Not a month after the Norman Hsu flap (and eleven years after the Chinese government supposedly tried to help finance Bill’s reelection), Hillary is on the defensive about taking money from Chinese immigrant benefactors. This time, it looks even more awkward. As the L.A. Times reported late last week, the candidate’s fund-raising swing through the Chinese community of New York resulted in $500 to $2,300 donations from people identified as “dishwashers, waiters and street stall hawkers.” Of the 150 donors on paper, 50 couldn’t be located, and at least one openly says he hasn’t contributed to the campaign. An April fund-raiser in a poor neighborhood fetched $380,000.

Clinton’s current reasoning — “There were more than 250 people at the event” — doesn’t quite compute, because that makes the average donation an awfully high $1,520 (the absolute maximum allowed per person is $2,300). In other words, it certainly looks like some entity is using New York’s Chinese immigrant community to funnel funds into the Hillary campaign. If that’s true — or, to be more cynical but accurate, if the Clinton machine doesn’t produce a great explanation — then Christmas just might have come early for Rudy and the gang: The “Chinese donor” is, once again, a full-service bogeyman haunting the Democratic campaign. Of course, Rudy is the one actually doing business with China, but at least he's totally open about it: It says so right on the Giuliani Safety & Security Asia Website.

Clinton Defends Fundraising Among Immigrants [The Swamp/Baltimore Sun]

Earlier: Rudy Makes Unfortunate Blunder