Now here’s another shocking story from the New York Times: “A Fund-Raiser for Liu Is Arrested on Fraud Charges.” File and forget this one in your bulging Democratic-fundraising-scandals folder, along with that lady in California, and the various Clinton scandals.

A fund-raiser for the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, whose campaign finances are under federal investigation, was arrested on Wednesday morning on charges that he helped illegally funnel thousands of dollars into Mr. Liu’s campaign account, according to court papers and people briefed on the case. A criminal complaint in the case describes how an undercover agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation posed as a businessman seeking to donate $16,000 to an unidentified candidate for citywide office in New York. That candidate, the people briefed on the case said, was Mr. Liu, a Democrat. The complaint details how the fund-raiser, Xing Wu Pan, in a series of meetings secretly recorded by the undercover agent, helped the agent circumvent city campaign finance laws limiting donations by individuals by using 20 fictitious donors…
The arrest underscores the political peril for Mr. Liu, who is considered a rising star in New York politics and a possible successor to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Mr. Liu has quickly amassed more than $1 million in campaign contributions, but questions have surfaced about the legitimacy of his donations…
Mr. Liu has been struggling to address questions about his fund-raising after a report last month in The New York Times that found some individuals listed as his campaign donors said that they had never given money to Mr. Liu. In other cases, people named as donors could not be located, or were listed as employees of companies they did not work for.

Looks like the Tammany Party’s up to its old tricks again. But being a criminal organization masquerading as a political party means never having to say you’re sorry for moolah-raising shenanigans, and in New York City at least, it also means rarely having to pay a penalty at the ballot box. If the charges pan out and Liu eventually goes down, someone else from the ghost of the Wigwam will quickly take his place.

In the old days, the Tiger knew that, from time to time, it had to throw an election and let the goo-goos win, just to prevent the citizenry from souring on its relentless corruption. As the great sachem George Washington Plunkitt liked to point out, an occasional Republican victory was necessary so that folks would get sick of their reformist scolding and vote the good times back in. Now they don’t even bother with that fig leaf. Even with a nominally “Republican” plutocrat mayor, the Tammany ethos still rules.

Speaking of comptrollers, whatever happened to the former New York City and New York State comptroller, Alan Hevesi? Oh yes — this.