Posted on 07/01/2007 9:13:44 PM PDT by Politicalmom
WASHINGTON, June 29 — On Christmas Eve 1994, Fred D. Thompson Jr. was out of a job. A 34-year-old self-described late bloomer, Mr. Thompson had graduated from law school just two years before and practiced law only for his father, Fred D. Thompson Sr., who was about to be sworn in as a senator from Tennessee.
“I was out on the street, knocking on doors,” recalled the younger Mr. Thompson, who is known as Tony.
But attending Brentwood Methodist Church in Nashville that night, Tony Thompson ran into the departing incumbent senator, Harlan Mathews, a Democrat. Mr. Mathews invited Tony to join him in a Nashville lobbying business, a job that would let him capitalize on his father’s new position.
“I don’t just believe in the tooth fairy,” Mr. Mathews said. “A lot of people were seeking access — not necessarily unfair access, but seeking access — so Tony was employed in a number of areas where his father had made a reputation or his father’s advice or whatever was going to be valuable one of these days.”
Now the elder Mr. Thompson, who also worked as a lobbyist before and after his eight years in the Senate, is aiming for an even higher post, preparing a run for the Republican presidential nomination. In the folksy drawl that built him a lucrative sideline as a screen actor, Mr. Thompson is presenting himself as a reform-minded outsider taking on Washington, just as he did when he campaigned for the Senate as “Ol’ Fred” the “real live country lawyer,” and cruised Tennessee in a rented red pickup truck.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, a lawyer for a PAC can be kept very busy sorting out the idiotic mess that is McCain-Feingold. Maybe that is why Sen. Thompson now regrets supporting the bill- because he saw how it just made lawyers richer?
>The NYT piece on the lobbists in the Reid family was much better. Oh, wait a minute, the Times didn`t run that story.<
Oh I liked the one about Tom Daschle’s wife working as a lobbyist for industries being impacted by legislation before the Senate - oh wait, I don’t think they ran that one either.
Everybody does it, so it must be ok.
Forgot about Tiny Tom and his lobbyist wife. John Dingel`s wife lobby`s for the auto industry. And guess who is the Chairman of the House Committee that writes the Cafe Standards? But that`s OK cause they are Democrats.
Trailer trash.
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