RUSH: Have you seen the list of Democrats that Norman Hsu gave money to? What a great list: Ted Kennedy, Barack Ubama, Bill Richardson, John Kerry, Bill Nelson, Jay Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Kennedy, Harold Ford, Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, Dingy Harry, Tom Harkin, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Fast Eddie Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania, and Barbara Boxer. ‘Since 2004, Norman Hsu has donated 260 grand to Democrat Party groups and federal candidates and raised hundreds of thousands of additional dollars.’ The story was out, if you needed money, call Hsu, and Hsu would come up with the money. The New York Times has a little story on the guy here, and it’s kind of sad, in a way: ‘Fundraiser’s Wallet Matched His Need to Please.’ There are quotes here from people, ‘Hey, yeah, we’d call Norman and say, ‘Norman, we need 50 grand,’ and he’d do it.’
The upshot of the story was he just wanted to be liked. He just wanted acceptance. He knew he was a nerd. He knew he was a geek. He knew he wasn’t in the big clique, and he wanted to be liked. He just wanted to get in and be with the big boys. In this story, it says he wanted to launder his fraudulent past through the Clinton campaign. ‘Several prominent Clinton donors who spent time with Mr. Hsu recall him as an indefatigable networker, willing to take on any fund-raising need even from low-level Clinton staff members. ‘I think he was motivated by a desire to rebuild his identity, his image, and to launder his fraudulent past through Democrats and the Clinton campaign.” Wrong laundromat, Mr. Hsu. If you want to get clean, the last thing you do is go through the Clintons. How in the world? Unbelievable. But this is not the end of the story, ladies and gentlemen. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, who was on Chris Matthews’s show on Sunday, said this about Hillary’s campaign staff and Norman Hsu.
MITCHELL: The Norman Hsu money raising controversy: For the first time, there’s a real concern in the Clinton camp that this is real baggage from the Clinton White House years. There’s a lot of stress, a lot of damage control, a lot of finger pointing, and, in fact, stress so high that there was a shouting match observed among Clinton staffers in public last week.
RUSH: Ooh! Ooh! This is a trick. I’ll tell you exactly what happened here, folks. We got the story last week. Robert Novak had the story that, hey, this Hsu problem is Hillary’s. She won’t delegate. Hillary is so hands-on, she doesn’t leave this to chance. Now all of a sudden, Andrea Mitchell has a story that the staff’s out there fighting amongst themselves over who’s to blame for this? This is just designed to take the heat off Mrs. Clinton. It’s like this American Prospect story, this story coming out a day or two before Mrs. Clinton’s big announcement. This is an old defense attorney trick. It is. A question from the official program observer, Bo Snerdley. Yes, sir. Hm-hm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Right. Well, Snerdley’s question asked in a peak and a fit of mild rage is this: ‘How come as far as the Democrats and the Drive-Bys are concerned, anybody who even had a cup of coffee with Jack Abramoff deserves to be in jail, and, yet, with Norman Hsu, he just wanted to be liked?’ Because it’s the New York Times running cover.
Remember, I told you to keep a sharp eye on the New York Times, that the New York Times decided this was too hot for them to be able to support Mrs. Clinton? They’ve apparently decided it’s not. This piece is really to give her some cover on this, plus, he’s a sympathetic figure. He tried to commit suicide and got on the California Zephyr out there. He just wanted to be liked. That characteristic is aimed at the Oprah audience. We gotta feel sorry for this poor guy. Look at him. Look at the pictures. Poor, bedraggled guy is away from his home country of Hong Kong, he just wants to be liked. We all want to be liked. Norman Hsu just wanted to be liked by the big guys. Even the people that were swindled don’t care that they were swindled. In fact, I would pose this to you as a thought.
Norman Hsu has jumped bail twice. He still gets bail if he can meet it: $5 million. O.J. Simpson, no bail, twice. No bail for O.J. And he’s innocent! He was found not guilty. He’s rotting away in a Las Vegas jail ’til his hearing on Wednesday. No bail. Norman Hsu made bail three times. He may not be able to meet it this last time. Anyway, this American Prospect thing, it’s an old defense attorney’s trick. What you do, at the same time, is you put out contrary theories to appease two different groups of people. While Hillary’s out there in Iowa lauding her health care credentials from 1993 to gain the support of the libs and the Drive-Bys, this American Prospect story comforts middle-of-the-road folks that think Hillary Care in ’93 was a debacle, by trying to convince them that she didn’t really do it, and taking the strong rebukes of the Republicans out of play. So, in other words, this whole thing is to give her a clean slate, ladies and gentlemen, in the American Prospect. That’s what this is all about there.