Tick, tick, tick….

“WASHINGTON (AP) – Norman Hsu was politician’s dream who became a nightmare. He knew people, hosted fundraisers, solicited donations. And he was an unabashed fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Now in disgrace, his role as one of Clinton’s top money bundlers will dog him and her presidential campaign while law enforcement authorities investigate his business and political dealings.

Eager to sever her links to Hsu, the Clinton campaign this week returned $850,000 in contributions linked to his fundraising activities. But Hsu’s troubles aren’t over and the spotlight on his political connections won’t recede easily.

Hsu is the latest poster boy for rogue fundraising, a man whose political shoulder rubbing reinvented him and then did him in. For Clinton, Hsu threatens to be an unwelcome reminder of the fundraising scandals that pursued her husband and the Democratic Party in the 1990s.

Joseph Birkenstock, a former chief counsel for the Democratic National Committee, said it would be unfair to link her presidential campaign to 12-year-old instances of money laundering and Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers for major Democratic donors.

“But given her last name,” he said, “the bar is somewhat higher for her politically than it would be for others.”

If Hsu had been a republican donor, Hillary, Obama and the rest of the Democrats would be citing “the culture of corruption”. As it is once Hsu’s true dealings are known it may dwarf that of Abramoff – who also donated to Democrats like Harry (I’ll never return the sixty-five grand!) Reid.

Yet Hillary is going to be the one most profoundly affected and rightly so. Let her talk of “innocence” and of “not knowing”, but the fact is that there is no way they didn’t know, unless she and her people are completely incompetant in which case she has no business running for President.

No matter how many others Hsu funneled money to the focus in on what Hillary knew and when she knew it. It’s a story that can only grow and grow in interesting tidbits.

Nevertheless, the real key is going to be when the feds begin the questioning of so-called “donors” like the Paws and other shadow famlies. That should be beginning once Hsu get’s back to California.