Years of Poems and Spirits

Just read this breathtaking investigative report at the WashingtonPost.com.

Story line was about Hillary Clinton’s top money man embroiled in an ugly fundraising scandal. Characters:
1. The Clintons. Bill wiped tears away listening to Cher at a holleywood gala honoring him. The gala was also a fundraising event of Hillary’s senatorial campaign. It was reported to FEC with a must lower figure than its true cost (see Peter Paul below). Thus triggered a (yet another) federal criminal investigation.
2. David Rosen, a young, ambitious and born salesman. Extremely driven. Thrived at selling books door to door. So much so he was able to sell 1 per 1.2 house he visited.
“Southwestern Co., a direct sales company in Tennessee, was looking for students to sell educational books door to door. The company has long been a training ground for politicians, including several governors and former independent counsel Kenneth Starr.”
He was indicted but later aquitted of criminal wrongdoing for being the Clinton’s point man at that gala.
3. A Con-artist (Peter Paul) and A Holleywood Hustler (Aaron Tonken).
Peter Paul (what kind of name is that?): an ex-con (defraud Cuban government and cocaine charge), international lawyer, stock manipulator (see Stan Lee), and wanted to have Bill Clinton to work for him after presidency.
Aaron Tonken: “had facial tics as pronounced as his chutzpah”, “was so high-strung that Rosen liked to joke the guy was tri-polar”, “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and those tics, which made his eyes scrunch and his head jerk unpredictably”
But he was obsessed with celebrity. “At 15, his fame obsession prompted him to lift Jackie O’s private phone number from a friend and cold-call her just to chat with a celebrity.”
While Zsa Zsa Gabor was on vacation, “For a total of $3,300, he let busloads of tourists into Gabor’s Bel Air estate.” Soon “[h]e moved into a homeless shelter, where he received one meal a day and free therapy. He spent much of his time schmoozing poolside at the Four Seasons hotel, where networking prospects were much better than at the shelter, he said.”
Together, Tonken and Paul organized a gala for the Clinton’s. Paul paid for the gala himself but Token was the promoter.
At the gala, “Clinton tried to leave, escorted by Secret Service agents. But Tonken boldly blocked their exit, and cajoled the president to go back and talk to Paul” Cliton obliged.
The couple also thanked Tonken perfusely and said they would not forget his support.
4. Presidential aids:
Kelly Craighead, first lady’s trip director, received a gold and diamond watch from Tonken (who was still living in the shelter in the night but running a charity ponzi scheme in the day)
James Levin, a Chicago businessman who socialized with the president. Later convicted of defrauding Chicago school district through massive overbilling.
Ed Rendell, then DNC chairman, currently governer of Pennsylvania, asked Paul for $200,000 campaign contribution. In return, he agreed to seek presidential pardon on his behalf.

Minor figures:
Idoitic celebrities never shy about renting themselves: Charlton Heston (speaks at a stranger’s wedding for the money), Cher (pampered star that has to be fetch by a Gulfstream), Shirley MacLaine (who believed she was re-incarnated from the 14th century), Stan Lee (creator of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, who lent his name to an ex-con)

—Remember someone said that the Democrates are naturally more corrupt because most of them are poor. The Republicans tend to have more rich clowns but Democrates more scheming cons.
—So why the Democrates were so up and against McCain-Feingold? They could never win the money race: they either don’t have the natural connection to the legit money, or they have to trade their political capital for the real ones. They have professors and the thinking class. Idea is the only thing they have to spare.

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