Here's a peculiar thing about the holier-than-thou Campaign Finance Reform crowd. Whenever the stench of dirty money starts wafting from Democrat Party coffers, the clean election lobbyists are nowhere to be found. They'll raise hell and hackles over American corporate donors. But when it's shady foreign operators infusing cash into our electoral system, you'll only hear one sound: the deafening swell of crickets chirping.

Hillary and Bill Clinton have declared themselves "shocked" at revelations about one of the Democrat Party's mysterious, deep-pocketed bagmen, Hong Kong native Norman Hsu. Hsu, a prodigious Democrat donor, was arrested last week after having evaded the law for 15 years over grand theft swindling charges. Hsu pleaded no context to those charges and was supposed to serve jail time. Instead, he managed to remain a fugitive while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrat candidates and officeholders -- and posing openly for photographs with the likes of Hillary Clinton.

According to investigative blogger Flip Pidot (suitablyflip.com), who delved into public records and crunched the numbers, Clinton took the lion's share of political cash ($174,000) from Hsu and his network of suspected donor-bundlers whose campaign checks dwarfed their income. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and New York Governor (and former Attorney General) Eliot Spitzer accepted the largest sums of direct cash from Hsu.

Reports Pidot: "Among state parties, campaign committees, and advocacy groups, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee topped the list, with $122,000, though three state Democratic parties or committees (Tennessee, New York, and New Jersey) took more from Hsu directly. Of the 32 organizations that took money from Hsu and his associates, 10 were state Democratic parties and several others were Democratic campaign committees. The 84 individuals who received money from Hsu and his associates included 17 Gubernatorial candidates, 17 Congressional candidates, 27 Senatorial candidates, and a variety of statewide and local candidates. All were Democrats, with the exception of Tom Gallagher, Florida's former CFO and an unsuccessful primary challenger to Charlie Crist in the 2006 Governor race. Including candidate-specific PACs, these individuals have taken just over $1 million from Hsu's group since the 2004 cycle. . . . Another 22 organizations received support from Hsu's network since 2004, primarily Democratic campaign committees and state Democratic parties."

Former President Clinton, who left the White House up to his eyeballs in campaign finance scandals, retreated to Southern folksy talk when asked about the Hsu scandal over the weekend.

"You could have knocked me over with a straw, especially when I heard the L.A. people had been allegedly looking for him for 15 years when he was in plain view," he told Newsday. With a straw? How about a cluebat?

Funny money? In the party of Clean Campaigns? No!

The truth smarts like a snapped thong. Thwack. The straw donor scheme has clear shades of the Clintons' Chinagate scheme: Dubious givers. Con artist rainmakers. And disingenuous pleas of ignorance and shock. Continued...