Judd Gregg, Rock Of Integrity

When Judd Gregg pulled out as Commerce Secrtary, conservatives praised him for hewing to his conscience. "What Judd Gregg showed today," kvelled Karl Rove, "is that he's not willing to swap his integrity for a place in the Cabinet."

This explanation now seems, ah, incomplete:

President Barack Obama's former nominee to become commerce secretary, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state's redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found.

Gregg, R-N.H., has personally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Cyrus Gregg's office projects at the Pease International Tradeport, a Portsmouth business park built at the defunct Pease Air Force Base, once home to nuclear bombers. Judd Gregg has collected at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investments there, Senate records show, while helping to arrange at least $66 million in federal aid for the former base.

           --Jonathan Chait