Clinton’s Hsu = A Big Problem For many Democrats
As I have said in the past, this Hsu controversy is like the peeling skin off an onion. We have only just started peeling away the first layer and it is getting better every day:
Disgraced fund-raiser Norman Hsu did a lot more than just pump $850,000 into Hillary Clinton’s campaign bank account: He also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local, state, and federal candidates who have endorsed Clinton or whose support she courted:
Last fall, as the Nevada governor’s race was heating up, Clinton agreed to help raise money for Democrat Dina Titus, a prominent party leader in a state that holds a key early presidential caucus. Clinton arranged for Hsu, at the time a little-known New York apparel executive with no apparent reason to take interest in Nevada politics, to give Titus $5,000 on Nov. 3, according to a person with knowledge of Clinton’s fund-raising.
And in February, when former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack ended his own White House bid, he was about $450,000 in the red. A month after dropping out, Vilsack endorsed Clinton, and Clinton agreed to help him retire his debts. (Both insisted there was no quid pro quo.)
Over the next few months, some of Clinton’s biggest fund-raisers gave Vilsack checks, including Hsu, who kicked in the maximum allowable contribution, $2,300, on May 3 after attending an event organized by Clinton’s campaign, Newsweek reported this month. An associate of Hsu’s, Paul Su, chipped in $1,000 on the same day.
The story points out that there’s nothing illegal about steering donations to other candidates, but the Hillary campaign’s conduct raises legitimate questions about just how much it coordinated its activities, endorsements and so forth with moneyman Hsu. And in turn, just how much the campaign actually knew about him. As a wanted fugitive, Hsu’s name should have come up in any background checks conducted by the Secret Service. And a California businessman claims that he warned the Hillary campaign three times about Hsu’s investment schemes.
It’s not just Hsu’s connections to the Clinton campaign that may be a problem here. If Clinton wins in 2008, she’ll get to choose a cabinet. That cabinet may be full of dirty Hsus.
We’re talking about millions of dollars that went almost exclusively to Democrats, and that was apparently coordinated through the Hillary Clinton campaign to candidates that she favored and/or wanted to endorse her.
JammieWearingFool “These people never shut up, but when it comes to discussing how unpopular The Pantsuit is, remarkably they dummy up.”
A Hsu Update : The American Pundit
The question remains, of course, how the Clinton campaign had no idea about Hsu. He was in the top 20 Democratic donors, yet had an active bench warrant for grand theft. Of course Democrats claim ignorance, saying they only did basic searches (Google), yet the man was bringing in over $850,000 just to the Clinton campaign. But were they more than simply not interested enough in looking?
Bloodthirsty Liberal » Well-Heeled Hsu
Interesting. I’ve only got $2,000 going to Lynch - all of it from our buddy Winkle Paw. Part of the difficulty here is the fact that New Hampshire’s campaign finance disclosure is, well, lacking. Governor Lynch has a great opportunity to do the public a great service by disclosing who contributed the other $4,000, so they can be added to the roster of Hsu bundlees. This is my e-mail address.
October 10, 2007 - 09:10 AM on October 10th, 2007
Pelosi: Speaking about ethics legislation, she boasted that “we have drained the swamp” in Congress and pleased government watchdog groups.
Really Nancy? Do you mean that? Really?
Let’s start with Norman Hsu shall we? I am sure that Flip would agree that this issue is anything but settled. I have
covered this issue, and it is far from being settled.
Just yesterday, I posted …