See this house? This little house is home to six members of the Paws family. It’s in the flight path San Francisco International Airport. The house’s inhabitants own a gift shop, and recently refinanced their lime-green bungalow for $270,000. Why is this all significant?

According to FEC records, the Paws have donated $45,000 to Senator Hillary Clinton since 2005, both for her Senate re-election and for her presidential bid. In all, the Paws have donated $200,000 to Democratic candidates in the last two years. The obvious question here would be, how? How do six people who share a $270,000 home (that they had to refinance) afford to donate $200,000 to Democrats in just two years? The husband is a mail carrier, earning about $49,000 per year. The wife is a homemaker.

The Wall Street Journal article offers a clue:

The Paws’ political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.

People who answered the phone and the door at the Paws’ residence declined requests for comment last week. In an email last night, one of the Paws’ sons, Winkle, said he had sometimes been asked by Mr. Hsu to make contributions, and sometimes he himself had asked family members to donate. But he added: “I have been fortunate in my investments and all of my contributions have been my money.”

Mr. Hsu, in an email last night wrote: “I have NEVER asked a single favor from any politician or any charity group. If I am NOT asking favors, why do I have to cheat…I’ve asked friends and colleagues of mine to give money out of their own pockets and sometimes they have agreed.”

A member of the Paws family says he’s been asked by Hsu to make donations. Hsu denies, and his attorney claims…racism.

Lawrence Barcella, a Washington attorney representing Mr. Hsu, said in a separate email: “You are barking up the wrong tree. There is no factual support for this story and if Mr. Hsu’s name was Smith or Jones, I don’t believe it would be a story.” He didn’t elaborate.

#1 rule when being looked into for allegedly breaking the law? Claim racism.

Mr. Hsu is also a major fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats. When Democrats won control of Congress in November, he threw a party at New York City hot spot Buddakan with many prominent party leaders. Press reports said that toward the end of the night, he grabbed the microphone from the deejay and shouted: “If you are supporters of Hillary for President 2008, you can stay. Otherwise, get out.”

Mr. Hsu has pledged to raise $100,000 or more for Mrs. Clinton, earning the title of “HillRaiser” along with a few hundred other top financial backers of her campaign. Earlier this year, he co-hosted a fund-raiser that raised $1 million for Mrs. Clinton at the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of billionaire Ron Burkle. He is listed as a co-host for another Clinton fund-raiser next month in northern California.

The Paw family is just one set of donors whose political donations are similar to Mr. Hsu’s. Several business associates of Mr. Hsu in New York have made donations to the same candidates, on the same dates for similar amounts as Mr. Hsu.

On four separate dates this year, the Paw family, Mr. Hsu and five of his associates gave Mrs. Clinton a total of $47,500. In all, the family, Mr. Hsu and his associates have given Mrs. Clinton $133,000 since 2005 and a total of nearly $720,000 to all Democratic candidates.

The Paws family never made a political contribution before 2004. Then, out of nowhere, the family donated $3,600 to John Kerry. Within a week, Hsu donated the maximum allowed. The coincidences continued:

From then on, the correlation of campaign donations between Mr. Hsu and the Paw family has continued. The first donations to Mrs. Clinton came Dec. 23, 2004, when Mr. Hsu and one Paw family member donated the then-maximum $4,000 to her Senate campaign in two $2,000 checks, campaign-finance records show. In March 2005, the individuals gave a total of $17,500 to Mrs. Clinton.

Should be interesting to see where this all goes.