Posted on 06/18/2007 8:09:30 AM PDT by hardback
He's played the head of the CIA, an admiral, the White House chief of staff and millions know him as gruff District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law and Order."
Now Fred Thompson is poised to shake up the Republican presidential race by going after the real-life role of a lifetime: leader of the free world.
Funded by George Bush's money network, backed by veteran Bush-Cheney loyalists and boasting loads of name recognition, Thompson is expected to stride onstage in a strong second place. With GOP voters increasingly unhappy with their other choices, polls show Thompson already eating into Rudy Giuliani's national lead.
Standing 6-feet-5, with the face of a basset hound and a drawl as slow and sticky as molasses, he has long been called "Reaganesque," not just because he's an actor with a conservative political record, but also for his easy charisma.
"It has to do with electability," Thompson, 64, told the Hoover Institution last week. "I don't want to turn the keys of this country over to Hillary Clinton. ... I think with me, we wouldn't have to do that."
The son of a fundamentalist used car dealer, Frederick Dalton Thompson grew up in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.
At 17, he married his girlfriend, the daughter of a prominent local family, when she got pregnant. She worked to put him through Vanderbilt Law School and he returned home as a young father of three to work in her uncle's firm.
He became a prosecutor and then a protégé of Tennessee GOP Sen. Howard Baker, who brought him to Washington to serve as minority counsel for the Senate Watergate committee.
Thompson was the star of two iconic moments of the hearings. He wrote the famous question for his boss: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"
And it was Thompson who, on July 16, 1973, asked White House witness Alexander Butterfield the bombshell question that ended Nixon's presidency: "Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President?"
In 1977, Thompson helped expose a cash-for-early-release scandal in the Tennessee prisons that put the governor behind bars. When a movie, "Marie," was made of the affair, Thompson played himself and caught the acting bug.
Hollywood fell in love with his craggy face and he was cast as a tough authority figure in more than 30 movies, including "The Hunt for Red October" and "No Way Out."
Acting was a side gig - Thompson's real job was as a highly paid Washington lobbyist for various business concerns.
In 1985, he got divorced and dived enthusiastically into bachelorhood. "I chased a lot of women. And a lot of women chased me. And those that chased me tended to catch me," he recently told a gathering of House Republicans.
Thompson's acting chops came into play in 1994, when he entered a special election to finish the last two years of a retiring senator's term.
Thompson campaigned as a folksy, down-home, good ol' boy. He ditched his lobbyist suits for workshirts, jeans and scuffed boots and traded in his sleek Lincoln Continental for a leased red Chevy pickup.
He was a huge hit, winning by 20 points. When he was reelected for a full term in 1996, he got more votes than anyone in Tennessee history.
Ten years ago, despite a largely unremarkable Senate term, there was some buzz about him running for President in 2000. Instead, he co-chaired his pal John McCain's campaign and readied for his own 2002 Senate reelection.
But then his 38-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Panici, who had long battled depression, died of a prescription drug overdose. Her death devastated Thompson, who quit politics.
Soon after, he married his second wife, Jeri Kehn, a pretty blond Republican strategist who, at 40, is younger than his adult children. They have two toddlers.
"We need to think about what kind of world they're going to grow up into," he said. "That's why I'm doing it."
He’s the guy I will vote for if he is on the ticket.
Has there been any very preliminary polling to see if he could beat Clinton?
He’s the guy I will write in along with Duncan Hunter if he isn’t on the ticket. Screw the RINOs.
Now that President Bush has, finally, been exposed as an elite globalist of the worst kind, all this chumminess is very bothersome.
Thoughts?
Yes, that jumped right out at me, too. I’m not sure if it’s true, or if the Daily News, a clintonoid rag, stuck it in there as a piece of sabotage.
Of course a lot of regulars are coming out for Fred, or he wouldn’t have a chance of making it. But the question is whether they are regulars of a particular type. I wouldn’t take the Daily News’s word for it, but I think we need to learn more if he continues to move forward.
Ping.
Baloney. Don't fall for that back-handed assertion.
If McCain ends up his VP I will cease believing he thinks McCain/Feingold was a mistake.
Overall I'm inclined to be enthusiastic about Thompson. I have issues with his abortion views, but as President (a federal position) his view covers all that we need it to cover. That's not the same thing as Guiliani who has a pro-choice record. I guess I do not know how Thompson would govern a city or state. But his voting record matches his statements and I think he would nominate the right kind of federal judges. His view of the role of the federal government is good with the glaring and important exception of being willing to let the federal government regulate political speech. I'm going to believe that he has repented of that position unless something new leads me to disbelieve him.
Choosing a solid social and fiscal conservative as VP would help a lot. I would especially be happy if he could choose a conservative black man for VP. That will really help with the inevitable race-baiting that will happen if Obama becomes part of the Dem ticket.
J. C. Watts or Michael Steele
I know who his staff is, and they are not a bunch of bush/cheney guys and his fundraising network is not the Bush network, the daily news is making leaps that would make an Olympic gold medalist jealous.
Yes! Wouldn’t that be great?
The only VP candidate that would help him would be someone from a swing state (e.g., Wisconsin’s Tommy Thompson, Minnesota’s Norm Coleman, Michigan’s Engler, etc.) or someone with broad pull from a different segment of the party or among independents (e.g. Guiliani).
Basically Republicans. Gee, what a shock./sarc.
Exactly with Hunter or Pace as Sec Def.
Oh, I hope you are correct! He is the only heavy weight with appeal. All the other heavy weights seem to be influenced by global money.
Funny you should mention that.
Supposedly him and J.C. Watts are friends.
Wouldn't matter though, the democratic party would race bait, not matter who was on the ticket or what the circumstances are. Remember black republicans, aren't considered black (remember what happened in steele's campaign).
I disagree. Very strongly disagree. A pick like that would cause me to lose my confidence in him. He already makes me cautious because of his association with McCain. I am just saying that I need a validation of his conservatism by seeing him choose a solid conservative. The VP position is more often than not the next Pres candidate in training. So I want him to pick someone I could vote for for President.
I've been saying it for a long time. Republicans will never reach the black community until they have a black man on their Pres/VP ticket. If we ever get our proper share of the black vote, the elections will cease being so close.
It would matter (a great deal!) even though you are correct to say they would do it anyway. Doing it doesn't mean you will be effective at it. A black man on the ticket will kill their slanderous charges in any fair thinking voter's mind.
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