Thompson Will Take On Outsider Role After Playing Access Man

Thompson spokesman Mark Corrallo dismissed such criticism as "not an issue at all." He said that Thompson is proud to have been a lobbyist and believed in Equitas's cause. "It's an honorable endeavor," Corrallo added. "He was retained to do a job, and he did it to the best of his abilities."

Finger-Pointing Over Exposé

Get ready for a small eruption on K Street, courtesy of Harper's magazine. The magazine's Ken Silverstein masqueraded as a person with an interest in the not-so-savory government of Turkmenistan and got some top lobbying firms to detail what they could do to improve its reputation.

Apco Worldwide suggested a menu that would come with a whopping $600,000 tab in the first year. It said it could arrange meetings between Turkmen officials and members of Congress, organize fact-finding trips to the country and sponsor an event with publications such as Roll Call and the Economist. Op-eds, prepared by think-tank experts, might also be placed in prominent publications by an Apco staffer who "does nothing but that," according to the article.

Apco's B. Jay Cooper said the presentation was standard and not aimed at "bending the truth" -- something he accused Harper's of doing. "Sounds like he is projecting on us what he was doing," Cooper said, referring to Silverstein. Roger D. Hodge, Harper's editor, conceded: "There was a deception involved, but there was a public interest at stake."

The Airlines' Flyby Faux Pas

The top brass at the Senate Finance Committee are incensed over a legislative end-around engineered by American and Continental airlines. The airlines used their contacts with the Democratic leadership in Congress to sneak into the Iraq war spending bill a provision that will reduce the payments they have to make to their workers' pension plans, a move that will save them millions.

The Finance Committee's senior members are not pleased. They have asked the airlines' chief executives to explain themselves and are warning that theirs may well have been a Pyrrhic victory.

"These two airlines flew around the Finance Committee to get this pension provision in the spending bill, but we will review, in the light of day, exactly what deal they got," Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said ominously.

"The committees of jurisdiction spent many months working on a pension bill that took each airline's status into account," added Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the panel's ranking Republican. "These two airlines and their allies in Congress have undermined that work."

In other words, flyboys, you've made some powerful foes.

Transitions of the Week

William T. Archey, the chief executive of AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, said he plans to retire when he turns 65 in 2008 after more than 13 years with the technology trade group.

Lee Verstandig resigned as senior vice president of government affairs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Bernie Toon, a longtime Capitol Hill staffer, will head the D.C. office of Bechtel.

Google's fast-growing lobbying shop has added two more staffers, both former aides to Michigan Democrats. John Burchett is the new state policy counsel and Johanna Shelton is a legislative strategist.

Stuart Roy, a former aide to ex-congressman Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), left DCI Group for Prism Public Affairs. Ex-congressman Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) joined Normandy Group.

Please send e-mail to kstreet@washpost.com.