Hizbollah stumps up cash for Lebanese war victims |Top News |Reuters.com: "Hizbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group's support among Lebanon's Shi'ites and embarrassing the Beirut government."
==========

So what's new? Al Capone was one of the major dispensers of welfare, food, and other niceties to the poor in Chicago during his heyday. Others build political machines that regularly bought votes in cities all over the U. S. It seems that maybe Hizbollah is on its way to being a respectible dispenser of goodies in return for political power and the destruction of its enemies, chief among them America and Israel.

It takes a lot of money to buy elections in the U.S., even if you keep the law while doing it. But it can be managed by good lawyers and campaign advisors.

It is a lot of trouble if you are out of office, however. You must rely upon promises. Or, if ideas for promises are scarce, you can simply keep up a drum beat of criticism about those who are in office. The latter is risky, however, because voters might possibly remember and expect you to not make mistakes when you are in office.

It's a tough world, except for those who are drinking out of the hose.