The Daily Background

The New York Times, on one of America’s most successful families of lobbyists– the Thompsons:

(Quote)
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.

But the lobbying work that Tony Thompson and another son, Daniel, did after their father won his Senate seat suggests how far the family has traveled from Fred Thompson’s early career. Not only has he parlayed his own political background into a lobbying business — a fact his opponents have seized on to challenge his outsider image — but his sons have also made lobbying a family affair.

[…] ethics experts say the case is all the more striking when the relatives, like Tony and Daniel Thompson, have scant qualifications other than their family ties. And the elder Mr. Thompson was one of the Senate’s most outspoken advocates of tighter ethics and campaign finance rules.
(End quote)

Among the lucrative employers that Thompson’s lobbyist newly-turned-sons worked for after their dad became a Senator were Lockheed Martin and the MPAA– both of which Thompson happened to give favorable treatment to during his years in Congress. Once Thompson himself left Congress, he of course became part of the Washington revolving-door, and went into lobbying himself, representing interests connected to big tobacco and other such unsavory clients.

Also, there’s the issue of what Thompson did with his political action committee after he left office.

The Times ends their article with the following: “The elder Mr. Thompson helped [his son] Daniel through his political action committee as well. In the last two elections, the committee paid Daniel Thompson more than $170,000 in consulting fees, compared with less than $70,000 it paid toward supporting Republican political campaigns.” If that’s not sketchy, I don’t know what is.

Forget about whether or not America is ready for a Female, African American, or Mormon president– why isn’t the press asking whether America ready for a family of lobbyists to move into the White House?

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog