Saturday, September 01, 2007

Clinton Takes Funny Money and Dog Bites Man

The headlines are full of it, Clinton taking outsized campaign contributions from people either already on the lam, or about to be.

Really, where's the news?

A middle-income family near San Francisco has chipped in more than $200,000 in the past couple of years, part of bundled zillions brought together by the fraudster in flight Mr. Hsu? So what?

Norman Hsu, Charlie Trie, Peter Paul, the Ching Hai Buddists, the mysterious Mr. Wu in Macao and the helpful Ms. Chu.

Shopping bags full of cash dropped on desks.

The list goes on and on.

No news here, move along, move along.

UPDATE: Hillary has decided to donate $23,000 of the funds from Hsu to charities of her choice. Two realities, both typical Clintonisms: A vigorish of 2.3% is not bad at all. Hsu hands Clinton $1 million and when they're caught, Hillary hands $23,000 off to charities. Second, I'll bet she doesn't make the donation to The Salvation Army—no boost there.

UPDATE II and BUMP: Captain's Quarters reports that the Department of Justice has opened a criminal probe of Mr. Hsu's contributions to Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats with a particular focus on the source of his funds. The Captain also points out how easy it would have been for Senator Clinton to be aware of Mr. Hsu's criminal background, if she cared.

Besides, it wasn't really a campaign contribution.

Think of it as a reservation deposit for the Lincoln Bedroom.

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