That's one ugly mugshot, and it's turning into one ugly story - and it's unlikely that it'll go away now that he's resigned from Thompson's campaign, but Fred Thomson campaign bigwig and personal friend Phil Martin's drug-dealing indiscretions - widely reported yesterday in a story which was first released by the Washington Post -- are apparently only the tip of an iceberg that is bound to have a chilling effect on Thompson's campaign chances.
ABC News is reporting today that Martin's corporations seem to have had a problem paying their taxes on time.
Phil Martin, the longtime friend and supporter of Republican presidential contender Fred D. Thompson who has a criminal record for drug trafficking, also has faced a mountain of unpaid taxes owed by businesses he has previously owned or helped run, public records show.Companies connected to Martin have owed more than $500,000 in taxes to various states and to the IRS, according to records of debts and tax liens posted online. The bulk of those debts were owed by Four Seasons Technologies, a company that Martin and a friend helped run during the 1990s. Martin left the firm in 2002.
Revelations of marijuana and cocaine trafficking yesterday, and today it's tax problems -- all of this paints a pretty ugly picture of the guy who's been giving Fred Thompson rides on his private jet.
Who is this man that Fred Thompson so closely associated himself with but now claims ignorance as to the shady background and dealings of this man? Thompson obviously is not doing a very good job of vetting his campaign associates and close friends.
Uuuuu-gly, and getting uglier.
The "Oh Yeah" Moment? Where in the administration or in foreign service would Thompson's best friend Martin have ended up had Thompson been elected?
Fred's candidacy was already circling the drain -- and now we see again that Thompson is just another dirty political hack.
