IF YOU THINK GIULIANI OR ROMNEY IS THE MOST DESPICABLE OF THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS, YOU MAY NOT HAVE MET LOBBYIST FRED THOMPSON YET

Unidentified lady in striped jacket with two very dangerous men

A couple weeks ago, after bloggers started pointing out that Fred Thompson had spent two decades as a well-paid and thoroughly corrupt Inside the Beltway lobbyist, a hack from his campaign staff mentioned what an honorable profession lobbying is, He mentioned neither Jack Abramoff, another Republican lobbyist, currently in prison, nor Haiti's deposed president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was widely criticized for endorsing "necklacing," the gruesome practice of execution where gasoline-soaked tires are thrown over a person's neck and set ablaze.

Today Thompson, who never personally necklaced anyone as far as we know, decided to defend his lobbying past himself. He didn't mention the words "prostitute" or "whore" anywhere in his defense, although in an instance of classic Republican misdirection he claimed that "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. He lobbied for a savings-and-loan deregulation bill that helped hasten the industry's collapse and a failed nuclear energy project that cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars.

Thomas Edsall dealt with Thompson forthrightly at HuffPo yesterday, which may have been what sparked his sudden need to talk about the issue.

If Fred Thompson is elected president, he will be the first federally registered lobbyist to become Commander in Chief. Since his days as top minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, Thompson has collected over $1 million in lobbying fees. In return, he has provided exceptional access to those in power.

Thompson's prospective presidential bid stands out in another respect: No campaign has been so dominated by staffers and advisers who have worked on behalf of Philip Morris, one of the world's leading tobacco conglomerates and a leading force in promoting cigarette smoking.

Thompson's lobbying career demonstrates his striking skill in capitalizing on his own government service and on the success of his friends in public office.

As CNN pointed out today Thompson raked in the cash for 20 years selling his access to powerful members of Congress and to White House staffers, just the way Abramoff did. During the 20 years Thompson was whoring out his services to billion dollar corporations, "he was close to two Senate majority leaders, both from his home state of Tennessee-- his political mentor Howard Baker and, more recently, his former colleague [Dollar] Bill Frist. During Baker's tenure, Thompson lobbied for a savings-and-loan deregulation bill that helped hasten the industry's collapse and a failed nuclear energy project that cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars. More recently, while Frist led the Senate, Thompson earned more than $750,000 lobbying for a British reinsurance company that wanted to limit its liability from asbestos lawsuits. That history as a Washington insider is at odds with the image Thompson has sought to convey to voters. When he first ran for the Senate in 1993, Thompson cast himself in the part of the gruff, plainspoken everyman, leased a red pickup truck and drove around Tennessee in his shirt sleeves."

In terms of income, lobbying has been Thompson's life's work and his true career. Many voters have only the haziest of ideas about what lobbying is. Thompson's approved biography certainly doesn't explain it. But if you think about what a high priced call girl does to earn her money, you'll get a clearer picture.

But sucking up to the K Street Republican Culture of Corruption isn't all Thompson has been doing since he left the Senate (besides playing District Attorney Arthur Branch on the NBC TV show Law & Order). "Thompson also helped run the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund Trust, an organization that set out to raise more than $5 million to help finance the legal defense of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who was convicted in March of lying and obstructing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. 'This is no political outsider,' said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for government ethics and campaign finance reform with Public Citizen. 'He clearly gained a network of contacts in Congress though Howard Baker that he cashed in on and would represent anyone who would pay him.'"