For Bill and Hillary Clinton, charity begins at home.

The pattern persists. Ambiguity, vagueness, omissions, contradictions, lies, and deceit. When it comes to Bill and Hillary Clinton nothing is ever clear-cut, simple, unambiguous, or what it appears to be on the surface.

Case in point, as reported recently by The Washington Post, after earning more than $109 million over that past eight years, the Clintons took tax write-offs for $10.2 million in charitable contributions. Sounds almost commendable, doesn’t it? Until you dig a little deeper… In most of those years, the Post reports that that “charitable” money was actually donated to the Clinton Family Foundation.

Talk about charity beginning at home–or at least at the office.

The charity, based at the Clintons’ Chappaqua, N.Y., home has a familiar staff, mainly, Bill Clinton serving as its president, Hillary Clinton on duty as secretary and treasurer, and let’s not forget that dear daughter Chelsea also takes time from her busy schedule to fulfill the important duties as the charity’s director. But none of the Clinton clan reportedly takes a single penny of compensation.

The Washington Post also reports that between 2001 and 2006, the years for which Clinton tax records are now available for public perusal, the family poured nearly $6 million into their own foundation. Pardon me if I don’t nominate the Clintons for a “Good Citizen” award anytime soon.

It comes as no surprise to most Americans that habitual Hillary and her husband are millionaires many times over. But the good people of Pennsylvania may not exactly feel like kindred spirits to the Clintons come primary election day in a couple of weeks. After all, according to the Los Angeles Times, recent census data for Pennsylvania lists the median income as about $44,000. Less than what the Clintons claimed in “cleaning and maintenance” expenses on their homes. $44,000? One has to ask, what on earth are they cleaning with, Evian? Cristal…?

Also not surprising, the pace of the Clinton’s charitable giving picked up last year, the Times noted, when Hillary Clinton began her presidential run. In a summary of income and contributions expected for 2007, the Clintons are listed as making more than $3 million in charitable donations, double the charitable donations the Clintons made just one year earlier. (Did they really think no one would notice?)

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect what’s actually going on here. The Clintons are once again hoping that American voters won’t bother to dig any deeper into the never-ending shallow sham the Clintons are experts at shoveling. For the Clintons, manipulating the public perception to distort the rank reality is job #1.

When you cast a light on a cockroach it scurries for the nearest darkness. When you shine light on the most famous couple from Arkansas, they peer into the light, look you square in the eye, bite their lip, and try to convince you that they love the resulting warmth.

Cockroaches have managed to survive for nearly 300 million years–outlasting dinosaurs by 150 million years. I don’t know that the Clintons will stick around that long, but for the Obama campaign, it certainly must seem that way.