Dole Si, Clinton No

[antiimperialist]

*This is an excerpt of a great argument made by the Daily Howler website criticizing the recent WSJ story on Hillary Clinton's donors.

DOLE SI, CLINTON NO

Did the Paws make illegal “pass-through” contributions? The Journal doesn’t know. But in 1996, Simon Fireman did make such illegal donations—and he was Dole’s finance vice chairman! But Dole wasn’t trashed for Fireman’s conduct because there was no sign that he knew about it. For the record, Fireman pled guilty in July 1996. Here are the opening grafs from Charles Babcock’s report in the Post:

BABCOCK (7/11/96): A former top fund-raiser for Republican Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign has agreed to pay $6 million in personal and corporate criminal fines and face a possible prison term for illegally funneling $120,000, mostly through his employees, to the campaigns of Dole and others since 1991.

It is the largest penalty for a case of illegal political donations, a Justice Department spokesman said. Simon C. Fireman, the 70-year-old head of Aqua-Leisure Industries, which makes swim masks and pool toys, and his assistant, Carol A. Nichols, reached a plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Boston...
Under the agreement, which must be approved by a federal judge, Fireman will pay a $1 million fine to the U.S. Treasury, and his privately held firm will pay $5 million. The U.S. attorney also will recommend that Fireman serve six months in prison. Nichols agreed to pay a $7,500 fine and be put on probation. Employees who made the donations will not be prosecuted, a prosecutor said.

Fireman resigned as a vice chairman of Dole's national finance committee after the Kansas City Star reported in April that some of his employees said they were given the cash to make $1,000 donations to the Dole presidential campaign. Under federal law, it is illegal to make donations in the name of another person by reimbursing him or giving him the money to do so, as Fireman admitted.

The federal charges said Fireman illegally donated $69,000 to Dole's campaign last year. Nearly $39,000 was in cash donated through Aqua-Leisure employees, another $13,000 was from a loan to another businessman who also used "conduit" donors, and the rest from yet another businessman Fireman persuaded to make similar illegal donations. The Boston Globe reported that Fireman had sponsored a fund-raising event for Dole in Hyannis Port, Mass., last August.

One of Fireman's goals was a government job, according to the charges. U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said in an interview yesterday that Fireman had made remarks to others about becoming an ambassador, as reported by the Star.

www.dailyhowler.com