February 11, 2008

An Old Hand

In the late Saturday-early Sunday slow news period, after losing four more states to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton dismissed her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, replacing her with Maggie Williams.

As Michelle Malkin reports, and as those of us who were both old enough and paying attention three elections ago well remember, Maggie Williams was a key figure in the scandal over the illegal campaign fund-raising practices of the Clintons in the 1996 campaign that came to be known as Chinagate.

Williams, as Mrs. Clinton's top aide, was on the receiving end of checks from donors such as Johnny Chung, including one for $50,000 that she accepted in the First Lady's office in the White House. These donations, many of which were returned after they became public due to "insufficient information" regarding their origins, seemed to many observers to violate federal fund-raising statutes, including the one prohibiting party fund-raising on federal government property.

After the fact, Attorney General Reno was able to squeeze these unseemly cash drop operations through loopholes in the law which were, as Time magazine put it "big enough to drive Air Force One, the Lincoln Bedroom, Johnny Chung and most of Gore's telephone logs through." Turns out that Williams and Mrs. Clinton had multiple memory lapses as to the details of the contributions during the subsequent investigation, and guess what...they skated.

More on Johnny Chung, the Taiwanese born businessman who gained astonishing access to the White House, especially the First Lady's office, by contributing $366,000 to the DNC in a two year period. He is memorable for his matter of fact quote about the key to face time at the Clinton White House:

"The White House is like a subway: You have to put in coins to open the gates.

For Maggie Williams, not having the Lincoln Bedroom or access to the President's weekly radio address to pimp out this time around does put the Clinton campaign at a decided fund-raising disadvantage compared to 1996. But she knows the ropes, and maybe has learned a thing or two from the way they got caught funneling illegal cash into the campaign last time.

Posted by dan at February 11, 2008 1:00 AM