Flip Pidot, the go-to-guy on the Hsu scandal, notices that Winkle Paw seems to have vanished. Paw, as you may recall, is a close business associate of Norman Hsu and fellow big-bucks contributor to Democrats.

"Paw has served as everything from project analyst to CEO at a handful of Hsu's companies, including Components, Ltd., Next Components, Next Electronics, and CoolPowers (though that last one could've been a poor transcription of the word ‘Components' by a Tom Harkin campaign staffer)."

"We also don't know for sure that Winkle has deliberately vanished.  It could simply be that the authorities aren't looking for him (he's not listed as wanted in California).  But if they're not hunting for him, maybe they ought to be.  The Orange County investors haven't been able to reach him since the morning Hsu lit out for Denver.  That was three weeks ago.  If - let's say - Paw was on that train too, keeping his cool a bit better than his pill-popping partner, and if he had access to even a small fraction of the millions in liquid assets at Hsu's disposal, Winkle just may have winked out of this story for good."