Romney's campaign was the source of Thompson rumor

According to Novak:

Published reports that Fred Thompson soon will withdraw from the Republican presidential contest and endorse Sen. John McCain have been traced in part to Mitt Romney's campaign, trying to stir up strife between McCain and Thompson.

(via)

Republican Iowa Caucus Results

Here.

Huckabee responds to the controversy over his Christmas ad

I really think that people are making too much over this ad. The nation is about to celebrate a national holiday so why shouldn't one of the candidates mention it? (Though, if he hadn't made his Christianity a major platform in his campaign, he might not be getting this reaction.)

"If we are so politically correct in this country that a person can't say enough of the nonsense with the political attack ads could we pause for a few days and say Merry Christmas to each other then we're really, really in trouble as a country," Huckabee said.

Catholic League president Bill Donahue said Huckabee went beyond wishing people a joyous holiday. Donahue said he was especially disturbed by the cross-like image created by a white bookcase in the background of the ad, saying he believed it was a subliminal message.

"What he's trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): I'm the real thing," Donahue said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends. "You know what, sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is."

Huckabee said the bookshelf is just a bookshelf and shrugged off the controversy: "I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'"

Thompson at a SC gun show: "It's a beautiful day in paradise"

I know a lot of gun owners feel the same way. I feel like that when I go to a computer show :-)

White House hopeful Fred Thompson called his trip down aisle of rifles, shotguns and pistols at a gun show "a day in paradise," and said he wished he could come back to spend more time and money.

It was the former Tennessee senator and "Law and Order" actor's second trip to a gun show since launching his late bid for the GOP nomination in September.

He reached out and picked up an old M-1 Garand rifle and raised an over-and-under Winchester shotgun suitable for the skeet shooting he's been known to do as he made his way through the 200 vendors at The Land of the Sky Gun Show at a fairgrounds just outside of North Charleston, S.C.

"It's a beautiful day in paradise," Thompson said when greeted by one of the people packing the show's aisles.

I bet the press is freaking out that a presidential candidate would be comfortable enough with guns to say that.

Thompson responds to Post hit piece

He didn't know that his friend was a former drug dealer:

"I wish I had known about it a little earlier," Thompson said to reporters before his appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' "Phil I'm sure knows that he should have told me about this, but he thought it was over and done with and forgotten about I’m sure. But of course nothing is ever over and done with and forgotten about in this business."

The Post went on to say that Martin was charged in 1983 with violating his probation, along with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. The newspaper said Martin pleaded no contest to cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which were part of a plan to sell $30,000 worth of cocaine, and was continued on probation.

"I know him to be a good man," Thompson said on Sunday. "I know him to be a man who has rehabilitated himself and led a productive life. He's my friend. He's gonna remain my friend."

As for Martin's future role with the campaign, Thompson said that has not been decided.

"You know, what I do about it after I talk to him with regard to the future we'll just have to see, sit down and work out, and do the right thing to a fellow who is a friend., but who is now on the front page of the Washington Post."

I guess one good thing that comes out of this, Thompson's Buzz Rank at Wonkosphere should improve this week :-)

Related Post:
Thompson Adviser was a Drug Dealer

Thompson on "HillaryCare"

Thompson is right on target with this video! It's funny, sharp and makes all the right arguments against the program with humor. Well done!

He hit the most important point: the lack of freedom in the program. It strikes me as Un-American to force Americans to have insurance whether they want it or not. And you can't get a job if you don't have insurance -- that's just nuts.

I don't want the government to control my health care. If they get hold of it, they will limit my service. I'm not interested in giving up the health care of my choice for my children, to insure people who don't want it.

John Fund on Fred Thompson

Nothing new but kind of neat to see the WSJ writers on video.

Fred Thompson on abortion again!

I was wondering why I was getting hits on this post and I wasn't pleased to find out why:

Under abortion: He checked the box for: "Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy." He did, however, support a number of restrictions on abortion: requiring parental notification, allowing states to impose waiting periods, and eliminating all federal funding of abortion. Lastly, he said Congress should leave legislation on abortion to the states.

(via)

Not good! He'll have to explain this but I don't think anyone in the top-tier has a better position then this (Romney's flip-flopping not withstanding).

Why can't Trent Lott keep his mouth shut?

Why did these stupid Republicans put Trent Lott back in leadership? Why does he have to buy into the premise that it's going to be worse? Why not focus the media's attention on the good things that are going on over there. We read everyday about the bombs, we not tell the public about the successes? Stop weakening the president's position. I'm about ready to leave the Republican party because these people lack resolve, principles, common sense and a spine:

Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott says President Bush's new strategy in Iraq has until about fall before GOP members will need to see results.

Lott's comment Monday put a fine point on what Senate Republican stalwarts have been discussing quietly for weeks. It also echoed remarks made this weekend by House Minority Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, indicating the GOP's limited patience on the war.

"I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas," Lott, R-Miss., told reporters.

Lott declined to say what he thinks should happen if Congress does not see improvement in the security situation by then. But he said lawmakers have time before they must decide.

Stop piling on! Let the military run the bleeping war and let them decide what the deadlines are going to be. They have more knowledge than the politician sitting in Washington. When are these politicians going to realize that?

BTW, when the left, the media and the feckless, spineless Republicans finally force us to cut and run from Iraq, get ready for the push to cut and run from Afganistan. The bombing has already started there. They know that's a tactic that will force us out of a theater.

Tags: Trent Lott

LA Times wonders if Thompson's racist role will have political repercussions

So, Fred Thompson the actor plays a white supremest and the LA Times wonders if this will be a problem for Thompson:

So can "Law & Order" actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) become the first presidential candidate with this credit? Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of "Mein Kampf" on a television drama 19 years ago.

His colleagues say that he was just an actor putting everything he had into playing the role of a charismatic racist, named Knox Pooley, in three episodes of CBS' hit show "Wiseguy" in 1988. "Do you call Tom Cruise a killer because he played one in a movie?" asked show creator and writer Stephen J. Cannell.

But in the age of YouTube, this performance could raise an intriguing political question: How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace? Some conservative political blogs are already considering the problem.

"Not only do politicians have to worry about getting comfortable with a crowd and saying something that might be caught on tape," said USC professor Leo Braudy, a pop culture expert, who has written extensively about film. "Now actors who have political aspirations will have to go through every single line of every part they played to make sure there's nothing they need to explain or apologize for."

There was no footage of Bush "fondling an autographed copy of 'Mein Kampf'" but the left turned him into Hitler anyway. The left will demonize and ridicule or candidate no matter who we offer so I doubt it will have any impact in the race. As with Bush, the reality is far different from the caricature and that will be evident.

The left doesn't get our love for Thompson

The left is very superficial in their understanding of our desire to see Thompson enter the race. They appear to be into simple math, you know 1 +1 = 2. This is their level of analysis:

Reagan was an actor
Thompson is an actor

We think Thompson is like Reagan because he's an actor.

Think I'm kidding?

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, in Chicago Tuesday for an event sponsored by the Democratic Leadership Council, discounted any comparisons between Ronald Reagan and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, a Republican who is reported to be considering a run for the nation’s highest office.

"There must be a lot of uncertainty on that Republican side, for a Hollywood actor who plays a New York prosecutor to be seriously thought of as presidential timber,” he said. “President Reagan was the governor of California, the leader of the conservative movement…The only real comparison is they were both actors.”

(via)

What the heck does Ford know about what made Reagan so popular among conservatives and why we believe that Thompson has similar conservative values like smaller government, supply side economics, etc. You would think that Ford, who is from the same state as Thompson, would understand what Thompson did in Congress. It's clear from his voting record that he shared Reagan's principles and has a similar view of government.

BTW, if I were the Democrats, I wouldn't be talking about lightweight candidates with Obama and Edwards in the race.

Speaking of superficial analysis, here's a video of Bill Maher on Hardball dissing Thompson's looks, calling him "basset-faced Fred Thompson."

Now, if you looked like this, would you be mentioning someone's looks:


And like Ford, he doesn't understand our desire to find a candidate who shares the principles of Reagan, he calls it our "campy fixation" and that it's "almost gay."

And when he talks about the fact that Reagan was optimistic but the Republicans will be running on the war and that will make them fear-mongers, he shows that he lacks self-reflection because his candidate is one of the doom and gloom candidates, the two America candidates. That doesn't sound too optimistic to me.

He doesn't seem to get it that you can be optimistic when you face the future, you don't have to run from your problems and you can be optimistic about overcoming them: "We have these problems but I know that America has the strength and resolve to overcome all the difficulties in our path. We have done it throughout our history and we can do it again if we just continue down the path that we are on. Putting our eyes on the goal and keeping them there, not looking back at how life was like before we went to war. That life is gone but we can forge a new one. We are now committed to this new life and looking back will only undermine our resolve. Better days are on the horizon, they will be that much sweeter because we've had to suffer for so long. Our nation has not only been at war in Iraq and Afganistan, but here in America as well as we fight each other over these problems that we share. Let's put aside our differences, let's not dwell on how we got here but what we can do to resolve the problems so that we can leave a safer America for our children."

See that's not very hard and just think what Thompson could say if he had a real writer

And I'm really surprised how provisional Maher sounds about Giuliani dressing in drag, hasn't he heard of Monty Python? You'd think that he would be a little more sophisticated since he's from Hollywood. Don't they have comedians who dress in women's clothes for a laugh there?

Tags: Maher, Hardball

What's missing from Brownback's issues page?

Compare his issues page with this one. There is a glaring omission. What is it?

Tags: Brownback

Someone is looking for dirt on Thompson

Do you think it was the Clintons? It fits their modus operandi:

Former Tennessee U.S. Senator Fred Thompson is drawing nationwide attention for his ongoing flirtation with running for president. He is also drawing a little unwanted attention here in Nashville of a very different kind.

Nashville law circles were abuzz last week about professional snoops – either private investigators or opposition research political types - combing public records in Metro buildings looking for potential dirt on Thompson. Property records seemed to be at the top of their list.

The word trickled up to Republican Party sources, who insist it is Thompson’s potential GOP primary opponents looking for ammo to use should the television star make the race.

Whoever it is, it's a good sign because someone thinks he's viable enough to make an effort to smear him.

NY Times takes a look at Thompson's pre-campaign campaigning:

When 10 of the declared Republican presidential candidates gather for their first debate on Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California, Fred D. Thompson, the actor and politician, will not be among them. But he will not be far offstage.

Mr. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and current presidential question mark, is speaking the next night at the annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, an influential conservative group. The scheduling illustrates the political place Mr. Thompson occupies: he is of the presidential campaign, but not in it. Yet.

[...]

The informal Thompson team has kicked around names of potential top campaign aides, lawyers and pollsters who might still be available given that so much of the Republican talent pool has already been scooped up. The team has discussed securing office space for a headquarters in Tennessee.

Making speeches at carefully chosen appearances, doing an occasional interview and fielding questions from Republican congressmen, Mr. Thompson, 64, is running something of a guerrilla exploratory effort. He even weighed in recently on a conservative blog to offer a detailed defense of his ideas on federalism.

This quote from the piece is laughable given the fact that he's run successful campaigns before:

A top aide for one contender said he thought Mr. Thompson would be stunned by the level of scrutiny he receive in a campaign not only from the news media, but also from the competition. He described Mr. Thompson as the potential Wesley Clark of the 2008 race: a popular figure whose political image and skills have not been tested.

Clark never ran for office before.

Politico looks at the type of campaign Thompson would run:

Thompson, his wife and advisers in Washington and Tennessee also are drawing up plans for a new style of campaign that would rely heavily on technology and his celebrity status to avoid some of the slogging through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire that is normally required of White House hopefuls.

The advisers say Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order," is researching ways to use technology -- including the Web, videoconferences and teleconferences -- to harness the enthusiasm for his candidacy among grass-roots bloggers and activists. The campaign also would rely on large events, such as those that have in part supplanted country-store campaigning for some in the Democratic field.

[...]

So just how practical is a low-impact presidential campaign? Thompson's floundering campaign for Senate in Tennessee took off after he got his red pickup truck, and now he wants to bring a similar dash of showmanship to the '08 race. "Because of his name ID, he doesn't have to go diner to diner and church to church," said one adviser.

On the day Thompson revealed he has cancer, he hinted at an unorthodox blueprint when he said that he thinks it's possible to join the field without abandoning his family.

"Going on the road for months at a time, and for all practical purposes, just checking [in] every once in a while, I wouldn't do that," he told Fox's Neil Cavuto. "I don't think it has to be done that way. I know people will expect that of everyone -- to run frenetically around for years. And I don't do frenetic very well."

And as you have probably heard by now, Reagan's men have come out for Thompson:

Ronald Reagan's closest allies are throwing their weight behind the bid by the late president's fellow actor, Fred Thompson, for the White House.

The film star and former Republican senator from Tennessee will this week use a speech in the heart of Reagan country, in southern California, to woo party bigwigs in what insiders say is the next step in his coming out as a candidate.

A key figure in the Reagan inner circle has now given his seal of approval to Thompson, best known as a star of the television crime drama Law and Order. As deputy chief of staff, Michael Deaver was a key member of the "troika" of aides who kept the Reagan White House on track.

With the then chief of staff James Baker and special assistant Ed Meese, he was the master of image and presentation. Deaver sees the same raw material in Thompson as was perceived in Ronald Reagan, describing him as someone "that could really make a difference."

He added: "He is very popular in his party. He could change this whole thing and turn this primary system upside down. As Ronald Reagan used to say, after he stole a line from Al Jolson: `Stay tuned, you ain't seen nothing yet."'

[...]
Deaver's intervention is significant. He is very close to Reagan's widow, Nancy, and is seen as the keeper of the Reagan flame. Clark Judge, a White House speechwriter for Reagan, said: "Fred Thompson, like Ronald Reagan, is a man of tremendous substance. There is a sense in the party that none of the candidates is quite `it."'

I wasn't too impressed by the turnout of the rally or by the video of Wamp's speech. I will be happy when Thompson can attend these things himself and give his own speech. I agree with this take:

Wamp discusses the notion of radical Islam being "sheltered" by moderate Islam and references the Muslim birthrate versus the birthrate in the West to give the impression that the Middle East is a breeding ground for future terrorists, making a "war of civilizations," as ACK calls it, all but inevitable. Is this what Fred Thompson believes?

At this point, it's almost as if every conservative who hasn't picked a horse in the '08 race is projecting whatever views they have that aren't being addressed by the top tier candidates onto Thompson. I'm as excited as anyone about the prospect of Thompson getting in the race, but the reality is, he must speak for himself on these issues. If he's going to run, it's time to get in the race and join the debate.

And finally, Thompson takes a look at America's critics:

President Vladimir Putin, though, shows no sign that he feels defensive about his remarkable string of luck. He knows who’s really to blame for “meddling” in Russian “internal affairs.” It’s the United States.

He’s lambasting us for yielding too much power. One example of this excessive power is the missile defense radar system we want to install in Poland and the Czech Republic — to give the free world early warning of a missile attack by terrorists or a rogue nation like Iran. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that the Russians have been supplying Iran with both nuclear and missile technology while using their U.N. veto to block sanctions that would force Tehran to back down. Regardless, we’re clearly at fault, he says, for putting a defense system close to Mother Russia.

So I wouldn’t worry too much about the criticisms we receive. We make mistakes and at times the “carping” may even be on target, but it seems to me that we ought to look at a lot of the complaints as a badge of honor.

This looks like a knock against the Democrats like Clinton who say that want to improve America's standing in the world by sending out her husband to be a good will ambassador.

Update: Redstate contacted Mike Deaver to find out if he endorsed Thompson and he said that he didn't endorse any of the candidates:

“Fred Thompson is a great guy, but I haven’t endorsed anyone in the Republican primary, and don’t intend to.”

Fred Thompson on Abortion

Ah Ha! The smoking gun, as it were. Here is video of Thompson during a debate on abortion.

Just so you know my bona fides on this subject: I'm a Christian who believes that life begins at conception and I've been pro-life since I was a teenager and realized that it was legal for a mother to kill her baby in her womb. This seemed incredibly wrong to me and I still believe that to this day.

But I have to tell you that I hold a very similar position to Fred Thompson. I believe that Roe v. Wade was judicial overreach and bad law. I also believe that eventually it will be overturned and when that happens it will be up to the states to determine what they will do. That is where I want to fight this battle. I don't believe this to be a federal issue, it will be easier for us to get it criminalized in a number of states (at least we will be able to get it restricted significantly in most of them) because we can organize easier at the state level than at the federal level and being organized at the state level, we are better equipped to offer assistance to those in need.

Thompson made his view of the federal government clear when he blogged about his vote on tort reform, why should we be surprised that he would view this issue in the same way? He doesn't believe it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, it should be handled by the states. Aren't the states the ones who issue licenses to doctors? Aren't they better equipped to handle the regulation of the doctors in their state? Aren't they already doing that now?

I agree with Bill Hobbs:

The key phrase in Thompson's answer is this one: "I do not believe that the federal government ought to be involved in that process." That sentence is the summary of all he says next, and shows he is opposed to Roe v. Wade, which represented the federalization of what had been a state-level issue.

He then says he is opposed to federal funding for abortion and supports the states' right to regulate abortion - both are federalist and pro-life positions - and he opposes the federal government criminalizing abortion. Again, a federalist answer.

Thompson's entire answer is a very "federalist" - he believes abortion policy should be a matter for states rather than the federal government.

I'm really concerned that there will be some who believe that their position is the only pro-life position and those of use who support the states taking over this issue are pro-choice. That certainly is not the case as far as I'm concerned. You will not make me wear a label that is not mine and I doubt you will get Thompson to do it as well. Fred Thompson voted consistently for life while in the Senate. That's good enough for me. But for those who are concerned think about this: would a federalist actually put a judge on the bench that would uphold Roe v. Wade? Of course not!