Hsu's Line Is It Anyway?

Danny has put together a list of puns that are all too easily roll off the tongue and keyboards of bloggers covering the Norman Hsu story. One of mine made the list.

However, much of the credit has to go to Flip, who has been dutifully trying to track down the money. A few media outlets are doing the same, and all are coming up with more questions than answers. Those questions all point to shady sources of money - and still more links to Sen. Hillary Clinton's donors.

And there's links to Chinese gangsters, freemasons, money laundering, and Hot Air has more.

The Hsu mess also has possible implications for Bob Kerrey, the current President of the New School and a possible candidate for Senator of Nebraska. Kerrey had no problem with Hsu and another shady character named as trustees of the New School, and likely didn't bother to see any red flags over money sources as long as the money was rolling in. Indeed, Kerrey recruited Hsu to become a trustee. This news sheds light on other trustees at the New School, and many are movers and shakers in Democratic party circles. However, with Kerrey contemplating the Senate run, Hsu's actions cast a bad light on Kerrey's judgment.

One also has to wonder over what happened on the Amtrak train that resulted in Hsu being taken to a hospital for treatment. Did Hsu suffer an illness, mental breakdown, contemplate suicide, or is he crazy like a fox to set up a possible defense against charges?

UPDATE:
For those who were thinking that Hsu's line of credit extended mostly towards Hillary's direction, there's now more evidence that Hsu was sending the money towards others - Sen. Obama included.

Mark Gorenberg, who now sits on Obama's national finance committee and is one of his biggest fundraisers, said Hsu organized an early 2005 event for the Hopefund and invited him to help raise money.

"He introduced me to Barack Obama," Gorenberg said of Hsu. "He was working on an event for Barack's PAC, and he asked me to help, and I did. Barack came up to San Francisco, and [Hsu] introduced him to a bunch of people."

Obama's campaign, which has donated to charity $7,000 in direct donations that Hsu made to Hopefund and his Senate campaign committee, confirmed last night that Hsu hosted a small event for the PAC in March 2005 in Los Angeles.

"We don't know how much that event raised, but we have received an estimated $19,000 from people who were associated with Hsu in published reports, all prior to Obama becoming a presidential candidate," spokesman Bill Burton said.

"We are in the process of sending these people letters to check the validity of their contributions. When Obama entered the presidential race, Hsu had decided to support Senator Clinton and bundle for her campaign," Burton said.

Obama announced Thursday that he plans to introduce legislation to require congressional and presidential candidates to disclose the identities of bundlers and the amounts they raise.

Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who oversaw California fundraising for Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential bid, and other members of Obama's national finance committee are committed to raising at least $250,000 each for the campaign.

These bundlers may be no more than bagmen, who are middlemen in influencing American politics from afar. No one knows where all Hsu's money originated. The same goes for the Paws and other contributions funneled by Hsu to Democrats across the country.