FRED THOMPSON IS adding more big-name policy talent as his testing-the-waters committee continues to grow into a real presidential campaign. Among the new additions: Mark Esper, national security adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist; Joel Shin, a top policy staffer on Bush-Cheney 2000; and Elizabeth Cheney, a former top official in the State Department’s Near East and South Asia department.
Esper, who worked for Thompson when he was a Senator in the 1990s, currently serves as executive vice president of the Aerospace Industries of America and is a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Thompson previously served on the commission. Before joining AIA, Esper was Bill Frist’s director of National Security Affairs. According to a biography on the U.S.-China commission website, Esper’s “portfolio in that position included all defense, foreign policy, and intelligence matters for the United States Senate, where he also worked on trade and homeland security issues.” He worked on executive-legislative national security matters–an important job given the Bush Administration’s posture on a robust executive branch. Esper’s current AIA obligations have limited his participation to that of an informal adviser.
