Posted on 09/16/2007 7:10:03 AM PDT by jdm
The Washington Post asks the question at the base of the Hsustock scandal, but comes up with few answers. What did Norman Hsu hope to gain by flooding the zone with millions in contributions to Democrats, especially Hillary Clinton? Where did he get the money at the beginning, before apparently fleecing Woodstock founder Joel Rosenman of $40 million? His investors would like the answers to all of the above:
To raise $850,000 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign in just eight months, Norman Hsu tapped an eclectic group of donors that included wealthy investors in his apparel ventures, hotel shopkeepers, a 96-year-old in a Florida retirement home and an auto-body worker who mistakenly thought he would get a tax break for his political generosity.
The Clinton campaign has not yet released any information about the 260 donors whose contributions it is now refunding because they were credited to the prodigious fundraising of the former fugitive, but a detailed analysis of donors Hsu brought to Clinton shows that he tapped many Asian American donors in California and New York, including complete strangers as well as his relatives. He also raised political funds from people who had already invested large sums in his private business ventures.
Some donors among the nearly 100 identified this week said they never met Hsu and did not know that their donations had been credited to his fundraising. Others had trouble explaining why they gave the funds to Clinton or could not recall the circumstances in which they met Hsu.
"He called me and asked me if I'd give $1,000. . . . I don't know how you'd say we struck up a relationship. I just knew him," said Henry Rosenberg, a New York City lawyer. Asked if he wanted Clinton, New York's junior senator, to be the next president, Rosenberg said: "I don't know. He just asked me to do it, and I did."
Nay Oo, another Clinton donor for whom Hsu claimed credit, was listed in the candidate's fundraising reports with an address in Daly City, Calif. The home's owner, Ellen Yee, said Oo used to rent a room in the house but hadn't lived there for years. A man who returned a call to Oo's phone and identified himself as Oo said he works in an auto-body shop and does not know Hsu. He said he donated $250 to Clinton at the request of a landlord. "I thought it was going to be a tax write-off," he said.
Most of this article rehashes what we already know about Hsu. He charmed people into both political donations and investments, and in the case of the latter, promised large returns for their money. The profile of the donors that arises doesn't come as much of a surprise -- mostly Asian-Americans with social and business ties to Hsu. He also squeezed $4600 out of Rosenman's 96-year-old father from that Florida retirement home, a transaction that might bear a little more investigation as a potential front for Rosenman's money. It seems a little unusual to have a person that age suddenly send thousands for a presidential candidate shortly after his son goes into business with the bundler.
The Los Angeles Times doesn't do much better at unraveling the enigma. However, the Times does a good job of determining how Hsu ingratiated himself with the Democrats -- lots and lots of gifts:
Last year, to celebrate New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's reelection victory, Norman Hsu capped an amazingly successful year as a Democratic fundraiser by treating members of her campaign staff to several days at the glitzy Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas, complete with free show tickets and dinners at posh restaurants.
Among Hsu's guests was Patti Solis Doyle, who now heads Clinton's presidential campaign and has long been one of Clinton's most trusted advisors....
By living on a lavish scale, he convinced associates that he was backed by great personal wealth. He also made a point of doing favors. He would provide hard-to-get dinner reservations at exclusive restaurants, or bestow elegant gifts on associates. Clinton confidant Solis Doyle got a coveted, and pricey, designer handbag -- a gift that made her so uncomfortable she returned it. ...
As they look back, Clinton staffers say Hsu's efforts to ingratiate himself seem painfully, embarrassingly obvious. In addition to the post-victory trip to Las Vegas in November 2006 for Solis Doyle, two junior staffers and a New York-based fundraiser, Hsu provided a hotel stay in Las Vegas for two other campaign workers in April 2006.
While at the Mandalay Bay, Hsu took at least some of his guests to a favorite bar, Red Square. It features a huge statue of a decapitated Lenin at the entrance, and the top of the bar is sheathed in ice to maintain the chill of the caviar and exclusive vodkas.
It's a strategy that allowed Hsu to hoodwink Hillary and worm his way into the inner circles of the Democratic Party. Rather than ask themselves what Hsu wanted with the freebies, the Clinton camp and other Hsu clients just kept reveling in his largesse. That certainly has some bearing on the ethics of a potential Hillary Clinton administration, as well as its sophistication and judgment. Hillary has talked about how George Bush fooled her into voting for the Iraq war, and it looks like Hillary, Barack Obama, Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Cuomo, and a host of other Democrats either consistently act as saps, or other explanations apply for their greed.
We still don't know much about Hsu's motives, but we certainly know enough about those of his Democratic Party partners. Hopefully, we'll start learning more about the sourcing of Hsu's money -- a matter on which the Democratic Party showed no concern whatsoever until their con man got exposed.
Good point.
For the smartest woman in the World, she is dumb as a rock.
It just goes to show - brains and integrity are not the same. She is willing to do or say anything to get elected. She is willing to take money from anyone and everyone - her only goal is not to get caught until after the election.
That's rich, spin it to make Hillary a victim.
Barf.
Somethimes this stuff just writes itself!
Hsu wanted a pardon and Hillary is just the candidate tp play along.
I dread that algore now enters stage left.
The PRC's military obviously needs to catch up on the latest missile targeting software, Stealth research, and Nuclear secrets they have been left out since the Klintons left office...
“Why would we want a for a President a person who is constantly surrounded by deceipt and incompetence and doesn’t have the good sense to know anything about it?”
Brilliant! You have concisely summed up the worst of Hillary, as well as the best-known. For example, how long could she hang around Bubba and not know?
Thanks!
He hoodwinked the smartest woman in the world? I doubt it. Hillary's been a willing participant and enabler for all types of illegal and unethical activities for years.
Ed Morrissey should know better than to write this “Hillary is a VICTIM” CRAP!!! HSU, ROSENMAN, the CLINTONS, SCHWATRZ, SCHWARTZMAN et all are ALL in this TOGETHER!!
I’ve replied to your posts a couple of times and find very little interest in my take of shu and his unknown origin as to where he hot so much money. I have followed the drug kingpins’ connections to the clintons. Clintons, both, do not help the drug lords of columbia, Afganastan, Albania, and for that matter much of the world that produces opium and heroin and mariquana. They have ties to the entire world of drugs, prostitution, slavery. they back the taliban, the KLA in Albania, Columbia, and other South American countries. They get their cut, and I am sure it is huge. They have to launder it somewhere. They pick a patsy such as Shu and others to launder it into their campaign chests, thereby becoming legitimate. They make millions, possibly billions, available to them to pay off “useful idiots” to dispurse it in their names by writing checks to their campaigns. Go think. It’s more than possible. How else would they launder such tremendous amounts of illegal drug money. I am sure that Shu gets his share of the illgotten drug money.
RE bob Kerry and Hsu. Kerry owned pizza franchises, and in Omaha that means drugs. Once they caught the mayor and Willie thiesen, owner of Godfathers, bringing a planeload of cocaine into the municipal airport. The powers that be quietly forced the mayor to resign and told the Pizza magnate to use his own airport.
You really are not a fan of Capt. Ed are you?
A LOT of influential people read Ed, and him EXCUSING Hillary will be their spin also.
I did not interpret what Ed said as portraying Hillary as a victim.
I did.....he said she RETURNED the money....ala a VICTIM. I want Ed to have the PROOF that she returned the money, and to WHO!
Returning money doesn't make someone a victim. I do agree with you, however, that he should not state her having returned money as fact until it has been verified.
THANK YOU!!!
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