Josh Marshall points out that Barbara Bush’s philanthropic alley-oop (donating money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Relief Fund, but specifying that it be used only to purchase a product sold by her son’s company) is actually even more unconscionable than it might appear — and let’s face it, it already seemed like a hanging offense.

Marshall notes that George Sr. and Barbara are themselves investors in Ignite!, Neil’s pampered little start-up.

And that would make Barbara Bush’s earmarks on the money not just a way to enrich one of her wayward boys, but not incidentally a way to see a healthy return on her own investment. The news coverage of the gift and the company involved already exceeds any start-up’s dreams of free media.

Nearly all of it has been bad press, of course, but still it beats utter obscurity.

Ever the innovators, these Bush types. Not merely an alley-oop, but a philanthropic triple-play, coming right back to Kennebunkport: Tinker to Evers to Cash.