Where There's Smoke . . .
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Democrats — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Start back from the days of the Clinton Administration and then go forward to the present day. Then ask yourself how many more of these stories we are in for:
Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens.
The founder of the Bombay Palace restaurant chain, Chatwal is one of a growing number of fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign whose backgrounds have prompted questions about how much screening the candidates devote to their "bundlers" while they press to raise record amounts.
Chatwal's case reached from his native India to New York City. The IRS pursued him for approximately $4 million in unpaid business taxes, while New York state placed a lien seeking more than $5 million in taxes. He forfeited a building to New York City on which he was delinquent on property taxes and was sued by federal regulators seeking to recoup millions of dollars in loans from a failed bank where he served as a director.
Across the ocean, three Indian banks forced him into U.S. bankruptcy, and he was charged with bank fraud. He was out on bond when he showed up in India in 2001 during a visit by his longtime friend Bill Clinton.
Yet none of the legal and financial woes -- occasionally touched on in American or Indian newspapers or highlighted by political opponents -- raised red flags inside Hillary Clinton's fundraising operation. Chatwal recently said he plans to help raise $5 million from Indian Americans for Clinton's presidential bid.
Asked whether anything in Chatwal's background caused concerns about his activities on behalf of the campaign, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer answered, "No." He declined last week to be more specific, saying only that major fundraisers are routinely vetted "through publicly available records."
To be fair to Hillary Clinton, her other opponents for the Democratic nomination are portrayed as having similar problems with fundraisers who have run afoul of the law or public ethics codes in one fashion or another. And yes, it is entirely possible that we will read about similar problems with the campaigns of Republican aspirants to the Presidency. But curiously enough, and for what it's worth, there is no mention whatsoever in this story about such problems.
Meanwhile, the nation remains fixated on what might or might not have happened in a men's bathroom in Minneapolis. The mind reels.
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Where There's Smoke . . . 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
...the nation remains fixated on what might or might not have happened in a men's bathroom in Minneapolis.
I wonder if it's really the nation that's fixated on it or just the press/DNC (same entity). I know, they SAY they are only giving us what we WANT to see. But if that were true, consider a quote from Rush, "Isn't it interesting all the news they DON'T report?"
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"The IRS pursued him for approximately $4 million in unpaid business taxes, while New York state placed a lien seeking more than $5 million in taxes."
Hey, at least the guy is anti-tax.
then shouldn't the people who monitor campaign finance make candidates turn the BUNDLES of money collected by corrupt over to real charities like the Red Cross?
I had the same thought the other day when reading the Hsu posts, but really I'd much rather the only requirements are reporting of who gave what, and not actual limits on amounts given. And hey, if the people want to elect someone who has been bought and paid for by Hsu and Chatwal... Well, maybe I could go live in Australia.
Almost. But why go back just to the Clinton Administration, by which is assumed the Presidency, or Co-Presidency. Take it back to the Athens of America, Arkansas. Tyson Foods, polluted rivers, land flip deals, cattle futures, wherein Hillary put down her diet books and became an expert by reading the WSJ, Whitewater, and a nod of thanks to the McDougals, etc.
Where there is dirt you will find the Clintons wallowing in it.
But who can pay attention to this historic trail of uninterrupted and unmitigated corruption when the Larry Craig, Republican hypocrisy extravaganza is going on. And then the real lollapalooza, The Great Eight Lawyers Scandal, a nation rocked to it's core, politics actually entering the Justice Department.
Who knows, on that last we may see Janet Reno named as independent counsel, we might as well bring in the experts.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville