Money laundering 101.
Via Townhall:
Imagine, for a moment, if a major newspaper had published a bombshell investigative report late last week exposing how one of the Koch brothers has spent decades serially subjecting women to high-grade sexual harassment. And imagine that as all of the seedy details — seriously, read this — emerged, people throughout the conservative movement started spilling to reporters that this Koch brother’s predatory behavior had been an open secret for a long time. Please try to picture the tone of the resulting media coverage, the organized boycotts of Koch Industries, the finger-wagging from sanctimonious celebrities, the outraged statements from women’s groups, the football-spiking from Harry Reid, the Democratic Party’s extravagant high dudgeon, late night comedians’ insult-happy bonanza, and the endless calls for every Republican official with any tie whatsoever to the Kochs to denounce the offending conduct and to return every last cent of Koch-tied money he or she had ever received.
Now compare that hypothetical shinola storm, which would likely become a central narrative in the next election cycle a la “culture of corruption,” to the delayed and relatively muted response to Harvey Weinstein’s depravity. Weinstein is a (now fired) consummate Hollywood power player and a Democratic mega-donor who’s enjoyed special access to President Obama and Hillary Clinton. A number of celebrities have spoken out against Weinstein, but many A-listers seem to have been biding their time, trying to calculate how this firestorm will play out; crossing Weinstein could be a career-harming or -ending endeavor if this mess blows over, after all. That may be why our High Priests of comedy conspicuously pulled their punches as the scandal was breaking. As for GOP demands that Democrats unload their Weinstein cash, the Democratic National Committee weighed its options and chose to engage in transparently pathetic and craven window dressing…