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Man Ho Verboard!

Buddhist nuns stick by the Veep

Venerable Man Ho
Friday, September 5th 1997: You didn't know whether to laugh or cry during yesterday's Thompson Committee hearings featuring star witnesses Man-Ho and Yi-Chu -- buddhist nuns who had received prosecutorial immunity from the Senate only moments before in a guffaw inspiring ceremony led by Thompson. By far, this was the most interesting session of what promises to be a year-long effort by the Republican-controlled House and Senate to humiliate the Democrats and gain control of the White House in 2000.

In a nutshell, the Thompson Committee, Republicans and Democrats alike, were out to detail how John Huang and his sidekick Maria Hsia used the Hsi Lai temple to raise $100 thousand for the Democrats during an event for Vice President Al Gore last year.

Republicans hoped to prove that Gore knew he was attending a fundraiser --which would be illegal on temple grounds. They failed.

It was also unclear, as the more than six hours of testimony drew to a close, that the nuns and other temple officials had engaged in conduct which might have put them in the slammer had immunity not been granted.

Here's what seems to have happened.

Both Huang and Hsia were aware that federal law prohibited raising political money on Temple grounds. The law grew from the fact that religious institutions aren't subject to income tax. Thus funds and support emanating from Hsi Lai would circuitously, and in large part, be derived from taxpayer funds. People close to the White House say that Huang had arranged a luncheon outside the temple for the fundraising portion of Al Gore's trip, but the Committee had the FBI contact the Harbor Restaurant where this lunch was to take place and found no reservation for such an event.

Venerable Yi-Chu
Before Gore arrived at the temple, the nuns had already raised $45,000 mostly made up of checks from other monastics living or working at Hsi Lai. During the event, emceed by Huang, none other than DNC Chairman Don Fowler spoke followed by The Master of Hsi Lai, and the Vice President. No money seems to have been collected during the Vice President's visit and, according to the witnesses, Gore never referenced the event as a fundraiser nor thanked anyone for political contributions that day.

The day after the event, one of the nuns got a call from Maria Hsia who told her that John Huang was "upset" that only $45 thousand had been raised. He was looking for $100 thousand. So one of the nuns, embarrassed that she'd let down a friend, dutifully walked the halls at Hsi Lai and collected another $55 thousand in personal checks from the first monastics she came across. Huang arrived later that day, took the money, and ran.

The venerable Yi-Chu, the Temple's bookkeeper then reimbursed the monastics' accounts with money from the Temple's general fund.

Money laundering plain and simple? Well, maybe not quite. Although the networks would have you believe this was proven by the testimony, it wasn't.

Depending upon one's cynicism quotient, one might believe what the nuns said next. They did not consider their actions money laundering. You see, at Hsi Lai, monastics live in a world unlike you or I. There, the collective wealth of individuals seems to be reposited in something called a Foo-tee-yen account (phonetic spelling). This is kind of a credit union where not only is the personal money of the nuns and devotees deposited, but also monies donated by others for their support. This money, according to Yi-Chu and Man-Ho, is used for anything they might desire including travel abroad, tourism, personal items and yes, political contributions to friends -- although they are not considered "political" but merely a means to an end for happiness of that friend.

It didn't help that one of the nuns later trashed a bunch of documents, including the donor list, when the press began to focus on the Temple. She explained she had done it on her own, without counsel from Huang or the DNC and had done so to avoid embarrassment to the Temple. The nuns were so graceful, shaven headed and robed, that it was easy to believe them.

But later, under close questioning from Republican members, the nuns admitted that they'd engaged in this kind of activity before including issuing checks for Patrick and Ted Kennedy. On another occasion, the nuns were so annoyed by the constant requests for money that the bookkeeper simply printed off five $1,000 checks and gave them to Maria Hsia telling her to just "do what she wanted" with the money.

Money seemed to be no object at Hsi Lai -- at least for Democrats. And this is what landed them in front of the Committee in the first place.

In the end, the nuns had done a good job. Everyone on the Committee fell all over themselves to point the finger and Huang and Maria Hsia and almost compliment the nuns fearing further criticism for Asian bashing from the press. Of course Hsia and Huang are Asian as well. They called the Temple a "conduit" that wouldn't have been prosecuted under Justice Department guidelines anyway. Senator Nickles said "I think this temple was abused by this administration for the past three or four years." Nickles, the strongest Republican senator on the panel was the one to point out the previous contributions to the Kennedys and the DNC. He said the testimony proved a pattern of temple giving since the 92-93 cycle and then an "explosion" in 1996 with temple assets giving more than $113,000 in political money. Of course, Nickles failed to say that Republicans had substantially out-raised Democrats -- as usual -- during that "explosive" year.

The lawyer for Hsi Lai made one of the best remarks saying the federal election law was vague and ambiguous. He was right. Under the law, a good case could be made that money was not laundered, but merely channeled from the personal share of funds, owned by each check writer, and used for monastic support.

Senator Joe Lieberman asked the salient question of the day: "Why did the order cooperate?" Good question, why did they? Well, one answer could be that Maria Hsia also handled the temple's immigration problems as he suggested in a following question. She did a good job. While the question wasn't explored in depth, Lieberman succeeded in planting the seed of a quid pro quo. Did Maria Hsia, who was a long time fundraiser for Al Gore, neatly arrange citizenship for temple devotees? And how did she do it?

The answer may never be clear. While it may be ironic that Lieberman, a Democrat who I first met in Pamela Harriman's Georgetown backyard before his own inaugural Senate run, asked this barbed question. This wasn't the first time he'd advocated for the devil during these hearings. I don't remember what I contributed to Lieberman in order to sip iced tea on the queen of campaign cash's lawn. But every time Senator Lieberman asks a question that could hurt his own party, I wonder if I spent my money wisely.

All in all, Thompson failed to nail the Vice President. He wasn't happy. At the end of yesterday's hearings he said, in his most politely political way, " We're not here to accuse people of criminal conduct. We're not here to be judgmental, but you made some very sophisticated moves after the fact." Thompson said he also found the nuns explanations "far fetched."

Maybe so. But after all, Fred, it was your party that escalated the campaign dollar wars to an all time high.

© 1998, 1997, American Politics Journal Publications Inc.