Saturday, September 15, 2007

ONCE A CLINTON . . .


The New York Post

September 15, 2007 -- For Hillary Clinton, it must seem like déjà vu all over again (as Yogi Berra might put it).

But for voters, Camp Clinton's panicky move to refund $850,000 (temporarily, anyway) in donations linked to former fugitive con artist Norman Hsu hearkens back to hubby Bill's sordid fund-raising during his 1996 re-election campaign.

And the funny money isn't the only ghost from the Clintons' past.

Newsweek reports that the senator is relying for foreign-policy advice on a triumverate of her husband's top advisers - including Sandy "Sticky Fingers" Berger.

You remember Berger - who pleaded guilty to stealing secrets from the National Archives by smuggling them out in his pants and socks. (That's Hillary's problem in a nutshell - socks and Hsus.)

Specifically, the documents Berger heisted and shredded were drafts of a memo by anti-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke (who's also now mentoring Hillary) that reportedly identified national-security weaknesses so "glaring" that only sheer luck prevented a 9/11-style attack during Clinton's presidency.

Bill Clinton laughed the whole thing off as "typical absent-minded Sandy." Now this convict is poised to get a high-level job in a Clinton II administration.

As for Norman Hsu, an aide to GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson asks: "Didn't Hillary learn anything from Charlie Trie?" (He's the guy who delivered hundreds of thousands in illegal "straw man" donations to the '96 re-election campaign in two manila envelopes.)

You might have thought that Hillary's intimate knowledge of that scandal-plagued cash drive would have prompted her to avoid "bundlers" like Hsu.

If so, you would be wrong.

Last June, when the California Democratic Party passed on concerns that Hsu was involved in shady business, Hillary's finance director responded: "I can tell you with 100 [percent] certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT involved in a Ponzi scheme. He is COMPLETELY legit."

It then emerged, of course, that Hsu had been a fugitive for 15 years on charges of defrauding investors. He promised to surrender, failed to do so, then got nabbed after having some sort of breakdown on a passenger train.

Clinton's campaign insists that Hsu fell through the cracks of a faulty computer search (though reporters checking the same database found records of a bankruptcy filing, multiple lawsuits and links to possible criminal cases).

And her campaign chairman - Terry McAuliffe, known for his methodical courtship of big-money sources for Bill and Hillary - is pleading ignorance, telling The Washington Post, "I don't know how [Hsu] became involved."

This, despite reports that Hillary told her top finance aides to carefully vet big-money people - so as to avoid anything that would conjure up bad memories of Clinton-Gore '96.

But as one unnamed major fund-raiser told The New York Times: "The Clintons are the ultimate pragmatists in who they hang out with. If you can be useful to them, they will find a way to make it work."

That explains why Team Hillary turned a blind eye to Norman Hsu.

But what about Sandy Berger?

Probably just nostalgia.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if a staff member here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com could post it.

Thanks,
William

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if a staff member here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com could post it.

Thanks,
Harry

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if a staff member here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com could post it.

Thanks,
Mark

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but argg it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my message if you do!

I would appreciate if someone here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com could repost it.

Thanks,
John

Anonymous said...

Have you considered the fact that this might work another way? I am wondering if anyone else has come across something
like this in the past? Let me know your thoughts...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my message if you do!

I would appreciate if someone here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com could repost it.

Thanks,
Alex

Anonymous said...

Hello,

This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at www.blogger.com.

May I use some of the information from this blog post right above if I provide a link back to your website?

Thanks,
Jules

Anonymous said...

hello everyone
I know it's not related subgect, but I want to open a canvas prints online shop and I don't exactly sure where to start,
theres a lot of store systems on the web, and I don't know what to select from. I saw a cool [url=http://www.gayaartprints.co.uk/]online art shop[/url]
but I don't really know what script this guy is using.
can any one help?
thank you in advance
Allan

Anonymous said...

Hi,

This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com.

May I use part of the information from this blog post right above if I provide a backlink back to this site?

Thanks,
Oliver

Anonymous said...

I wasn’t aware of some of the info that you wrote about so I want to just say thank you. scholarships

thanxx
scholarships

Anonymous said...

Hey,

I have a question for the webmaster/admin here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com.

May I use some of the information from your post right above if I give a backlink back to this site?

Thanks,
Peter

Anonymous said...

you're a very clever person!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at carnageandculture.blogspot.com.

May I use part of the information from your post above if I provide a backlink back to your website?

Thanks,
Harry

Anonymous said...

For the exelent posts

I'll be back often.


Thanks!


[url=http://www.optin-marketing.com]Bulk Email[/url]