Hasan Family Foundation's trickle-down economics: Will Scott McInnis drown in them?

Ali Hasan.

Money can't buy you everything -- although it can certainly smooth the way for a while. The Hasan family fortune provided the base for the Hasam Family Foundation, which paid $300,000 to Scott McInnis for his "Musings on Water."

And it also helped fuel the political ambitions of son Ali Hasan, a two-time loser in Colorado.

Ali, filmmaker/founder of Muslims for Bush, was 27 when he ran for the Colorado Legislature in 2008; he tried again for state treasurer this year (to learn more, read "Is This Muslim Republican Mr. Right or the Big Cheese," a Westword feature on his first campaign). Now the "rising, GOP bad boy" has headed back to California.

But he leaves another GOP bad boy behind -- a fast-falling one. The Hasans have asked that McInnis return the $300,000 they paid for his insipid and, as we know see, plagiarized, "Musings."

The trickle-down economics of politics can wind up swamping a candidate.