CNN’s David Gergen defends Romney and Bain. He got paid by Bain.

To call David Gergen a media whore is to give insult to whoring.

Gergen is presently a CNN pundit.

He started out as a speech writer in the Nixon White House on a team that included the far right-wing anti-Semite, Pat Buchanan. He then went on to work in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

This past weekend he defended Mitt Romney’s retroactive retirement at Bain Capital.

“Facts don’t support Obama’s charges against Romney,” he declared.

But his objectivity is so compromised that he was required to start with this disclaimer:

Let me acknowledge upfront what I have said several times on CNN: I have a past relationship with the top partners at Bain that is both personal and financial. I have worked with them in support of nonprofit organizations such as City Year. I have given a couple of paid speeches for Bain dinners, as I have for many other groups. I was on the board of a for-profit child care company, Bright Horizons, that was purchased by Bain Capital. It was a transaction with financial benefits for all board members and shareholders, including me.

So, yes, I have a bias. But let me also add how that bias plays out: I have come to admire and like the leaders of Bain Capital because I have learned firsthand that in a private equity industry, where there are obviously some predatory companies, Bain stands out for the respect in which it is generally held and for the generous philanthropy of some of its partners. Nothing I have seen so far has shaken that view.

You might think that being on the payroll of Bain Capital might give Gergen pause before he went on CNN to deliver a lecture on facts.

Gergen’s excuse for this bit of whoring is that Bain Capital isn’t like those other predatory private equity firms. It’s a good private equity firm.

He likes and admires the leaders of Bain Capital.

Oh, well then.

The problem is that as NY Times business writer Joe Nocera points out in his story of Burger King, there are no good private equity firms. They’re by definition predatory.

And being philanthropic doesn’t fix it.

Gergen’s been a media whore for 40 years. Too bad he can’t retroactively retire.