I have posted many of Fred's commentaries, his Paul Harvey stints, from NRO. If I find an interesting article, I usually post them whether they are pro or anti. It's nice to know what the enemy thinks. I confess that I didn't post one against Fred because he doesn't have executive experience.
Well, then add this reluctant demurrer.
One of the vital characteristics of any GOP nominee in 2008 will have to be his ability to handle the Clintons and their lie machine. George H. W. Bush couldn't handle them, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich couldn't handle them -- a lot of good Republicans, including all the Republican impeachment managers whom Clinton and his kitchen cabinet of political gutter-rats targeted for extermination afterward. The Hutchinsons, Bill McCollum, the excellent Bob Barr -- they all got taken down in an alley.
Fred Thompson's a good man, but he couldn't handle the Clinton lie machine and Slick's attack dog, Richard Ben Veniste, during the Chinagate hearings. He was chairman of the committee, but he somehow couldn't get the witnesses he needed or the material that was out there, to begin the long, arduous job of turning over all the rocks that Clinton had his slugs and termites under. Fred just wasn't up to handling Slick politically, or his strawmen and substitutes (he uses a lot of them). That has to count as a big negative.