Posted on 03/08/2007 7:43:28 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is facing increased calls to get into the 2008 GOP nomination race.
Sources told FOX News that Thompson, 62, now one of the stars of the popular NBC prime time series "Law & Order," has not ruled out a presidential bid, and has authorized advisers and supporters to continue to gauge support.
Advisers are holding regular strategy sessions, investigating fundraising avenues and private polling to measure enthusiasm. Perhaps pre-eminent among a number of prominent Thompson backers working behind the scenes is former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker.
Baker has been a mentor to Thompson since before the Senate's Watergate hearings, for which Baker hired Thompson as majority counsel and for which Thompson earned fame for having Baker ask the key question that led to President Richard Nixon's downfall: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"
Baker ran for president himself in 1980. Thompson eyed the White House in the 1990s.
While Thompson, who also helped raise money and advise I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's legal defense fund, continues to mull a bid, sources said he has been inundated with calls from GOP donors and supporters urging him to run.
Thompson has a solid and consistently conservative voting record that his supporters said makes a stark contrast to Republican frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
This week, he told radio news host Mark Levin that he would have something to say about his plans, but not yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
He's a Howard Baker conservative. A RINO light.
I have no opinion of Thompson one way or another, but for all the moral perfectionists here at FR, I must tell them that he is divorced and his second wife is nearly half his age. She's something like 34 years old now. Now, THAT would be interesting.
He's a Howard Baker conservative. A RINO lite.
Sounds like a solid conservative to me.
Thompson said one reason he is hesitant about running is his longtime friendship with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Thompson was one of only four Republican senators to endorse McCains 2000 presidential campaign and was an important ally in McCains effort to pass campaign-finance reform in 2002.
Too bad Ted Faggard isn't running. We need a clean cut religious guy to give us a choice.
I'd fall into Thompson's camp. Where do you go to tell him he's got support?
I like Duncan Hunter, but Thompson would have the name recognition. Thompson's always played likable authority figures in the movies and TV, so that would give him a leg up.
He is to the right of Bush.
He is absolutely acceptable to this Hunter fan.
You have said that before.
Do you have a source, link?
Those would be good. How about his stand on illegal immigration?
Fred served in the Senate so he's not exactly some dope off the street.
Google Lori Morgan. Nuff said.
I know he dated her.
So what? He was not married. Nothing wrong with that.
That didn't take long.
According to that graph he's pretty similar to the congressman we just dumped. (Joe Schwarz) However a graph doesn't really tell the whole story because Schwarz was a liberal and I know Thompson is no liberal.
In any case I'll keep an open mind but Hunter is still my first pick.
So far, from what has been presented, his biggest negative is that he was a co-sponsor of McCain's Campaign Finance bill, and backed McCain in the 2000 election.
He also seems a bit weak on tort reform.
It's the kind of thing we really mean when we say we are going to need to make some compromises to find a good candidate. I think it's the kind of thing we COULD compromise on if we had to.
It's nothing like having to sell your soul, like you would for Rudy Guiliani.
The other wrap with Thompson is that he doesn't have a lot of "executive" experience, being only a Senator, and not having run a business.
I would like to hear his record/views on immigration, but other than that, I've ALWAYS liked him and his stands as solidly conservative.
GO FRED GO!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.