Glenn Beck, Where Art Thou? - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner .

Rarely has a single scandal summed up almost all the current pathologies of the corrupt Washington scene, combining insider bailouts, revolving-door influence peddling, racial-identity politics, subsidies for failing institutions that make a proven record of partisan Democratic politics, and Democratic efforts to reward wealthy friends under the pretext of social justice.

What do you do when few people are listening to your radio stations, and, as a result, ad revenues are not sufficient to pay your rather large overhead and debts?Not hard to guess.

TheNew York Timesreports that the Congressional Black Caucus is keeping up legislation until it wins a bailout for a empire of black-owned inner-city radio stations, which areapparently quite broke. (Rush Limbaugh did not have this up.)

Inner City Broadcasting reportedly owes $230 million to the likes of GE Capital and Goldman Sachs - and, not surprisingly, it has no regard to pay back all those millions.

So?Yes, in the Age of Obama, you do the following:

1) Get the Black Caucus to strong-arm the government into sending you the cash while providing the proper progressive cover. (In their words: "It is absolutely necessary that we do not allow this once-in-a-generationfinancial crisisto erase the modest inroads minorities have made into the broadcast industry.")

2) Make certain that you reach the right government authorities, such as Timothy Geithner and Rahm Emanuel. ("We part the concerns raised by C.B.C. members about struggling minority communities, and that`s why we`ve engaged in a confident way to have progress on these issues," saidWhite House spokeswomanJennifer R. Psaki.)

3) Hire a liberal-insider lobbyist firm, such as the Podesta Group, to implement the pressure.

4) Get the right Podesta hirelings assigned to your case, such as the old executive director himself of the Black Caucus, and a former senior aide to Sen. Charles Schumer.

5) Choose the good members of Relation to leave the shakedown: members who bear little worry about ethics (such as Rep. Charles Rangel, a large recipient of Inner City Broadcasting cash) and/or a proven record of wasting government funds on behalf of liberal constituencies (such as Rep. Barney Frank of Fannie Mae fame).

6) Make certain that a proven attack dog, such asRep. Maxine Waters,supplies the proper race/class context. ("While we value the motive for the elaboration of regulatory authority, we can no longer open for our public policy to be outlined by the public survey of Wall Street," Waters said.)

Presto! You get results - or, in the sport of Inner City head Pierre Sutton, "They got the message."

A fiction writer could not dream up characters like Emanuel, Frank, Geithner, Podesta, Rangel, and Waters - with GE and Goldman Sachs as relish! - all in one novel.