Behind Hsu Eyes

No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes

No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
(P. Townshend, Behind Blue Eyes)

Unfortunately for Hillary! Clinton (and despite the assertions by the left that the story isn't getting traction), the Norman Hsu story is not going away. In fact, it is growing on the wire services. The stories are also pointing directly at the problems it is causing - and will continue to cause - for Hillary 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."

Though Clinton was by far the biggest beneficiary of his fundraising, Hsu touched many with his largesse. Even Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who is leading one investigation of Hsu, received $2,000 from Hsu during his last re-election campaign. His spokeswoman says the district attorney has put the money into an escrow account pending the outcome of the investigation.

Hsu sat on the board of trustees of The New School, whose president is former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb. He was co-chairman of a gala New York benefit last October in honor of the late Robert F. Kennedy. Bill Clinton, there to receive an award, thanked the evening's benefactors, "especially our friend Norman Hsu."

Those words will come back to haunt a few candidates in the very near future - fair or not. The AP story has all of the most recent sordid details as well. That will get picked up by a lot of smaller papers and will get a very wide readership. There is a word of caution in the story, however:

That the Clinton campaign — and other Democratic candidates — had failed to detect his status as a fugitive has prompted Clinton and her rival John Edwards to announce that they will now conduct criminal background checks on their fundraisers.

"It is surprising to me, given the fact that cumulatively the presidential campaigns have raised in excess of $250 million dollars, to have only one individual rise to the top as a problem," said Paul W. Houghtaling, a political finance expert who was hired by the DNC to set up a compliance system after the 1996 scandals.

Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant not affiliated with any campaign, predicted more campaigns would encounter their own fundraising troubles.

"This campaign cycle is so awash in money and people are raising money at such a rapid pace, I don't think that there is just one Norman Hsu out there and I don't think this is going to be an issue that hits just one party," she said.

That is a hint the approximate size of Detroit that the Democrats fully intend to try to deflect this issue by finding something - anything - on Republicans. My advice, for whatever it's worth, is that every candidate (either party) better get cracking on weeding out the bad actors. Because tit-for-tat will become a blood sport real fast here. None of which will help Hillary here. Hsu is looking worse and worse as days go by. Between the older improprieties and this new round of criminal association, she may find herself foundering very soon. (And rehabilitating Sandy Berger was a really bad judgment call, frankly. The man is a convicted thief.)