In one fell swoop, Hsu revived memories of the 1996 campaign and the fundraising scandal involving Chinese influence. The last thing Hillary needed was a reminder of the scandals that surrounded her husband, especially one that involved foreign governments potentially corrupting an American presidential election.

Now, though, we know why Hillary and her team showed so much reluctance to return the money. Hsu's fundraising for Hillary had earlier been estimated at around $150K, but the near-million figure gives a much better indication of the scale Hsu's efforts reached. It puts a dent in Hillary's liquidity at a time when she'll want to start ramping up advertising efforts. However, her money advantage will remain quite secure even with the 2% loss.

It makes it even more important to find the source of Hsu's funds. Who wanted to put that kind of money into Hillary's campaign, and why? Someone expected to profit from this scheme, and it apparently wasn't the com man who ran it.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Campaign Contributions, China, Corruption, Democratic Criminal Activity, Hillary, Hsu Scandal

Labels: Attack Politics, Bill Clinton, Cartoons, Scandal

Labels: Bill Clinton, Campaign Contributions, Cartoons, Corruption, Hillary, Hsu Scandal, Hypocrisy

For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish."

He is a fugitive," Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. "Do you know where he is?"

Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at least for the last three years.

Since 2004, one Norman Hsu has been carving out a prominent place of honor among Democratic fundraisers. He has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into party coffers, much of it earmarked for presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

In addition to making his own contributions, Hsu has honed the practice of assembling packets of checks from contributors who bear little resemblance to the usual Democratic deep pockets: A self-described apparel executive with a variety of business interests, Hsu has focused on delivering hefty contributions from citizens who live modest lives and are neophytes in the world of campaign giving.

On Tuesday, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. -- a Washington lawyer who represents the Democratic fundraiser -- confirmed that Hsu was the same man who was involved in the California case. Barcella said his client did not remember pleading to a criminal charge and facing the prospect of jail time. Hsu remembers the episode as part of a settlement with creditors when he also went through bankruptcy, Barcella said.

The bulk of the campaign dollars raised by major parties comes from the same sources: business groups, labor unions and other well-heeled interests with a long-term need to win friends in the political arena.

But the appetite for cash has grown so great that politicians are constantly pressured to find new sources of contributions. Hsu's case illustrates the sometimes-bizarre results of that tendency to push the envelope, often in ways the candidates know nothing about.

As a Democratic rainmaker, Hsu -- who graduated from UC Berkeley and the Wharton School of Business -- is credited with donating nearly $500,000 to national and local party candidates and their political committees in the last three years. He earned a place in the Clinton campaign's "HillRaiser" group by pledging to raise more than $100,000 for her presidential bid.

Records show that Hsu helped raise an additional $500,000 from other sources for Clinton and other Democrats."Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Sen. Clinton," Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for the campaign, said Tuesday."

During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them."

Wolfson did not immediately respond Tuesday night to questions about Hsu's legal problems.

Is America Really Ready for another 4 years of Clinton Scandals?

Hillary and Bill already own all of the records for scandal from their first stint in office- the infamous Clinton Culture of Corruption Years:

* Number close to the Clinton machine who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 44
* Number of convictions during his administration: 33
* Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges: 61
* Number of imprisonments: 14
* Number of presidential impeachments: 1
* Number of independent counsel investigations: 7
* Number of congressional witnesses pleading the 5th Amendment: 72
* Number of witnesses fleeing the country to avoid testifying: 17
* Number of foreign witnesses who have declined interviews by investigative bodies: 19

The Clinton machine now holds the record for the administration with:

* The most number of convictions and guilty pleas
* The most number of cabinet members to come under criminal investigation
* The most number of witnesses to flee the country or refuse to testify
* The most number of key witnesses to die suddenly
* The greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
* The greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad.

And, already the Clintons are looking at another major fundraising scandal in the face.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Campaign Contributions, Corruption, Hillary, Scandal

CLINTON, THE CIA, AND BIN LADEN: Clinton didn't actually authorize the CIA to kill Osama, as he's claimed, according to Newsweek. Someone should ask Sandy Berger about this. (Via Don Surber).

UPDATE: More thoughts from Captain Ed. "I've written before that pursuing partisan blame for 9/11 is a waste of time. It gets in the way of determining where failures occurred and developing the proper approaches to avoid them in the future. The truth is that the issues that created these failures stretched back for years, probably decades in terms of interpretation of intelligence law. However, it gets difficult to remember that when former presidents essentially lie about their roles on national television. Given Clinton's unique history, this prevarication and self-aggrandizement comes as no surprise, but it is still pretty disappointing." This won't help Hillary.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts from Ron Coleman.

Labels: Appeasement, Bill Clinton, Hillary, Misreporting Events, Osama Bin Laden

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Bill Clinton, Hillary

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Bill Clinton, Cartoons, Hillary, Libby, Pardons

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, and as Chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee. He co-chairs the bi-partisan House Army Caucus and the USO Congressional Caucus.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Chet Edwards, Military, Veterans

Labels: Bill Clinton, Corruption, Justice Department

Labels: Bill Clinton, Classified information, Intelligence, Obstruction of Justice, Sandy Berger

It goes on. The Washington Post's Warren Bass writes that I think Jerry Falwell was "on to something" when he blamed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on pagans, gays and the ACLU. Slate's Timothy Noah diagnoses me with "Mullah envy," while the Nation's Katha Pollitt calls me a "surrender monkey" and the headline to her article brands me "Ayatollah D'Souza." And in my recent appearance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," I had to fend off the insistent host. "But you agree with the Islamic radicals, don't you?" Stephen Colbert asked again and again.

Why the onslaught? Just this: In my book, published this month, I argue that the American left bears a measure of responsibility for the volcano of anger from the Muslim world that produced the 9/11 attacks. President Jimmy Carter's withdrawal of support for the shah of Iran, for example, helped Ayatollah Khomeini's regime come to power in Iran, thus giving radical Islamists control of a major state; and President Bill Clinton's failure to respond to Islamic attacks confirmed bin Laden's perceptions of U.S. weakness and emboldened him to strike on 9/11. I also argue that the policies that U.S. "progressives" promote around the world -- including abortion rights, contraception for teenagers and gay rights -- are viewed as an assault on traditional values by many cultures, and have contributed to the blowback of Islamic rage.

The reaction I'm eliciting is not entirely new to me. As a college student in the early 1980s, I edited the politically incorrect Dartmouth Review and was frequently accosted by left-wing students and faculty. They called me names back then, too. And at the time I didn't care. I often informed them that taking on our iconoclastic paper was like wrestling a pig: Not only does it get everyone dirty but the pig likes it.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Democrat Sabotage, Jimmy Carter, Media War, Middle East, The Left

Labels: Al Qaeda, Bill Clinton, Democrat Sabotage, Islamic Fascism, Military, Terrorism

Labels: Appeasement, Bill Clinton, Democrat, Holocaust, Intelligence War against Bush Admin, Iran, Islamic Fascism, Israel, Jimmy Carter, Media Bias, Nuclear, Supreme Court

Labels: Appeasement, Bill Clinton, Democrat, Islamic Fascism, Jimmy Carter, Terrorism