One thing you can say about R. Allen Stanford, the putative Texas billionaire and disgraced moneyman: The guy is a devout believer in bipartisanship.

Since the SEC accused Stanford of orchestrating an $8 billion fraud, earning him recognition as a "mini-Madoff," there has been a lot of chatter of his ties to Texas Republicans, including Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas (post on Sessions earlier today).

But Stanford is also in bed with a legendary Texas Democrat--none other than former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes of the Ben Barnes Group, which billed the Stanford Group $625,000 last year. That's more than it charged any other client, according to records on file with OpenSecrets.org. In a political and business career spanning five decades, Barnes has run for governor and lost, declared bankruptcy, and become a millionaire lobbyist. In 2004, he was vice-chair of Sen. John Kerry's presidential run.

The Ben Barnes Group largely has Democratic ties and counts as clients some of the state's most powerful trial attorneys. According to a Houston Chronicle review of Stanford-related campaign finance records, the group's work for Stanford included lobbying Congress on economic development in the Caribbean. Sounds like fun.

Of course, Stanford's ties to Texas Republicans also have a tropical feel. The moneyman paid for Cornyn ... and Sessions to visit locations as far-flung as Antigua,  the location of Stanford's bank that paid out abnormally high rates of return. Cornyn and Sessions officially went on a "fact-finding" trip.

Alas, one of the facts that apparently eluded them was the integrity of Stanford's finances.

Photo: Texas state Senate chamber, by flickr user pncsmith, used via the Creative Commons license.