Fred Thompson Powerlies

Fred Thompson showed who he really is today in an article posted and approved of by the lawyers of Powerline. It's not pretty.

Recently, a group advocating abortion rights has said that it had hired Thompson as a lobbyist some years ago. After first clearly denying that it was true, Thompson today said that he expected to receive unfair political attacks based on the clients he represented as their lawyer. He mentioned that both John Adams and Abe Lincoln had represented clients that were considered unsavory.  Thompson quoted the current Chief Justice, Roberts, who said in his confirmation hearing that:

I]t’s a tradition of the American Bar that goes back before the founding of the country that lawyers are not identified with the positions of their clients. The most famous example probably was John Adams, who represented the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre.”

The RBC discounted Thompson's sincerity. Captain's Quarters thought the piece was "well written, entertaining, and effective."  Thomas Edsall of Huffington wrote that "Thompson Waffles."  In fact it's a lie. Thompson and his friends at Powerline are intentionally deceiving the reader.

Thompson is a lawyer. He has also been an actor, a Senator, and a Lobbyist. Depending on which of those hats he is wearing at any particular time, he has different rights and different obligations. There are many behaviors that are perfectly appropriate for an actor to do, but that are not all right for an attorney to do in a courtroom.   John Adams was not lobbying for those British soldiers, he was their lawyer - representing them in court before a judge.

Lobbying is not lawyering. As the Tennessee Attorney General ruled in 2005: "lobbying is not per se the practice of law." You don't have to be a lawyer to be a lobbyist, and in fact some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington are not. ( Examples from the Washingtonian's list of the 50 biggest include Linda Daschle, David Carmen, J.C. Watts who are not lawyers))

The abortion rights group paid Thompson money to lobby for them. They did not hire him as their lawyer.

Thompson concludes his work of deception:

As we get further into this political season we will undoubtedly see the further intersection of law, politics and the mainstream media. However I intend to keep in mind the appropriate distinction and separation between law and politics, and I do not intend to get sucked in to doing a disservice to either of them or to myself.

In fact he has no intention to "keep in mind the appropriate distinction and separation between law and politics."  It's a distinction that he is is already obscuring and obfuscating in that article. The guy's another liar.

Comments

[Fred Thompson]

Freds the best!