New Clinton, Old Woe

By Mark Halperin

Who is Norman Hsu, and why does he matter? He has turned into major trouble for Hillary Clinton's campaign, which fears the revival of Clinton scandal fatigue. After all, even if people don't remember Travelgate, they probably recall the Lincoln Bedroom theme from the Clinton Administration: a reckless pursuit of political cash that led to shady Talented Mr. Ripley types turning up as major donors. Hsu fits the model: he came out of nowhere just a few years ago and quickly became a Democratic fund-raising hotshot, attaining the status of a "HillRaiser," which is how the top financial "bundlers" for the Democratic front runner are described. Hsu, 56, raised an extraordinary $850,000 from 260 donors on her behalf. He is also a two-time fugitive from justice, who fled a 1992 California fraud conviction in which he pleaded no contest to conning investors out of $1 million to allegedly purchase and resell nonexistent latex gloves. Then earlier this month, he skipped out on $2 million bail and eluded state officials who tried to corral him after learning his whereabouts from press reports about his role in the Clinton campaign. Federal investigators are looking at whether Hsu illegally reimbursed some of the Clinton donors, who include a postal carrier and a homemaker.

The Clinton campaign has blamed a faulty background check for its failure to scrub Hsu's past and says it will return the $850,000--the largest such single giveback in presidential-campaign history. And while there is no evidence that Hsu received any special governmental access for his largesse--either from Clinton or Barack Obama or any of the other numerous Democratic candidates he enriched--the role of bundlers like him will certainly come under more scrutiny from the press and the campaigns. Clinton's advisers have already promised to take a close look at any future mysterious strangers bearing gifts.