Clinton's response to fundraiser sets standard

In returning $850,000 to donors associated with a disgraced fundraiser, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sets a significant new standard for how campaigns should respond in the face of potential scandal, analysts said.

Clinton's decision also underscores the price -- financial and political -- that her campaign is paying for failing to spot trouble with the fundraiser, Norman Hsu, even after receiving a warning. The campaign announced it would now conduct background checks on its fundraisers, an extraordinary and potentially time-consuming step.

By returning the money, Clinton also puts pressure on presidential rivals and other politicians with rainmakers who have dubious pasts or who have employed questionable fundraising tactics, including the campaigns of Barack Obama and John Edwards, according to analysts.

Hsu, a Hong Kong native who appeared suddenly in the New York political scene about four years ago, is under guard in a Colorado hospital after failing to show up for a bail hearing last week in California. He had been wanted as a fugitive for skipping sentencing in a 1991 grand theft case to which he had pleaded no contest.

In the past two weeks, news reports raised questions about his fundraising practices and revealed his fugitive status. Law enforcement authorities said the FBI is now investigating whether Hsu paid donors to contribute to politicians.

His lawyer has said that Hsu did not break the law and that donors he solicited contributed their own money.

ROMNEY DISTANCES SELF FROM ANTI-THOMPSON SITE

A spokesman for Republican Mitt Romney said Tuesday that the presidential candidate did not approve the creation of a website severely critical of the personal and political life of his GOP rival, Fred Thompson.

The website, PhoneyFred. org, was created by Wesley Donehue, a business associate of Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina political operative on the Romney payroll and the candidate's top adviser in the early voting state.

The site was created without the knowledge of Tompkins or Romney, said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. After the campaign received media inquiries about it, Romney aides traced the site to Donehue and complained. It was taken offline on Monday.

"We made it clear that we did not approve of the site and asked for immediate action to make sure it was again in no way affiliated with the campaign," Madden said.

"The person responsible is not an employee of ours, but we took immediate action to make sure it was clear the site was not affiliated with the campaign."

Tompkins told the Associated Press: "The bottom line is I didn't know anything about the site."

The website criticized Thompson's conservative credentials. It also labeled him Fancy Fred, Five O'Clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred.

A Thompson spokesman labeled the Romney camp explanation a "half-baked, cover-up attempt."

Spokesman Todd Harris also called for Romney to apologize and said he should "exercise some of his much-touted executive acumen, take control of his flailing campaign and immediately terminate anyone and everyone related to this outrage."

ASSOCIATED PRESS