Larry Kudlow is the host on the clip.
Posted on 06/10/2007 5:39:48 PM PDT by CheyennePress
Fred discusses federalism and tort reform.
You know it was funny, Kudlow had 6 experts on his show right after the interview and not one of them gave Fred Thompson a shot at getting the nomination. Where do they find such out of touch experts?
“Is there a transcript ? Dial-up and youtube don’t mix well.”
I’m in the same boat. Need a transcript. I must look into high speed internet service!
Where we the interview? Where was Louis?
Larry Kudlow: (heavily paraphrased) When you were a Senator you voted against tort reform, something that a lot of people and especially a lot of businesses think is a serious problem. Has that got anything to do with the fact that you are/were a trial lawyer?Not much of a transcript but it's the best I can do right now. Ciao.Fred Thompson:"I can't wait to get back to trying those intersection collision cases, ah, Larry, but, ah, no, the one, several of those issues, I don't remember that particular one,.."
Kudlow: Well what you voted against were the caps and that was the crux of the whole thing ..
Fred Thompson: ...well... well... the..
Larry Kudlow: ...which is really the heart of the matter
Fred Thompson: ...well...
Larry Kudlow: ..as you know venue shopping has been one of the big issues with the trial lawyers
Fred Thompson: ...let me...
Larry Kudlow: ...they all want to go to Madison county.
Fred Thompson: ...let me...
Larry Kudlow: ... so they can get outrageous settlements...
Fred Thompson:"I, voted for class action reform, ah, ah, I know on a couple of different occasions, because I consider that to be a national issue...
Larry Kudlow: ...Well you voted against some caps...
Fred Thompson: ...well...
Larry Kudlow: you voted against some caps..."
(...)
Thompson: ...that were ah in the trial lawyer's pockets and things like that and they went to the voters and got changes made. In Mississippi in Alabama in Texas and a number of states it just shows that it works... the easy solution often times is to go to the federal government... now there is there is certain things that without question that ah have become nationalized because ah globalization and the communication and transportation...
(...)
Thompson: Larry in state after state and you know after leaving their little communities getting in their car driving past their state capital getting to the airport flying to Washington DC to get Washington DC to do something about something that happened in their locality there in that regard with regard to tort reform state after state took it on themselves as they should to change outrageous ah ah supreme court members who ah who ah were doing ah things
Fred Thompson: ...let me give you an answer that covers, I think every one of those so called tort reform, ah, votes ah there have been things that have been the purview of the states for two-hundred years and ah for ah Washington ah and in one case the Judiciary committee to sit and calculate attorneys fees appropriate attorney's fees, negotiated on the state level is preposterous for one thing and is against the principles of federalism ah ah ah on another level. I had a couple of 99 to 1 votes where I was the one vote where mom and apple pie kind of things were ah were were put forward because they felt like it was a good idea to federalize those traditional state things and without commenting on the merits of the case I just said the federal government can not do what it is supposed to be doing competently now were were were rife with with inabilities from ah ah computer technology to ah ah our people people passing an audit but the federal government hasn't passed one ah ah for 10 years so why keep arrogating these type of responsibilities to Washington DC with some kind of a so called fix ah when we are ah supposed to be ah federal system under the constitution and if you got a problem with state you know this is a competitive system out there and a lot of other states out there and the competition is ah is a good thing among the states and some times you even get some innovation among the states.
Larry Kudlow: ...how...
Fred Thompson:... in fact that is where welfare reform came from... So, ah, you know we got to be a little bit careful if we are true to our principles, that when it comes to some subject matter ah, that we feel strongly about that it's not, ah, just another an answer that we feel strongly about it, the question is whether, the question is at what level of government it should be dealt with.
Kudlow: Sometimes states are really bad laboratories sort of killing off the animals that they are testing and I have to ask you, because businessmen are really interested in this, how would you as a president either cap these lawsuit penalties or stop frivolous lawsuits whether it's medical malpractice lawsuits or asbestos lawsuits that put thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of workers out of work and muck up the capitalist system. How do you stop that sir?
Fred Thompson: (partial and inexact)...changes in our society but you have to take a new look at it you have to have a federal response to legitimate federal issues but I think the first thing we often do sometimes as conservatives supposedly is jump to the ah to the ah unilateral federal ah option ah before you give the states the responsibility. You can't say that you believe in freedom ah ah ah with regard to someone ah as long as someone does what you want them to do.
Fred voted as he did in many of those cases because the Feds were getting involved in matters that should have been handled at the state level.
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