Thu 13 Sep 2007
Why shouldn’t politicians accept donations from ex-convicts? I expect a lot of former criminals care about politics and would like to support certain candidates. NPR reported that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has pledged to do criminal background checks on her fundraisers. I expect others will follow her lead. Another example of overreaction to one scandal, and an expression of the typical relationship between politics and crime.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
She’s only going to check the fundraisers, not all donors. Still, it is a strange reaction to the particular problem. It’s not clear that a criminal background check of Hsu would have turned up anything. Nor is it clear what the campaign will do with the information they gather. Are they going to care about a 20 year old dui conviction, or just campaign finance fraud convictions?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
What does Dr. G know about crime, anyway?