When I first saw this piece in the New York Times I thought it was going to be a hit piece on Fred Thompson.

I was pleasantly surprised that it seems to be an honest report of the lobbying efforts by Mr. Thompson and his two sons.

WASHINGTON, June 29 — On Christmas Eve 1994, Fred D. Thompson Jr. was out of a job. A 34-year-old self-described late bloomer, Mr. Thompson had graduated from law school just two years before and practiced law only for his father, Fred D. Thompson Sr., who was about to be sworn in as a senator from Tennessee.

“I was out on the street, knocking on doors,” recalled the younger Mr. Thompson, who is known as Tony.

But attending Brentwood Methodist Church in Nashville that night, Tony Thompson ran into the departing incumbent senator, Harlan Mathews, a Democrat. Mr. Mathews invited Tony to join him in a Nashville lobbying business, a job that would let him capitalize on his father’s new position.

“I don’t just believe in the tooth fairy,” Mr. Mathews said. “A lot of people were seeking access — not necessarily unfair access, but seeking access — so Tony was employed in a number of areas where his father had made a reputation or his father’s advice or whatever was going to be valuable one of these days.”

Now the elder Mr. Thompson, who also worked as a lobbyist before and after his eight years in the Senate, is aiming for an even higher post, preparing a run for the Republican presidential nomination. In the folksy drawl that built him a lucrative sideline as a screen actor, Mr. Thompson is presenting himself as a reform-minded outsider taking on Washington, just as he did when he campaigned for the Senate as “Ol’ Fred” the “real live country lawyer,” and cruised Tennessee in a rented red pickup truck.

You’re going to hear a lot about Thompson driving around in a red pick up truck, but the truth of the matter is that he felt uncomfortable being someone he was not while running for the Senate the first time.

When asked what made him comfortable he said he’d like to just drive around the state in his pick up truck and talk to the voters.

He was advised to do it then, and he came from behind to win the election.

I checked a lot of sites that claim this was fake, but when I saw pictures of Bob Schrum on there I knew they were Democratic sites and would not be friendly in any way to Thompson and would paint the picture people on that site wanted you to see.

Kos also has an archived story saying the same thing, but I knew I had read this story not too long ago and searched for something that sounded at least similar to what I had read.

From Bloomberg is this excerpt:

In Tennessee, Thompson’s ability to manage his image proved to be one of his strongest assets. In 1994, he was trailing a Democratic opponent, Representative Jim Cooper, in the race for the seat vacated by then Vice President Al Gore. Thompson told campaign advisers that he wanted to ditch his suits for blue jeans, and began driving around the state in a used red pickup truck, said Bill Lacy, then a political strategist for him.

“Fred changed immediately,” Lacy said. “The message didn’t change at all, but he was able to create a role for himself and he was very comfortable in that role.”

The truck was credited with helping Thompson beat Cooper. It worked, Ingram said, because it rang true for Thompson, whose father sold used cars in rural Tennessee. “Fred Thompson was a truck driver long before we got the truck,” Ingram said.

Read the rest of the Times article and see if it seems fair to you. I thought it was a fair article.