No, it isn't, for someone who wants to smear Fred.
BTW, who are YOU supporting?
:O)
P
Apprently, according to the WSJ, it is common to have a PAC after leaving office; however, this seems self-serving and not an easy thing to justify.
Ping!
Come on. Nothing wrong with FredT keeping the books on his PAC open for some possible future use. After all, his working career was as a lawyer, actor and politician. Nothing illegal about it.
there is nothing here, the $$$ amounts here are tiny.
So what? There is nothing illegal or unusual in using PAC monies in this way. Until the laws change, it’s “free” money to the candidates who gathered it.
I don't vouch for the accuracy, but I understand the contributions are public record and this is where Open Secrets collects the info.
Fred D Thompson PAC
PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates
2006 Cycle
House Candidate Total Contribs:
Dewine, R Pat (R-OH) $4,200
Wolf, Frank R (R-VA) $1,000
Senate Candidate Total Contribs
Allen, George (R-VA) $1,000
Bryant, Ed (R-TN) $1,000
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $1,000
Corker, Bob (R-TN) $6,000
DeWine, Mike (R-OH) $2,000
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC) $2,000
Lieberman, Joe (I-CT) $2,000
Steele, Michael (R-MD) $1,000
~~~~~
Can someone research and confirm or refute this?
Let me fix that for you:
Apprently, according to the WSJ, it is common to have a PAC after leaving office; however, this seems self-serving and not an easy thing to justify, rather than wait and find out the facts, I'll just use this to attack Thompson while I can, showing my own laziness and ignornace.
There; that's much better.
Well you’ve got significant fixed costs to over come when you have one of these.
Not that I think these PACs are a good thing for anyone, mind you.
Compared to the other ones they showed, it looked like his was average, with some paying out less than they spent like his did, and only one paying out more, that of a person who was trying to buy votes.
But nobody is forced to give money to a PAC, and their records are open to the public, so everybody would know. Maybe most of the donations came from people who wanted to help out the son with his consulting career.
SOMEBODY’S AFRAID FRED WILL GET NOMINATED!
Sounds like a good plan to me, to keep the account, just in case. So what if his son has been paid from it? Isn't that what it's for, to pay for the upkeep of the campaign, of which the manager is a part? I don't think personal fund-raising accounts are normally used for a candidate other than for whom it is opened.
shrinkermd wrote: “Apprently, according to the WSJ, it is common to have a PAC after leaving office; however, this seems self-serving and not an easy thing to justify.”
Nice try. But, as Hillary said to Bill, “No cigar.” Or, like Mitt Romney, that dog don’t hunt.
From the WSJ article:
“Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the former senator, said Daniel Thompson is paid to manage the fund-raising operation and file campaign-finance reports with the FEC. ‘If you look at other PACs, such as Hillary Clinton, John Edwards or Barack Obama, all three of them pay their PAC administrators more than double what Dan was taking to administrate the PAC,’ Mr. Corallo said.”
“Mrs. Clinton’s HILLPAC has paid about $2 million in salaries since 2002, while contributing $2 million to Democratic candidates for office. Mr. Edwards’s PAC paid about $1 million in salaries while contributing $200,000 to Democrats when he used it during the 2002 and 2004 elections. Mr. Edwards primarily used his PAC to fund his political career, rather than to contribute to Democratic candidates. Mr. Obama, who only had a PAC for the 2006 election, paid about $500,000 in salaries and donated $770,000 to Democrats...”
“Mr. Thompson’s PAC has been largely dormant since he left the Senate in early 2003. He has raised only a few thousand dollars and has drawn the account down by making charitable and political contributions, and paying management fees to his son.”
“Just before leaving Congress, Mr. Thompson donated $100,000 to the campaign arm of Senate Republicans and $50,000 to the Tennessee Republican Party. Since then, his largest donations have been to charity.”
“During the 2006 election, the top recipients of donations from Mr. Thompson’s PAC were a small liberal-arts university associated with the Churches of Christ and a foundation to fight blindness. Each received $10,000. The PAC made a total of $25,000 in charitable contributions and gave $19,200 to Republican candidates.”
“Mr. Thompson gave $6,000 to help elect Tennessee Republican “Bob Corker to the Senate. He also made small contributions to Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio and George Allen of Virginia. Mr. DeWine and Mr. Allen lost their re-election campaigns.”
“In the first quarter of 2007, the PAC contributed $5,000 to charity and paid Mr. Thompson’s son $2,000 in management fees. It had $30,000 remaining in the bank.”
$5,000 for three months?
From RedState.com:
“OMG! Notice they had to lump it all in to make it a really big number because saying they paid him about $48,000.00 a year for five years just doesn’t sound as scandalous — especially when you consider similarly situated candidates have been paying multiple people orders of magnitude more per year to manage their PACs.
And what is more scandalous? Fred Thompson has given more money to charity than to candidates for public office! Oh, the horror.
Pffft.”
http://www.redstate.com/stories/elections/2008/is_this_the_best_they_can_do
Please, Rudy Paul McRomney supporters, keep this kind of stuff up! You’re helping us to refine our rapid responses to most every kind of BS charge you guys can conjure up. It’s good warm-up material to play with until we meet the Clintons next year for some real hardball. LOL!
bookmarked
Attacking a good man with garbage!!
PING!
I'd be somewhat skeptical of the reporting of a guy who appeared on Olbermann's show...
It is, in fact, even more interesting that the PAC is nearly depleted. Many politicians with huge war chests run for President in order to launder the money and get it dispersed (mainly to family members and cronies). Fred clearly is not contemplating a run for that reason.
Run, Fred, run!