Dirty Little Hsecret
Dogs another compaign. Drug trafficking, bookmaking and conspiracy charges, that’s pretty bad. WaPo offers the fascinating tale of Thompson fundraiser’s criminal past, legit biz and legal beefs as a Republican Hsu-story. Only one problem with that thesis:
Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been crisscrossing the country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by a businessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing.
Thompson selected the businessman, Philip Martin, to raise seed money for his White House bid. Martin is one of four campaign co-chairmen and the head of a group called the “first day founders.” Campaign aides jokingly began to refer to Martin, who has been friends with Thompson since the early 1990s, as the head of “Thompson’s Airforce.”
…
Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.
…
Karen Hanretty, Thompson’s deputy communications director, said yesterday that “Senator Thompson was unaware of the information until this afternoon. Phil Martin has been a friend of the senator since the mid-1990s and remains so today.” Thompson communications director Todd Harris added that Martin was not subjected to the campaign’s standard vetting process because “he’s a longtime friend.”
“There’s not a campaign in the world that has the ability to research every one of its supporters going back more than 20 years,” Harris said.
…
Martin, 49, is one of several top political fundraisers with a criminal past to gain access this year to a presidential contender. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton decided in September to return more than $800,000 raised by Norman Hsu, one of her top bundlers, after newspapers disclosed that he had been convicted of fraud and had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
Silly WaPo scribblers. Martin has a criminal past. Hsu’s is a criminal present. Can’t get good copy-editing help these days. The other problem with this scandal is you can’t have as much fun with “Martin” as you can with “Hsu.”
Anyway, raise your hand if you’re shocked that scam artists and other criminals are drawn to pols like flies.
Welcome Punditeers! Forget the past, we’re moving forward. AP just figured out things are turning around in Iraq. Meanwhile, here’s some Saud news. OK, don’t forget the past. Remember when it was Ivans vs. Heinrichs? Hold everything, Red Light Special!
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:07 am on Sunday, November 4, 2007
6 Responses to “Dirty Little Hsecret”
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November 4th, 2007 at 9:32 am
I am shocked, I always thought pols were as pure as the driven slush!!!
November 4th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Where there’s big money, there are criminals. And these days, there’s big money in politics.
November 4th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
[...] as others have remarked, the Hsu-Clinton scandal is not an apt comparison: Silly WaPo scribblers. Martin has a criminal past. Hsu’s is a criminal present. Can’t get good [...]
November 4th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
[...] Thompson met him, one could say, Martin had cleaned up his act and was a successful businessman. The difference with someone like Hsu is that Hsu continued to break the law (o, and he was a fugitive) when the media found out that he supported Hillary Clinton (by raising [...]
November 5th, 2007 at 9:53 am
[...] Crittenden takes IOKIYAAR to hacktacular new heights with this: [A d]irty Little Hsecret … [d]ogs another compaign [sic]. Drug trafficking, [...]
November 5th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I think that we are seeing the fruit of Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardon spree — and possibly the Achilles heel of the Clinton campaign.
Why would a convicted confidence man on the lam choose to deliberately sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Clinton campaign and become a big-money insider? Was he hoping to be the next Marc Rich? Was he expecting it? Had he been promised it before the whole thing blew up in everyone’s face?
I’m perfectly willing, in the absence of evidence, to give the Clinton campaign the full benefit of the doubt this time — that they had no idea what Hsu was all about. But now the Clinton campaign has to be on notice that because of what Bill Clinton did on his last day in office, his campaign is going to be a criminal magnet for pardon-for-money-seekers.
Certainly there may be other criminals and con men who try to grease their way into other presidential campaigns, but Bill made the Clinton Campaign a criminal campaign finance violation magnet. He’s the one who followed through and delivered the goods, and his wife is going to inherit his corresponding fan base.
I think that the most promising line of attack on the Clinton campaign is to ruthlessly investigate all of her fundraising. I have a sneaky suspicion that these sorts of shady and/or criminal campaign finance violations will keep popping up again and again, especially given her lack of interest in pursuing them.