Pay to Play?

In his speech to a fully assembled Congress Tuesday night, President Barack Obama spoke of Leonard Abess, a Miami bank executive who, upon departing his job, received a massive separation bonus. Instead of pocketing it all, however, Mr. Abess shared it with the hundreds of people who work and used to work for him.

There's no doubt this was a great act of kindness, but was Mr. Abess's prominent placement in the new president's first "state of the nation" address a result of his political loyalty over the years?

It turns out Mr. Abess is a significant donor to the Democratic Party, amassing $25,000 in "soft money" contributions on top of more than $137,400 political contributions, according to a search of Federal Election Commission records. Try the query here.

Not sure this is anything to cry about, but in this age of cynicism about politics, it's hard not to think that he got props in a major national speech as some sort of reward for his financial support of (mostly) Democratic candidates - although he did contribute to George W. Bush's re-election campaign.