Meanwhile, Back At The Executive Mansion

From WaPo, via Richmond Times Dispatch:

Federal prosecutors told Gov. Bob McDonnell last week that he and his wife would be charged in connection with a gift scandal, but senior Justice Department officials delayed the decision after the McDonnells’ attorneys made a face-to-face appeal in Washington, according to people familiar with the case.

Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the McDonnells’ legal teams that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment no later than this past Monday, people familiar with the conversations said.

The governor and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, would have been charged with working together to illegally promote a struggling dietary supplement company in exchange for gifts and loans from its CEO, the people said.

The legal teams for Vaginal Bob and Lady McDonnell met with a Deputy USAG and got something of a reprieve.  Nobody's talking about it, but it could be just the usual delaying tactic of pleading for the indictments to be postponed until after McAuliffe's inauguration.  That way (per conventional wisdom), we can pretend that the stench of corruption is totally (and only) attached to these two people, and doesn't point directly at a political system that's growing into a full-blown institutionalized scheme of coin-operated politicians.

I'm not convinced yet that McAuliffe has what it takes, but it sure would be nice for him to start things off by declaring simply and straight out that taking the big bucks from the big donors doesn't mean he'll be manufacturing policies that are custom made to fit an agenda that has practically nothing to do with - and may well do some real harm to - the people who can't afford to make those high-dollar contributions.