Why is nobody questioning the GOP front-runner about his lobbying efforts on behalf of a murderous leftist demagogue?
by Justin Raimondo
To look at Fred Thompson, the actor-cum-senator who now appears to be moving to the front of the GOP presidential pack, one would think that what you see is what you get – but, no. Peel back the pretty ordinary red-state Republican opinions – the war is a righteous one, free Scooter Libby – and we get to the hollow core at the center of his political being. That is, his prior career as a professional lobbyist – perhaps the one profession that is rated lower in the public’s esteem than being a member of Congress.
I have to admit being shocked – and somewhat baffled – by his lobbying efforts on behalf of Jean Bertrand Aristide, the former president of Haiti, a committed leftist and anti-American demagogue of the sort currently represented by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest with radical socialist beliefs, was elected president of Haiti in 1990 after a campaign marred by violence on the part of his supporters and featuring promises by Aristide that he would redistribute the nation’s wealth to his constituency, i.e., the poorest of the poor. Early on, Aristide was characterizing the U.S. as “the great Satan.” In September 1991, Aristide incited his followers to “necklace” his political opponents: “necklacing” is the practice of tying a tire around the victim’s neck, filling it with gasoline, and then lighting it. Death squads acting under the supervision of Aristide’s top security aides roamed the streets of Haiti’s cities and villages, murdering and beating anyone who dared speak out against the red terror. Aristide and his Lavalas Party tried to rig parliamentary elections, and when the Organization of American States called him on it, the Clinton administration, which had been sponsoring, supporting, and subsidizing him, suffered a major embarrassment.
This is the regime Thompson lobbied for.
Politico.com reports Thompson’s campaign manager as saying that he was only lobbying against the embargo placed on Haiti in the 1990s, but if you look at the actual form Thompson had to fill out at the time, it reads that he was lobbying “on behalf of Jean Bertrand Aristide” “in order to obtain the restoration of the democratically-elected government of the republic of Haiti.” Kicked out of power and taking refuge in Washington, Aristide soon found plenty of support from the less fastidious lefties, and his cause was taken up by the Clinton administration, which, at the urging of Thompson and his fellow pro-Aristide lobbyists, installed the Haitian demagogue back in power. The rigging of the 2000 elections, however, was a major blow to the pro-Aristide camp in the U.S., and he soon lost his American fan base, at least among the Washington respectables, and was driven out of power in 2004 in the face of stepped-up criticism from Washington and riots in the streets.
The question is: what was Thompson doing representing the interests of one of the worst leftist tyrants in recent memory? Was it just the money?
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11189