Thursday, August 16, 2007

Thompson Still Ducking the Law

The Coy Candidate, aka actor Fred Thompson, is raking in campaign contributions while avoiding campaign finance laws, thanks to the help of a lot of familiar folks in Tennessee.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel
breaks down the dominant players, and includes this quote from Thompson made on talk radio:

"[Thompson]
compared his current efforts to “an old duck on a pond — calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens underneath.”

Sure sounds like he's doing more 'ducking' than duck. Maybe he'll formally announce a campaign in September, maybe he won't. The money is flowing in, the accountability is avoided. This end-run on the legal edges indicates the precise kind of problem the country does not need, as R Neal pointed out last week at Facing South:

" ...
what does it tell you about Fred Thompson, the candidate? One would have to wonder about all the secrecy, the working around the margins, and the off-the-books financing through a shadow campaign finance organization. One might also wonder, haven't we had enough of that?"

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