the $5 million-to-$10 million range. Hamza B. al Kholi, a Saudi construction titan, gave between $100,000 and $250,000.

The Persian Gulf governments of Kuwait, Qatar and Oman and the Far Eastern sultanate of Brunei each gave between $1 million and $5 million, and another $250,000 to $500,000 came from the US Islamic World Conference.

The United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Foundation, which aims to promote education in the Middle East, gave between $1 million to $5 million, as did the Zayed family, that country's ruling family.

Not only that, a favorite liberal bogeyman, Blackwater Worldwide, also donated.

Embattled defense contractor Blackwater Worldwide contributed a pile of cash to Bill Clinton's foundation, newly released records show - the first potential conflict for his wife, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who may ultimately decide if the contractor stays in Iraq.

Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq, donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to the former president's foundation, records show.

Assuming Clinton is confirmed as secretary of state, she will have final say on whether Blackwater will keep its contract despite a deadly shooting last year.

As Dick Morris notes, now with Mrs. Clinton in as Secretary of State, those who donated will be looking for their payback.

Pardon us for looking such generous gift horses in the mouth, but it is hard to imagine so many governments, monarchs and businessmen in the Middle East giving money unless it was with some hope of a political return. Will that return now come with the appointment of Sen. Clinton as secretary of state?

How can Hillary Rodham Clinton mediate and negotiate conflicts in the Middle East impartially when her husband's library and foundation - over which he has total control - have been bankrolled by the very nations with whom she must negotiate?

Oh, and remember that Marc Rich pardon? Of course you do.

And, almost as an afterthought, the list reveals a donation of at least $250,000 from Denise Rich, presumably in return for her ex-husband's presidential pardon.

How could a US senator possibly serve dispassionately while her husband was collecting money from these donors on this kind of scale? And how could we have almost elected a president without realizing these conflicts existed? And how on earth can a secretary of state function with these conflicts hanging over her head?