Obama Returning More Than $200,000 In Campaign Contributions After Getting Caught Taking Money From Family Of Mexican Fugitive

It's not a question of doing the right thing. It's a matter of getting caught and trying to cover your butt the Obama way. The New York Times reported yesterday that President Obama's re-election campaign had accepted more than $200,000 in donations from a Chicago family linked to Mexican violence and political corruption. According to the Times, Carlos and Alberto Rojas Cardona began raising big bucks for Obama's re-election last fall. Their brother Juan Jose Rojas Cardona a/k/a Pepe Cardona, a casino owner, has been a fugitive from justice on drug and fraud charges in Iowa since 1994. Pepe Cardona is suspected of assassinating a business rival in Mexico and bribing Mexican officials. The Cardonas arranged for the former Chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to make the case with Iowa's governor for a pardon for their fugitive brother on his way out of office in 2009, a pardon request ultimately turned down by the Democratic governor. The Obama campaign insists the receipt of the campaign contributions from the Cardonas was an innocent mistake:

More than 1.3 million Americans have donated to the campaign and we constantly review those contributions for any issues," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an email after a  New York Times report on the decision appeared late on Monday.

"On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and from any other donors they brought to the campaign," LaBolt said.

The Obama administration has already been under fire for its Operation Fast & Furious, a government-run operation by which the ATF deliberately allowed thousands of high-powered firearms to be purchased by Mexican arm traffickers linked to major drug cartels supposedly in an effort to track down illegal arms traffickers. The guns were subsequently used to commit multiple violent crimes resulting in the death of more than 200 persons, including the execution of at least one federal border patrol agent. It doesn't take much speculation to believe that there is much more to the government's failed operation than meets the eye. "We have met the enemy and it is us."