Reply #9: Would you prefer this quote from the same article?

[MH1]

The financial sleaze that dominated the final Clinton years is also making a comeback. After Norman Hsu, one of Clinton’s biggest campaign “bundlers”, was exposed as a fraud, it emerged last week that waiters, dishwashers and street pedlars in New York’s Chinatown have been handing over $1,000 and $2,000 sums to her campaign – some with genuine pride, others because they were ordered to do so by neighbourhood bosses.

The article isn't about Socks the Cat, it is about falseness, and the Socks story is just a lead-in. However, pet-lovers do see how a person treats their pets as an indication of character.