Fred Thompson Ends Fund That Paid $178,000 to Son

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Former Tennessee Senator and potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has shut down a political action committee that paid out more money to his son than it did in political donations.

Federal Election Commission records analyzed by the Blotter on ABCNews.com show Thompson's committee paid $178,000 to his son's political consulting firm, Daniel Thompson Associates, since 2003.

In contrast, the committee made only $66,700 in contributions to other campaigns and political committees in the four years since Thompson retired from the Senate.

The payments to Thompson's son were described as for management and consulting services.



Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/fred_thompson_e.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. What an ass.

Edit to add: looked pretty bad, didn't it, Fred? Keeping a PAC open to funnel money into the family?

[gaspee]

2. Why do they think

they can get away with this kind of thing. Oh, that's right, they can. We all know it stinks and should be criminal. They, of all political persuasions, do it anyway, laughing all the while.

[Benhurst]

3. Gosh, do you think Fred Thompson could be crooked?

Tell it ain't so, Fred!

[StClone]

4. Potential Nothing

Fred is going nowhere. He has health problems and no real Presidential election organization. All he has is a Reagan-esque pseudo-Daddy media image that only appeals to the 30%ers that got no other hope. Payments by Thompson to his son described for "management and consulting services" don't help.

[gaspee]

6. And like all the family values crowd

he's working on his second or third marriage. To a woman 25 years younger than him. Ah, those "family values" are standards for *other* people to meet. Hypocrites.

[denverbill]

8. Don't be too sure about him going nowhere.

The Repukies are in BIG trouble this year. If Guliani wins, 1/2 of the southern base will probably vote third party or stay home. Romney is a Mormon, which is barely better than a Muslim to most fundamentalists, so it's hard to believe he'd not risk splitting the party as well. McCain is DOA. That leaves nothing but third tier candidates like Tancredo, Thompson, and Hunter. 2008 should be interesting.

[KamaAina]

24. Wait a minute. Wasn't that Mitt at Regent U.'s graduation?

Romney is a Mormon, which is barely better than a Muslim to most fundamentalists,



Looks like the Ken Doll to me, schmoozing it up with ol' Rev. Conflict Diamonds himself at the "fundie Harvard". :puke:

Seriously, if they thought the only repuke who could win was a Muslim, they'd go with the Muslim. By now, they're really fundamentalist repukes.


edit: had to get the "fundie Harvard" dig in.

[progressoid]

15. I wouldn't dismiss him too quickly.

R's want him as much as Dems want Gore.

[Psephos]

18. It's true, they do, and we underestimate him at our peril n/t

[TwilightGardener]

19. Nobody's underestimating him--let the guy run. He's as crooked as a dog's hind leg.

And he's got cancer. And he's very pro-war. If he's the GOP's savior, that's OK with me.

[Psephos]

20. I hear you, but the unknown is that he reminds nostalgic repugs of Reagan

And you know what happens when they get that look in their eyes....

:dunce:

[TwilightGardener]

22. LOL! I know--they're lovesick. They even admit in Freeperville

that his acting skills are the best thing about him--mostly because his career in the Senate was unimpressive and his politics are exactly the same as McCain's, and they're trying very hard to ignore that--especially campaign-finance reform, which Fred sponsored along with McCain--normally the kiss of death for conservatives! But they're trying to recast him as ultra-conservative now, so they'll ignore the "inconvenient truths".

[hatrack]

21. He spent 20 years on K Street as a lobbyist

Beating Thompson with that record would be like kicking a duck, "Hunt For Red October" notwithstanding.

He's the ultimate insider who happens to have a show on the tee-vee.

[gratuitous]

5. None dare call it welfare

Even though that's exactly what it is, and without even the prospect of being paid back.

[terisan]

7. I wonder how many campaigns like Thompson's are really collecting pay offs or personal-use funders.

[Zynx]

12. Most of them (campaigns)

[Occulus]

9. f he wanted his son to get the money

why didn't he just give it to him?

Oh yeah- taxes on gifts. Rethugs HATE taxes of any sort, but especially those on gifts and earnings.

I'd love to force Rethugs to live in tax-free land so they can get a taste of going without the services taxes pay for.

Potential Republican presidential candidate? Well, he is obviously corrupt to the core... he should fit right in and get a lot of support from the base.

[ArbustoBuster]

16. Thompson's son would need to pay taxes on income, too, so it's probably not about taxes.

Thompson was using a faux political action committee to funnel money to his family. It's either fraud against the people who were donating to the PAC and expecting it to elect Republicans, or it's fraud against the American people by using a PAC to hide who is giving money to Thompson. That's my guess, anyway.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Yep, my take on it too--this better come up if he gets anywhere in the race.

[benld74]

10. Oh yeah, he'd make a good Republican President

Hell he even sucked as an actor!

[AX10]

11. Corruption is a Republican "Family" "Value"!

[Donnachaidh]

13. is his kid going to give the money back?

Anything other than that is a "cover your ass" maneuver.

[tanyev]

14. Good old GOP Family Values.

I'm about to get misty-eyed.


:spray:

[MissMillie]

23. Well, that will come in handy when he announces his run

We can all ask him why such a fund existed to begin with.