Editing Fred Thompson (section)

==Career as a lobbyist==
[[File:Reagan Contact Sheet C17322 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Thompson greeting [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1983]]
Thompson earned about $1 million in total from his [[lobbying]] efforts. Except for the year 1981, his lobbying never amounted to more than one-third of his income.<ref name="appeal">Locker, Richard. "Thompson tells why lobbyist pay rose with GOP-led Senate", ''Commercial Appeal'' (November 5, 1994).</ref>  According to the Memphis ''[[Commercial Appeal]]'':

<blockquote>Fred Thompson earned about half a million dollars from Washington lobbying from 1975 through 1993&nbsp; ... Lobbyist disclosure records show Thompson had six lobbying clients: [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1886)|Westinghouse]], two cable television companies, the Tennessee Savings and Loan League, the [[Teamsters Union]]'s Central States Pension Fund, and a Baltimore-based business coalition that lobbied for federal grants.<ref name="appeal" /></blockquote>

Thompson lobbied Congress on behalf of the Tennessee Savings and Loan League to pass the [[Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act|Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982]], which [[deregulation|deregulated]] the [[Savings and loan association|savings and loan]] industry.<ref name=MC961201/> A large congressional majority and President [[Ronald Reagan]] supported the act, but it was said to be a factor that led to the [[savings and loan crisis]].<ref>Leibold, Arthur. "Some Hope for the Future After a Failed National Policy for Thrifts" ''in'' Barth, James et al. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lzys8fDJn3AC&dq=garn+and+%22strunk+and+case%22+and+%22Where+deregulation+went+wrong%22&pg=PA58 The Savings and Loan Crisis: Lessons from a Regulatory Failure]'', pages 58–59 (2004). Leibold cites Strunk and Case, ''Where Regulation Went Wrong: A Look at the Causes Behind Savings and Loan Failures in the 1980s'', pages 14–16 (1988).</ref> Thompson received $1,600 for communicating with some congressional staffers on this issue.<ref name="appeal" />

When [[Haiti]]an President [[Jean-Bertrand Aristide]] was overthrown in 1991, Thompson made a telephone call to [[White House Chief of Staff]] [[John H. Sununu]] advocating restoration of Aristide's government, but said that was as a private citizen, not on a paid basis on Aristide's behalf.<ref name="lobbying">Vogel, Kenneth. [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0407/3404.html "'Law & Order' And Lobbying"], ''[[Politico]]'' (April 2, 2007).</ref>

Billing records show that Thompson was paid for about 20 hours of work in 1991 and 1992 on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, a [[family planning]] group trying to ease a [[George H. W. Bush administration]] regulation on [[abortion]] counseling in federally funded clinics.<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/19/MNGAGR38681.DTL |title=Thompson lobbied for family planning |first= Jo|last= Becker|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=July 19, 2007 |access-date=July 19, 2007}}</ref><ref>The records show he spent much of that time in telephone conferences with the president of the group. He also spoke to administration officials on its behalf three times for a total of about three hours, but when or with whom in the administration Thompson spoke is unclear. When the work became controversial in 2007 in light of Thompson's [[anti-abortion]] stance and 2008 presidential campaign, a Thompson spokesperson said, "The [lobbying] firm consulted with Fred Thompson. It is not unusual for a lawyer to give counsel at the request of colleagues, even when they personally disagree with the issue."  See Jo Becker, [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/us/politics/19thompson.html Records Show Ex-Senator's Work for Family Planning Unit], ''The New York Times'', (July 19, 2007). Retrieved 2007-12-22.</ref>

After Thompson was elected to the Senate, two of his sons followed him into the lobbying business, but generally avoided clients where a possible conflict of interest might appear.<ref name="nyt070207">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/us/politics/02thompson.html | title=As Senator Rose, Lobbying Became Family Affair | author=David D. Kirkpatrick | newspaper=The New York Times | date=July 2, 2007 | access-date=December 22, 2007}}</ref> When he left the Senate, some of his [[political action committee]]'s fees went to the lobbying firm of one of his sons.<ref>Mullins, Brody. "[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB117712310290177718?mod=home_whats_news_us Thompson PAC Benefits Son More Than Republicans]," ''The Wall Street Journal'' (April 21, 2007).</ref>