Opinion: The stain of money

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This is beginning to feel like one of those segments on sportcasts when they do the daily roundup of athletes’ legal troubles, but here goes:

Fred Thompson, right out of the gates, has drawn some heat for accepting contributions from a Tennessee family whose pharmaceutical company paid $124 million to settle complaints that it had overcharged federal health programs. Thompson’s response, as delivered to Politico.com: He’s keeping the money. And an aide dismissed comparisons to Norman Hsu, the Democratic fundraiser who corralled cash for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson. After 15 years as a fugitive on a no-contest plea to theft charges, Hsu failed to show up for a court hearing in in Redwood City, Calif., earlier this week. Authorities nabbed him yesterday after he fell ill on an Amtrak train traveling through Colorado.

-- Scott Martelle