See, Peter Paul is a total swindler. He's an ex-con and set Stan Lee up for a fall. The guy seems to be a total bastard--but this is all beside the point of this blog entry. I just thought it was bizarre to be reading about this case and not have them mention the movie lot where both galas were held. Especially since the Clinton event was said to cost something like $2 million. That shitty-ass company (which shall remain nameless, since I'd like to get hired by them again :) ) couldn't give me a full $1/hr raise after I had worked there for 2 years on top of the fact that I was running the department I worked in. But again, that's not the point of this post.
The real point of this post has to do with the absurd iron of why this story has really made news at all. Here's a clip from an article from NYTimes.com and Sun-Sentinel.com that reports on this story:
The case is being watched closely because of its political implications for Clinton, who is not only running for re-election next year but is also considered a leading Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2008. While she has not been accused of any wrongdoing and is not expected to testify, the trial represents another potentially embarrassing chapter for the senator and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. They have been criticized for their associations with other questionable figures.
The Clintons have been criticized for their associations?? Give me a BREAK!
Who's the guy who calls a coup leader an ally in the war on terror? Who's the guy who calls a country that doesn't let women drive cars and beheads people in the streets an ally in the war on terror?
Bush plays host and holds hands with representatives of the government that has not only supported terrorism but has supported Al Qaeda.
Look, the Clintons may not be spotless and I'm not a fan of Bill Clinton's brand of globalism any more than I am a fan of the Plan for a New American Century--but let's keep our priorities straight, here folks. Fund-raising improprieties and hanging out with scumbag financial swindlers is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING, compared to the international criminals and murderers that Bush calls his friends.
From NYTimes.com and Sun-Sentinel.com:
Clinton gala spurs courtroom drama
Hollywood party at center of L.A. trial
May 9, 2005
By Raymond Hernandez, The New York Times
WASHINGTON · It is a cast worthy of a political thriller: a former convict whose claims about a former president and first lady spurred a criminal investigation; a prominent senator's brother-in-law, who worked undercover for federal agents looking into the case; sworn enemies of the former first family trying to dig up fresh dirt; and some Hollywood stars.
All these characters will share some of the spotlight beginning Tuesday in a Los Angeles courtroom, where David F. Rosen, the former fund-raising director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will go on trial on charges that he illegally underreported the cost of a fund-raiser for Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.
The case is being watched closely because of its political implications for Clinton, who is not only running for re-election next year but is also considered a leading Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2008. While she has not been accused of any wrongdoing and is not expected to testify, the trial represents another potentially embarrassing chapter for the senator and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. They have been criticized for their associations with other questionable figures.
The federal government's criminal case is largely built around the claims of Peter Paul, a former convict who turned on the Clintons after producing a lavish Hollywood fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in 2000. Specifically, he claims that Clinton's campaign staff did not disclose that he had spent nearly $2 million on the event, money that should have been reported as a contribution to Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.
Paul said he organized and served as a co-host for the affair, a star-studded gala that charged $1,000 a person, to win Bill Clinton's support for an Internet venture he had started with Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man.
"An ex-president is the best rainmaker you can get," Paul said.
But Paul says the Clintons and their associates turned their backs on him after The Washington Post disclosed his criminal past, which includes a guilty plea in 1979 to cocaine possession and an attempt to defraud the government of Fidel Castro out of millions of dollars.
Representatives of the Clintons have dismissed Paul's claims. And they have sought to discredit him as a shady individual whose role in the 2000 fund-raiser stemmed only from his connection to the company he had started with Lee. Lee was listed as the host of the event, according to a copy of a program provided by Paul. Other luminaries on the program included former California Gov. Gray Davis, Gregory Peck, Norman Lear and Rob Reiner.
The indictment against Rosen states that he falsely reported that the gala cost $401,419 when it actually cost at least $1.2 million, a figure that includes at least $1.1 million worth of "in-kind" contributions of goods and services used to stage the gala. Prosecutors are apparently working under the premise that underreporting these "in-kind" contributions would have freed up additional "hard money" that the Clinton campaign could spend directly in the election itself, under a complicated series of campaign-finance formulas governing such expenditures.
But the defense is expected to argue that Rosen had no way of knowing that the figures he reported were wrong because he was relying on information provided by Paul and other people who arranged the event. "It's not as though David Rosen wrote the checks," said one person who is involved in the case.
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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