Apparently, the press is desperate to get something in the paper to push Norman Hsu off the front page, and for the ability to say “They have crimnials too”. Via Memeorandum, The WaPo [1] is an example:
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.”
Thompson’s frequent flights aboard Martin’s twin-engine Cessna 560 Citation have saved him more than $100,000, because until the law changed in September, campaign-finance rules allowed presidential candidates to reimburse private jet owners for just a fraction of the true cost of flights.
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.
Captain Ed [2], in noting the same story, says, correctly:
In any other context, the Post would run this story as a demonstration of the success of Martin’s probation. He cleaned up his act at age 25, began building small businesses on his way to a small fortune, and ended up participating in the political process. Nothing in Mosk’s article gives any indication that Martin has committed any crimes since 1983, despite his attempt to use a couple of lawsuits at the end — lawsuits which look rather routine for a man engaging in diverse, legal enterprises.
This is a page one story? I mean comon, here…. Were this a Democrat advisor, it wouldn’t even be in the paper at all, particularly with any mention of Norman Hsu in the article. Why is a 30 year old conviction, with no criminal events since, a page one story? Because Norman Hsu was a front page story and if his rather obvious plan to delay any trial until after the election falls apart, he will be again. Because the press needs something to attack Republcians with.
The “They do it too” defense. How Clintonesque. What kind of contacts does Matt Mosk have inside the Clinton camp, I wonder?