The Kushner Measure of Distance

I am told this is all ordinary business, which is usually how people describe a thing right before the brakes fail on a hill. If foreign capital, political proximity, and a very comfortable surname all happen to meet in one neat little arrangement, the first question is not whether the letterhead is crisp. It is whether the deal would still stand if the family tree were moved three counties over and made to wait in line like everybody else.

No one needs to invent a felony to notice bad arithmetic. A fund does not buy access on paper and then pretend it bought nothing at all; the public is not stupid, just tired. If the whole argument is that everything was legal, then fine. But legality is the floorboards, not the chandelier, and people can still hear the house creak when the money comes in wearing a foreign accent and a very expensive suit.