How conservative is Fred Thompson?

Washington Times ^ | 06/23/2007 | Editiorial

[etradervic]

After John East, a stalwart conservative from North Carolina, entered the U.S. Senate in 1981, wags began referring to Jesse Helms as "the liberal senator from the Tar Heel state." We are reminded of this tale as Republican activists rush to encourage, if not yet fully embrace, the presidential candidacy of Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee. The Republican base is evidently unimpressed or uninspired (or both) by the conservative credentials of the top three Republicans (John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani) seeking the 2008 presidential nomination. Mr. Thompson's most-oft-cited conservative credential is his 86.1 percent lifetime (1995-2002) Senate vote rating compiled by the American Conservative Union (ACU), the organization that many rightly consider a leading arbiter of conservatism. In the same relative sense that Mr. Helms could be considered North Carolina's "liberal senator," Mr. Thompson's ACU rating would qualify him to be "the liberal senator from Tennessee" during his eight-year stint. Bill Frist, who defeated Democratic incumbent Jim Sasser, was elected to the Senate from Tennessee the same year (1994) as Mr. Thompson, who won the seat vacated in 1993 by then-Vice President Gore. During the eight years they represented Tennessee together, Mr. Frist compiled an ACU rating of 89.3 percent, making Mr. Thompson "the liberal senator from the Volunteer state."

[Brices Crossroads]

Do not forget that it was Reagan who signed the first Amnesty Bill in 1986. He also made some mistakes in his Supreme Court appointments. Thompson. on the other hand, helped give us John Roberts, who is a great Chief Justice. You are right. No candidate is perfect, but we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

[rogue yam]

Look, if you want anyone to agree with you then you have to substantiate your claims.

How many times?

[bethtopaz]

You know, representing Mitt Romney as a weather man just shows me that you know little to nothing about this man. It only makes you look ignorant and silly. You should stop it, for your own sake.

[Beagle8U]

“Romney has boldly stated that he supports repeal of CFR .”

Romney also Boldly ( Or Stupidly) stated he still supports an assault weapons ban in the 2nd debate.

[RasterMaster]

You can go back 25 years with Duncan Hunter....a CONSISTENT conservative. Unlike Fred or his mentor, Jihad Johnny.

[prairiebreeze]

The gnats heads have been exploding ever since that (possibly false) report that Fred would announce “next Tuesday”.

Look for their convulsions to increase as the announcement date draws near.

[Josh Painter]

FreeReign wrote: "Quote him!"

Here ya go. This one's free. Ask for any more, and it'll cost you real money, LOL!

BILL BENNETT: Do you regret your vote for campaign finance reform?

FRED THOMPSON: Well, Bill, you know, part of that is good law, and part of it is not. We were saying, "Let's raise the hard money limit up to some higher level - it's still not high enough. I did quite a bit on that and got it up to $2,000 plus inflation. It's unrealistically low. From a thousand to two is progress, but you get rid of the soft money. I came to Washington promising to try to change the way Washington did business. The way Washington wound up doing business, especially after the Clinton guys proved that you could do some things differently and not go to jail, was trading the tradtional limitations for huge sums of money. Instead of a thousand, you know, it was a hundred thousand.

Giving large sums of money to politicians that you have business before is not a good idea. I stand by that and feel like that was good.

This business of trying to regulate television ads and so forth has not worked out, was not a good idea, shouldn't have been done. As I look at it now and see these cases come before the Supreme Court, they're parsing the words. "Is this an issue ad or not?" And so forth, and so on. I thought it would be evident... self-evident, the answer to that. But it's not, and the Supreme Court can't handle all of these cases. We can't afford the bureaucracy necessary to monitor all of these cases. So, I split down the middle on that.

BILL BENNETT: You know, I agree with George Will - unlimited money, no foreign money, but you've got to report it all, no cash. The money's going to get though anyway - 527s - I do think there are First Amendment issues. You should be able to support the candidate that you want. As long as it's public information, I don't have a problem with it.

FRED THOMPSON: Well, you can make a case for that, and I said in a Wall Street Journal article several months ago that might be what we come to.

- Bill Bennett, Morning in America, June 6, 2007

Featured Interview: Fred Thompson



Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick Reference

Fred Thompson FAQ: THE Fred Thompson Web Resource

[The Pack Knight]

Mr. Thompson's ACU rating would qualify him to be "the liberal senator from Tennessee" during his eight-year stint. Bill Frist, who defeated Democratic incumbent Jim Sasser, was elected to the Senate from Tennessee the same year (1994) as Mr. Thompson, who won the seat vacated in 1993 by then-Vice President Gore. During the eight years they represented Tennessee together, Mr. Frist compiled an ACU rating of 89.3 percent, making Mr. Thompson "the liberal senator from the Volunteer state."

Well, since you put it that way.....

[Wonder Warthog]

"....a) inside the beltway; and b) employed by advocacy groups whether of the left or right and thus have a financial interest and personal pecuniary ax to grind in opposing it."

Funny. I fit neither of those categories and a ADAMANTLY opposed to "CFR"--which is a massive and unconstitutional abridgment of freedom of speech.

McCain should be SHOT for making it happen, and Bush should be impeached for signing the damned thing. Feingold is a "progressive", and you expect unconstitutional legislation from THEM.

[TomGuy]

So you are going to say home and not vote for anybody?

The first primary votes aren't for 6 months.

The whole field of contenders could change by them. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon this early. Ask me in January. Until then, I'm fiercely Independent (partly because being Independent goads Rush Limbaugh) and I will scrutinize each and every one of the major contenders, regardless of their party affiliation.

[Just Lori]

I’ll vote for Thompson in the primaries and I’ll vote for whichever Republican candidate wins that vote in the general election.

[ProCivitas]

I do. Thanks for asking.

[Seven Minute Maniac]

And you’re right, Duncan will make a great potential VP.

[FreeReign]

You can go back 25 years with Duncan Hunter....a CONSISTENT conservative. Unlike Fred or his mentor, Jihad Johnny.

Shall I list the unconstitutional, liberal, big-spending items that Hunter voted for?

[Josh Painter]

Neu Pragmatist wrote: "CFR goes hand in hand with the Second Amendment, as it hampers pro-gun groups immensely right before elections. Romney has boldly stated that he supports repeal of CFR..."



Oh, crapolla! Don't try to make it somehow seem that Romney is pro-gun because he SAYS he supports repeal of McCain Feingold. That's like whizzing on our boots and telling us that it's raining.

FACT: Romney, as governmor of MA, signed an assault weapons ban into law and boasted about his state's tough gun laws.

All the spin and flip-flopping in the world isn't going to change that.

[RasterMaster]

I wouldn’t consider miliary spending “LIEberal”...up-armored Humvees, better body armor, or new technology for the military are not exactly the same as a bridge to an Eskimo village no one will use or the Robert C. Byrd Memorial highway/park/complex.

[Reagan Man]

Conceding that McCain-Feingold hasn’t worked as intended, and is being riddled with new loopholes, he throws his hands open in exasperation. "I'm not prepared to go there yet, but I wonder if we shouldn’t just take off the limits and have full disclosure with harsh penalties for not reporting everything on the Internet immediately."

Fred Thompson, Wall St Journal, March.18,2007

Fred`s conservatism is head and shoulders above Rooty`s, McCain's or Romney's and that makes him a viable alternative to the liberal-centrist-moderatism of the Big-3!

[mdefranc]

Rep. Hunter had chances in the three debates to persuade voters. That he failed to persuade them is indicated by the latest www.intrade.com nomination percentage probabilities:

31.4 Giuliani
29.8 F Thompson
22.0 Romney
10.8 McCain
02.7 Paul
01.7 Gingrich
01.0 Huckabee
00.9 Rice
00.5 Bloomberg, Brownback
00.4 J Bush, Cheney, Hagel
00.2 Tancredo, T Thompson
00.1 Hunter, Powell

By wasting their time and money on a longshot campaign, Hunterites are helping the very candidate they dislike the most - Giuliani - preserve his lead.

[RasterMaster]

“We can not deport 12 million illegal aliens.” Fred Thompson

Can’t have it both ways. The law is illegals are deported when caught. “Path to citizenship”, “temporary work visa” whatever you call it, it’s same as what Bush is pushing...anything short of deportation is AMNESTY.

[ElPatriota]

Good for you! I won’t :)