Fred Thompson makes case against holding past legal work against him
blogs.usatoday.com
"Dredging up clients" from his legal past to use against him is a "gambit of those schooled in the creative uses of law and politics," soon-to-be Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson writes at the influential conservative blog Power Line.
Thompson never mentions the Los Angeles Times report from Saturday about officials at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association saying they hired Thompson in the early 1990s to lobby on the "pro-choice" group's behalf (Thompson's aides have said he had not done so). There's more on that story here as well. The abortion issue is critical, of course, to many of the conservatives Thompson hopes to attract. The Brody File has more on what one top conservative leader is thinking.
But in a clear response to the Times report and to others he likely expects, Thompson uses the Power Line post to make the case that he and other lawyers who go into politics are too often smeared for having done their jobs. And, he argues, he can't really talk about much of the legal work he's done. His "nut graph:"
I've experienced another gambit of those schooled in the creative uses of law and politics: dredging up clients –- or another lawyer's clients -– that I may have represented or consulted with, and then using the media to get me into a public debate as to what I may have done for them or said to them 15 or 20 years ago. Even if my memory serves me correctly, it would not be appropriate for a lawyer to make such comments.
Thompson adds that:
• The practice of law is a business as well as a profession. It's the way you support your family. And if a client has a legal and ethical right to take a position, then you may appropriately represent him as long as he does not lie or otherwise conduct himself improperly while you are representing him. In almost 30 years of practicing law I must have had hundreds of clients and thousands of conversations about legal matters. Like any good lawyer, I would always try to give my best, objective, and professional opinion on any legal question presented to me.
• I'm certainly not surprised that such a diverse career is being mined by others. 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.
Posted by Mark Memmott at 07:59 AM/ET, July 12, 2007 in Presidential race, 2008, Republicans | Permalink |
