Obama to Donate Funds From Norman Hsu

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 10:58:54 PM EST
Tags: Norman Hsu (all tags)

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Tuesday, Barack Obama's spokesperson said the Senator would not give up the donations received from Norman Hsu.

... spokesman Jen Psaki said Obama, who has criticized Clinton for taking contributions that could undermine her independence, had no plans to return Hsu's donations.

Today, he's had a change of heart.

A spokesman for Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who is a rival of Mrs. Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination, said Mr. Obama intended to give away $7,000 that Mr. Hsu contributed to his committees.

No one seems to know where Mr. Hsu really lives. I figured since he's a naturalized citizen, he must be registered to vote. But the only voter registration record I could find for a Norman Hsu was in Delaware. There's also a Norman Hsu in Cleveland. (I'm excluding the Norman Hsu who's been on the city council in Hacienda Heights, CA because it doesn't appear to be the same person.)

More....

Where in the world is Norman Hsu today? His Washington lawyer says he's retained California counsel to deal with the pending arrest warrant there, but I'm wondering if Mr. Hsu didn't return to Hong Kong when the news broke.

Speaking of which, surely Mr. Hsu has travelled outside the U.S. in the past 15 years. Why didn't the arrest warrant show up when he went through customs on the way back?

Again, there's no indication Mr. Hsu did anything improper in donating to campaigns, but given that the Dems are dropping him like a hot potato, I'm curious as to whether he feels cornered and how he will respond.

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Obama to Donate Funds From Norman Hsu | 7 comments (7 topical)

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one would think (none / 0) (#1)
by scribe on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 11:13:32 PM EST

that DHS would be able to pick up if a wanted man left the country. I mean, if a low-level functionary and conservative blog/commentator could post last summer that Glenn Greenwald was out of the country and give him and everyone else a nice frisson with a side of creeps, you'd naturally figure arrest warrants would show up.

If people get gigged trying to enter Canada for 35 y/o misdemeanor drug pleas, surely active arrest warrants would show up.

Maybe the guy's a spook, or maybe he's a Rethug plant. I dunno.

: Even for you that is bizarre. (none / 0) (#3)
by Deconstructionist on Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 07:19:16 AM EST

Some people just can't resist the compulsion to destroy their credibility by throwing out nut job conspiracy theories for no reason whatsoever.
Of all the countless reasons why Mr. Hsu's name would not appear in federal records after a state conviction his being a "Rethug Plant" would rank somewhere near the 30 millionth at about the same point where "maybe he's an extraterrestial with the power to delete electronic records with mental telepathy" would appear.
It would seem a lot more likely to people with some grasp of life on this planet that an innocent human error or omission somewhere along the line led to the record of his conviction not being entered in the original local jurisdiction database or not being transmitted at some point to the federal database.
As we obviously know that the jurisdiction is not particularly vigilant in following up to gain physical custody, it would seem reasonable to think it may not be vigilant in record-keeping either. Such things take manpower and resources and in a world of limited manpower and resources not everythig gets done efficently.
I don't know whether you actually believe the nonsense you write or simply are cynical and contemptuous of other people and hope that a few credulous souls can be misled.

Obama's pattern (none / 0) (#2)
by s5 on Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 12:30:50 AM EST

seems to be: do nothing bold, until every other senator or presidential candidate does it first, and only after the blogs call him out for his inaction.

: Who called him out for his inaction? (none / 0) (#4)
by Geekesque on Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 08:34:01 AM EST

If you haven't noticed, he's on vacation this week.
Note also that he wants to make sure that the Paw's money is untainted. Apparently Hillary has no such concerns.

Small wonder (none / 0) (#5)
by Dulcinea on Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 08:45:51 AM EST

we can't find Osama. I see pictures of Hsu with Senator Clinton (to ensure she is connected with what might be illegal contributions) so maybe OBL should be hanging out with the Democrats to escape detection by the law.

: If Osama could bundle, I'm sure someone (none / 0) (#6)
by Geekesque on Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 09:26:08 AM EST

would find him.

money woes (none / 0) (#7)
by BarackObamaFan on Sat Dec 01, 2007 at 03:43:23 AM EST

With the millions of individual donors to all the various campaigns, I would imagine there are many just as bad, or worse people than this man Norman Hsu. I'm in no way sticking up for his way of living, but if politicians only accepted money from 100% good and honest people, there wouldn't be ANY money to go around... everyone has some level of evilness in them. What I respect about politicians like Obama is that he won't let the crooked money put a slant on his campaign or way of dealing with politics. He's got my vote, and Barack Obama will always be my homeboy.. in 2008 and beyond!