Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: This is mind-bogglingly illogical…let’s see…Fred Thompson’s “close advisor” is a bookie and a drug dealer and this is news to Thompson…the campaign staff ignored the normal vetting process because the guy with the private jet is Thompson’s “longtime friend” but Thompson doesn't know about the coke…what the hell is wrong here?…have they all been inhaling dust from lead-based paint?…who believes this rubbish?)

Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past

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."

<snip>

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.

Thompson's campaign said the candidate was not aware of the multiple criminal cases, for which Martin served no jail time. All are described in public court records.

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." (LM: Emphasis is mine.)


(Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301153.html?wpisrc=newsletter)

(LM: So much for Law and Order...)

[tanyev]

1. You're not anybody in the GOP unless you have criminal connections.

[rasputin1952]

2. Criminal connections that seem to allow an individual to get

preferetial treatment.

These guys always seem to get felony charges dropped or wind up on probation. But if this was a kid from the streets, he'd be facing life w/o parole in some states as a "3 Stikes You're Out" insanity. Just one more glaring example of how the "wealthy and privleged" can get around a law or two.

Just for the heck of it, it appears that the vast majority of those who can find "preogressive" judges are GOP leaning "pillars of conservatism"...go figure...:eyes: