Sen. Arlen “Watch Me Pull a Magic Bullet out of My Hat” Specter placed a hold on the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General.

Kinda got lost in all Blagojevich mess. Lost in the manic-obsessive news cycle. Lost as the media shows us how Obama magically dodged that bullet.

But this is important.

Specter, maybe out of a partisan urge, or maybe because he has an actual concern for justice, has rekindled a long-forgotten firestorm called Pardongate. It seems that Eric Holder had a lot more to do with, and knew a heckuva lot more about, outgoing President Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich—the long-suffering money launderer on the lam in Switzerland—than either he, Clinton or Obama would like to admit.

Why is this important? Why is this something more than just another partisan dog and pony show?

Because it gets to heart of why some…perhaps many…are already squeamish about the Obama Administration. Just based on Obama’s appointments, it looks like we are seeing the resurrection of the Clinton Administration. It looks like he is going to blow by many of the crimes that preceded him. That he is sending signals that his change is loose, nickels and dimes, when we were all hoping for something more wholesale. He looks like he is telling “The Establishment” that he is going to be a “sound man” who will not rock the boat, nor will he turn over many rocks.

The thing about Pardongate is that it strikes at the heart of the least understood quid pro quo alliance of recent American politics.

The Bush-Clinton alliance.

Yes. I said it. That’s right.

Funny, but even Robert Gates figures into it.

Back in 1993, Clinton pulled the plug on the investigation of Iraqgate. The illegal arming of Saddam Hussein by Bush the First. Gates was in the middle of that scandal, as were many of the players who came back for another helping of executive power under Bush the Second.

Was that move by President Bubba, in the BushWorld of Personal Loyalty Above All Else, reciprocated when Bush the Second’s White House demanded that Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana stop his hearings and investigation of Pardongate? Was that why the Justice Department let it slip away?

Is that why the Congressional investigation into the Able Danger program, which was tracking Mohammed Atta almost two years prior to 9/11, short-circuited? The hard charger on that one—GOP Rep. Curt Weldon—got his goose cooked when the FBI announced an investigation of his daughter a week or two before the 2006 election. His loss put an end to the pressure to open up that can of worms…a can that has the Clinton label all over it.

I hate to break it to all those Clintonistas, but over the last eight years Bill Clinton has become quite the Bush Family favorite. Barbara said he’d become just like one of the family. Is Bill now just like Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia?

Bandar Bush…Bubba Bush?

Frankly, there is still much to be known about the craziness that went on at a little airport called Mena in Arkansas, when…during Poppy’s behind the scenes management of the Contra side of Iran-Contra…that little CIA airstrip became one of the country’s leading cocaine importation points. What then-Governor Clinton knew is hard to know. Same with Veep Poppy. The investigations of that part of Iran-Contra got killed by Rep. Lee Hamilton, Dem from Indiana. The Contras were dealing drugs. Money was being laundered through a bank in Panama, and a Panamanian airstrip was a crucial part of the north-south route (thanks to Manuel Noriega).

Poppy later said about his dealings with Noriega that there was no “quid pro quo.” Ask Rod “Pay for Play” Blagojevich…there is always a quid pro quo.

Drugs. Money laundering. Forestalled investigations.

Sound familiar?

Sound like Marc Rich?

We have been living in a Bush and Clinton America for a long time. And all those wistful thoughts about Bill’s tenure are, in light of the horrors of the last eight years, understandable.

But this Holder hold, and the appointment of much of Bubba’s economic team…of Hillary to run the State Department…of various and sundry Clintonistas…exposes just how hard it is to shake off the past. But let’s not ignore it, too.