THE CLINTON FUND RAISING TRADITION

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

PETER BAKER, WASHINGTON POST - Talk about déjà vu. Pressed by
questions about a scandal-tarred fundraiser, a candidate named Clinton
decides to return hundreds of thousands of dollars. The politician's
operation promises to conduct criminal background checks on big
fundraisers in the future. And it leaks its decisions at night after a
busy day in hopes of burying the news and minimizing the damage.

In 1997, the pol, of course, was Bill Clinton and the tainted money came
from folks such as John Huang, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung and Pauline
Kanchanalak. A decade later, it's Hillary Rodham Clinton's turn to write
refund checks to deflect attention from a bundler named Norman Hsu. Few
American political families in modern times have proved as adept at
raising money -- or as practiced at the art of giving it back if it
comes with too much baggage. . .

The case evokes the fundraising scandals born out of Bill Clinton's
reelection in 1996, which dominated Washington for more than a year
after the vote as one unseemly tale after another emerged about White
House fundraising tactics and the characters trying to buy access
through questionable if not illegal methods.

The president used the White House to stroke donors in a more methodical
way than any of his predecessors had ever done, inviting hundreds of top
contributors and politically connected people to attend coffees with him
in the executive mansion or even to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom. ("Ready
to start overnights right away," Clinton wrote on a fundraising memo.)
Vice President Al Gore made fundraising calls from his office and
attended a fundraiser at a Buddhist temple where nuns who had taken vows
of poverty were illegally reimbursed for $2,500 contributions.

The Clinton team ended up sending back millions of dollars as the
revelations widened. John Huang, a Democratic National Committee
fundraiser, raised $3.4 million for the party and its campaign, but
nearly half of it had to be returned because of questions about the
donors, including some from overseas. Huang was the one who organized
the Gore event at the Hsi Lai Temple outside Los Angeles that brought in
$140,000, most of which had to be given back.

The DNC also returned $253,000 donated by businesswoman Pauline
Kanchanalak after she said the money came from her mother-in-law and
$366,000 to Johnny Chung, who told investigators a Chinese military
officer had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars to funnel to the
Democrats. The Clinton legal defense fund refunded or refused to accept
at least $640,000 from Charlie Trie, a businessman who showed up one day
with two manila envelopes filled with checks.

Hillary Clinton was caught up in the scandals to some degree. At one
point, it emerged that Chung had delivered $50,000 directly to the first
lady's chief of staff, Maggie Williams, at the White House. Williams
forwarded the check to the DNC, even though federal law bars officials
from receiving political donations on government property.

Much of the money was aimed at buying access. Roger Tamraz, a
Lebanese-American oil financier, openly admitted that he gave $300,000
to advance his plans to build a $2.5 billion oil pipeline and said he
gladly would have given twice as much. Chung, who parlayed his
generosity into 49 visits to the White House to further his interests
with foreign business clients even though the National Security Council
had warned that he was a "hustler," provided perhaps the most memorable
line of the scandal, explaining his actions by saying: "The White House
is like a subway. You have to put in coins to open the gates."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/11/deja_hsu.html?hpid=topnews


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||