Mr. Thompson, who was chief minority counsel for the Senate Watergate committee, accepts money from political action committees.

In fact, the old goats dance rings around the self-important young lawyer who serves as chief minority counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

From 1996 to 2006, he served as general counsel and minority counsel to the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

He was the minority counsel and then general counsel to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 1976 to 1982.

Mr. Thompson brought experience to the table because he was the minority counsel in the Watergate investigation in the 1970's.

In 1973, as Republican minority counsel on the select committee that investigated Watergate, he was "wearing two hats all the time," Senator Thompson said the other day.

Josh Bolten, minority counsel of the Senate Finance Committee, is getting the post of general counsel at the trade agency.

He served as minority counsel to the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee from 1945 to 1975.

After witnesses were heard, he and the minority counsel, Albert Jenner, presented final summaries, each concluding that there were grounds for impeachment.

Kennedy resigned in July 1953, but rejoined the committee staff as chief minority counsel in February 1954.