Tuesday, June 26, 2007

FRED THOMPSON

The AP Seems Scandalized By Fred Thompson's Earnings as a Lobbyist

Fred Thompson talked briefly with the AP about his lobbying career.

The actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee added, "Nobody yet has pointed out any of my clients that didn't deserve representation."

Thompson, who likes to cast himself as a political outsider, earned more than $1 million lobbying the federal government for more than 20 years.

Look, I have no doubt that Thompson did quite well for himself during his lobbying years, but the AP pretty clearly arranged that to sound as sinister and lucrative as possible. If you run the numbers on that, $1 million / 20 years = $50,000 a year. That was probably fine money for Washington in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, but these days John Edwards makes more in a single speech about how to fight poverty.

UPDATE: I've been in a bit of a tiff with the Powerline guys, so let me say kudos to them for spotlighting the, uh, colorful past of an AP reporter who wrote a Fred Thompson article on a similar theme:

Three American citizens, along with nine other foreigners, were deported from Mexico on April 12, 1998 for alleged collusion with the Zapatista rebels (EZLN). The woman, Travis Loller, 26, and two men, Michael Sabato, 30, and Jeffrey Conant, 30, are part of an American relief group called Intercambio de Tecnologia Apropiada (ITA) or, in English, Appropriate Technology Exchange. The Mexican government accused the three of agitating for the rebel army that's been struggling in the southeastern state of Chiapas for over four years in an effort to win basic civil rights and gain land reform for the indigenous Indians in the region.

Boy, that must just shine on a resume submitted to AP, huh? "Experience agitating for Mexican Separatists? Why, yes, that's exactly what we're looking for in our Tennessee bureau!"

06/26 02:28 PMShare