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In campaign news, ABC patted itself on the back--along with the Washington Post--for their expose of a major fundraiser for Republican Fred Thompson, who has since resigned from the campaign. Brian Ross claimed in his Investigates feature that the two organizations discovered that Philip Martin was "a convicted drug trafficker" who had "a long train of unpaid taxes in his business dealings." ABC uncovered almost $1m in current arrears in Hamilton County in Thompson's home state of Tennessee. The drug case was long forgotten, a conspiracy conviction in 1983. Martin had been chairman of the First Day Founders group that raised $6m to kick-start Thompson's campaign and made his private jet, a Cessna Citation, available for Thompson's cross-country travels. Ross saw a parallel in the Thompson-Martin liaison with Hillary Rodham Clinton's ties to fundraiser and fugitive felon Norman Hsu. He quoted longtime good-government campaigner Fred Wertheimer of Democracy21: "When you are desperate for bundlers to raise large amounts of money, the vetting system disappears and you wind up with people who should not be involved." Last night, Ross concluded, Thompson "flew commercial."
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