Posted on 09/11/2007 9:29:43 PM PDT by neverdem
Of all the possible vulnerabilities facing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton has long believed that the one of the biggest was money, friends and advisers say. Some sort of fund-raising scandal that would echo the Clinton-era controversies of the 1990s and make her appear greedy or ethically challenged.
As a result, Mrs. Clinton told aides this year to vet major donors carefully and help her avoid situations in which she might appear to be trading access for big money, advisers said. Also to be avoided, the senator said, were fund-raising tactics that might conjure up the Clinton White House coffees and the ties to relatively unknown donors offering large sums, like the Asian businessmen who sent checks to the Democratic National Committee.
Yet nine months into her campaign, Mrs. Clinton is grappling with exactly the situation she feared — giving up nearly $900,000 that had been donated or raised by Norman Hsu, a one-time fugitive and one of her top fund-raisers, whose actions raise serious questions about how well the campaign vetted its donors. As a result, Mrs. Clinton now finds herself linked to a convicted criminal who brought in tens of thousands of dollars from potentially tainted sources.
The Hsu case has revived ugly memories for voters about the Democratic fund-raising scandals when Bill Clinton was president, the senator’s campaign advisers acknowledge, a time...
--snip--
The campaign is refunding $850,000 to these donors, viewing the money as tainted. Yet the campaign is also risking another public relations mess by saying that it would take back the money if it clearly came from the donor’s bank account, not from Mr. Hsu or another source. The risk is that Mrs. Clinton will appear to want more cash no matter whether it was once colored by a disgraced donor...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wow, Mr. Patrick Healy, you really did a tough, probing investigative story here.... /s
This article accomplishes just about exactly what a DNC press release or a Shrillery campaign PR would want to accomplish on this story. The NY Slimes really knows how to pursue a tough, no-holds-barred investigation. /s
IIRC, you may be able to donate $2,300 for the primary and $2,300 for the general election each year. I hope someone can confirm that.
Be happy with what you get. It's better than nothing. Frontpage coverage is keeping this story alive. I'm seeing it on NBC and PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Hsu will have a sudden and mysterious illness any day now.
Notice the accuracy in reporting...
“...donated or raised by Norman Hsu, a one-time fugitive and one of her top fund-raisers,...”
I believe the term should be ‘current fugitive’, which was his status when he donated....
But we can’t expect accuracy can we?
I thought he was already hospitalized.
Hey, what’s the big deal being concerned about vetting donors? We’re electing the person who’s going to manage the war against Islamofascist terrorists, and corruption in government, and setting national policies like reforming social security and No Child Left Behind and the like. Those are difficult issues — but nearly as tough as running a campain for president and raising all that illegal money. So let’s not judge her by this.
In other news, a beautiful bridge is for sale in Brooklyn...
I’ve often said that Bill Clinton could shotgun murder a gaggle of praying nuns on the White House lawn at noon in front of a hundred TV cameras while he was high on cocaine and tequila, and it would never be reported. Or it would be blamed on the nuns. Apparently the media has the same high standard for Hillary.
So she’s worried about how it would look, not whether it’s right or wrong.
Says a lot.
What she is really worried about is that her fifth column in the remains of the fourth estate will no longer be able to cover for her, her husband, and their unending stream of lawless scandals,
The article is pure BS...
More framing Clinton as a “victim” BS.
This is a transparent attempt by the New York Slimes to minimize the impact, by presenting Hillary as the victim of a nasty little Chinese crook....
The nytimes employees have endeavored mightily to find the other source. They telephoned some acquaintances of Mr. Hsu but alas none returned the nytimes employees' calls. What's a body to do? They did their best. They are professionals.
Wow, Mr. Patrick Healy, you really did a tough, probing investigative story here.... /s
BUMP!
Yeah, I should have clarified: “ that he dies from.”
I guess it’s still to be seen at the moment.
This piece is a thinly-disguised apologetic for Clinton, making it seem that this scandal erupted despite her best efforts to run a clean campaign. In reality, her campaign ignored all sorts of red flags about Hsu, going back to the 1990’s, and only gave back the money after he was firmly in the hands of the law. There was a similar piece on Yahoo yesterday, coming from A.P. They would have cut no such slack for a Republican under similar circumstances.
Will this story grow legs, will it gain traction? It most certainly should, but we’re talking about the Hildabeast.
No.
I think it is time to revisit the Ron Brown story by our intrpid FBeeEye...he was the point man for Clinton and China Donor money wasn’t he...
I believe he was, but it’s been quite a while.
I think our best bet is to raise the profile of Hsu. I’d love to see a dead pool started on him. It is morbid, but it would get attention and you know damned well he’s going to die.
The point would be that it’s grown so obvious what the Clintons have been up to, that the public was so convinced that Hsu was going toes up, that the Justice Department would have to investigate in earnest when he did.
But of course, they investigated Foster’s death too. And did such a bang-up job with it...
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