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[Fred]Thompson Brings Gun Control to the Fore (Knocks Rudy on 2nd Amendment)
The New York Times ^ | August 22, 2007 | Michael Cooper

Posted on 08/21/2007 9:04:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee, who has not officially declared his presidential ambitions, took a not-very-veiled swipe yesterday at the leading Republican candidate, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, for supporting gun control.

Mr. Thompson, who starred in “Law & Order,” wrote on his Web site: “When I was working in television, I spent quite a bit of time in New York City. There are lots of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don’t fall in that category.”

Then he decried a recent court ruling on a gun case, writing that “the same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again.”

The critique amounted to an unusual dive into presidential politicking for a man who is barred under federal rules from acting like a candidate. Mr. Thompson is officially only “testing the waters” of a presidential bid, a status that limits his ability to raise money and engage in active campaigning. But his comments suggest that he is ready to come out against the other contenders in the Republican field.

In his comments, Mr. Thompson went on to suggest that high gun ownership rates may be related to the nation’s low violent crime rates.

The Giuliani campaign responded. “Those who live in New York in the real world — not on TV — know that Rudy Giuliani’s record of making the city safe for families speaks for itself,” said Katie Levinson, the Giuliani campaign’s communications director. “No amount of political theater will change that.”

Mr. Giuliani has been leading consistently in national polls of the Republican field. But his status has also opened him up to increasing scrutiny.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts; US: New York; US: Tennessee; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; bradybill; disarm; disarmament; election2008; electionpresident; elections; firearms; fred; fredthompson; freedom; giuliani; giulianitruthfile; gop; gunconfiscation; guncontrol; gungrabberrudy; gungrabbers; mittromney; newyorkcity; nra; republicans; rino; rinorudy; rkba; rtkba; rudy; rudyequalsbloomberg; rudygiuliani; runfredrun; secondamendment; selfdefense; sullivanlaws; thompson; trtkba
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To: Beelzebubba
Huckabee and Hunter might take solid pro-gun stands, but only Fred has the talent to express the position in a way that can win over people in the middle, making gun rights sound reasonable and non-threatening.

True!

41 posted on 08/22/2007 7:37:56 AM PDT by b9
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To: George W. Bush
Bookmark for later
42 posted on 08/22/2007 7:43:25 AM PDT by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I'm more and more impressed by Fred Thompson, how about you?

He needs to get well defined position papers/speechs out there. To the extent that Rudy's his target, there's no shortage of issues Thompson can differentiate himself with, including gun control.

43 posted on 08/22/2007 7:58:29 AM PDT by SJackson (isolationism never was, never will be acceptable response to[expansionist] tyrannical governments)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fred is the best shot at a conservative winner we have.

I like Hunter and Huckabee too but they have no chance...so let’s all get behind the one conservative that can win.....Fred Thompson.


44 posted on 08/22/2007 8:17:32 AM PDT by Gopher Broke (Run Fred, Run http://www.imwithfred.com/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

From what I’ve seen so far, Thompson looks like someone who’s not afraid of playing the publicity-wars game - and may even have the gumption to be pro-active rather than reactive.


45 posted on 08/22/2007 9:08:54 AM PDT by dbwz
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To: Gopher Broke
Fred is the best shot at a conservative winner we have.

Absolutely. The bottom line is this.

The Republican Party (and even the Rudy-Apologists) WILL rally and unite behind a conservative.

The Party will NOT rally and unite (because the conservative base will NOT abandon its traditional values and principles) behind a liberal like Guiliani.

46 posted on 08/22/2007 9:49:13 AM PDT by stockstrader (We need a conservative candidate who will UNITE the Party, not a liberal one to DIVIDE it!)
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To: CheyennePress
Fred Thompson has had some rather spotty gun votes in his tenure. To name a few...

Considering your candidate is gung ho for banning "assault weapons" and says the people don't have the right to own guns made for shooting people --

best you just slink away to your little Mitt fan club.

47 posted on 08/22/2007 10:32:26 AM PDT by JohnnyZ (Romney : "not really trying to define what is technically amnesty. I'll let the lawyers decide.")
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free
Never underestimate the California electorate. They are really, really stupid. Who else would vote AGAINST a proposition requiring the State to only pass balance budgets. Only stupid people.

I did--because it WASN'T a proposition requiring a balanced budget (that is already in the State Constitution). The proposition you are probably referring to was being sold as a "spending cap." Unfortunately, it did nothing to curb spending for at least a decade and actually authorized more debt. (You gotta read the fine print--not the Arnold propaganda machine headlines!)

Before labeling all California voters as stupid, perhaps you should become more familiar with the issues.

48 posted on 08/22/2007 11:11:55 AM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: George W. Bush
I've been disappointed more of the Republican candidates haven't gone after him his anti-gun policies and his history of consorting with and standing with so many enemies of the Second.

That's because they ALL agree with him. Rudy, Mitt, McLAME .... so far all the so called TOP TIER candidates are gun grabbers of the highest order.

A few, like Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul are strong supporters of the 2nd Amendment, too bad they've got a snowball's chance in Hell of being elected. Fred is both a true conservative AND he's totally electable.

Especially in light of the front running RAT'S negatives. Hillary is the annoited one for their nomination and I'll bet a ton of Dems would vote against her just for who she is and what she represents! Same for Barack and even more so for HIM.

OTOH, if the 'Pubbie nominee is anybody BUT Fred Thompson, I wouldn't give a Hoot in Hell for the chances of victory. I for one will switch my Party affiliation from "R" to "I" and I won't vote. I refuse to vote to cut my own throat. It will mean that the mainstream of my own party to which I've been so loyal for the past 32 years will have literally walked away from my core values and beliefs.

49 posted on 08/22/2007 12:03:34 PM PDT by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: calcowgirl
A 10 year phase in is not "doing nothing". It is a 10 year phase in.

Here is the propostion. You might want to read it again...

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/bp_nov05/voter_info_pdf/entire76.pdf

Look who opposed this legislation. They were all big labor unions including the California Teachers Association, the California Nurses Association, California Professional Firefighters, California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations. All wanted to keep the river of debt money flowing into their pockets.

Which are you? Teacher, Nurse, Firefighter or LEO?

I am constantly confused by the machinations of this State of California but I have come to feel that Tom McClintock is one of the very, very few California politicians who sincerely wants to see a return to sane budgetary and spending practices in California.

This is what Tom McClintock had to say about Proposition 76, the "live within our means act"...

"Restoring the authority of the governor to halt this state’s chronic deficit spending is at the heart of the “Live Within Our Means Act,” and with the adoption of this budget, it is now about the only thing that stands between our state and financial insolvency. We would be well advised to adopt that measure right here as an adjunct to this budget."

The measure even went beyond a mere spending cap and would have attempted to reform problems with the current budget, problems such as education having guaranteed minimum spending levels regardless of revenue (by % of budget), and problems such as Politicians continued raid on transportation money that should go to fixing bridges and highway potholes, despite a PREVIOUS proposition that was passed and that was supposed to prevent future raids on transportation money.

I'm no genius and maybe you are and I'm wrong. But between my reading of the proposition, knowing who supported and who opposed it, and knowing that Tom McClintock felt it was a mandatory piece of legislation -- well, I'll take his opinion over yours any day. Yes, you and others voting against Prop 76 were just plain stupid to do so.

50 posted on 08/22/2007 12:10:29 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

Every California conservative I know (including those on FR that are very well informed) opposed Prop 76.

Here are some of the reasons:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503116/posts?page=5#5

It was a rare moment than any of us broke with Senator McClintock who was, in this case, going along to be a good “team player” showing support for Arnie, IMO. Since that time, he’s given up on Arnold’s faux-conservative proposals.

This proposition was the worst of worst as in many cases it did the opposite of what was described. The provision regarding education formulas that you cite actually guaranteed that education spending would NEVER go down. See more at the link above.


51 posted on 08/22/2007 12:24:28 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: ExSoldier
A few, like Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul are strong supporters of the 2nd Amendment, too bad they've got a snowball's chance in Hell of being elected. Fred is both a true conservative AND he's totally electable.

Agreed on Duncan and RP, GOA's two top candidates.

On Fred, he's about like McStain in his Senate record on guns. He is cutting a far more conservative swath now as he prepares to run for president. Good. However, his rating with GOA and other RKBA groups is somewhat mixed but largely on the positive side. Unlike with his spotless pro-life voting record, Fred's gun record just isn't quite so clean if you are a purist on the Second.

Fred Thompson -- GOA 2008 Presidential Candidates and the Second Amendment

You should read through the list and all the footnotes and decide whether a particular vote that GOA called "anti-gun" really was. Strong gun voters don't always agree on some of these issues. So, like all these ratings, take them with a grain of salt and decide for yourself what you think of a given vote by Fred or another candidate.

I think Romney is suspicious on guns with his MA AWB and his pledge, mirroring Bush's promise, to sign a new federal AWB. However, he did join NRA and I notice GOA has been very restrained in criticizing Romney. Like NRA, GOA is waiting and watching on Romney.

It may turn out that for gun voters, Mitt & Fred aren't that far apart. You might also see them on the same ticket.
52 posted on 08/22/2007 12:59:40 PM PDT by George W. Bush (Rudy: tough on terror, scared of Iowa, wets himself over YouTube)
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To: stockstrader
The Republican Party (and even the Rudy-Apologists) WILL rally and unite behind a conservative.

The Party will NOT rally and unite (because the conservative base will NOT abandon its traditional values and principles) behind a liberal like Guiliani.

I'm amazed at how many FReepers can't understand this simple concept. Romney and Giuliani are nothing more then east coast liberals who are trying to pass themselves off as Republicans. I cannot in good conscience vote for either. To do so would be to betray my strongly-held beliefs, and I won't do that.

53 posted on 08/22/2007 1:34:21 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: George W. Bush
Yeah I'm aware that there have beensome antigun votes in Fred's past. I'm a pragmatist. I'll forgive him the past based on his present utterances and that it's going to look really bad for his reelection if he backstabs us like the others already have. Fred is nowhere as bad as Mitt, btw. Mitt presided over a state with possibly some of the most draconian gun control laws since 1775 and he was PROUD of it....then and...there. To me saying you're pro 2nd Amendment means a little bit more than saying you support the "Hunters & Sportsmen." I haven't heard Mitt say anything about how CCW lowers the risk of violent crime. If he really believed that why didn't he push for a Shall Issue CCW permit system in his home state while he was the Governor? Why not? Because he's a gun grabbing RINO just like McCain and Rudy. Fred stands nowhere NEAR the atrocities against the Constitution that McLAME, Mitt and Rudy have pushed and pushed HARD.
54 posted on 08/22/2007 2:54:51 PM PDT by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: calcowgirl
"Before labeling all California voters as stupid, perhaps you should become more familiar with the issues."

LOL! I think you win the argument!

55 posted on 08/22/2007 4:25:24 PM PDT by TommyDale (Never forget the Republicans who voted for illegal immigrant amnesty in 2007!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

.


56 posted on 08/22/2007 4:27:12 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (just b/c your paranoid, doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you....run, Fred, run. :^)
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To: jjm2111
I’ll take Fred over Rudy any day.

I don't know. I thought Rudy was a great movie. Some think it was a little overdone by Hollywood. I like Fred too. My favorite episode of the Flintsones was the Daddy's Anonymous one.


57 posted on 08/22/2007 8:07:31 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Rudy: The movie
58 posted on 08/22/2007 8:16:29 PM PDT by stockstrader (We need a conservative candidate who will UNITE the Party, not a liberal one who will DIVIDE it!)
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To: ExSoldier
I haven't heard Mitt say anything about how CCW lowers the risk of violent crime.

Exactly. I've said the same about Mitt for a long time. He had a wide open chance to say he'd been reading Lott's studies and examining the issue and had observed as governor the advance of CCW in the states and that it had caused him to look more favorably toward the issue of concealed carry.

Even now, it's not too late for him to do that. We need candidates who are forthright about it.

Good grief, even my own Democrat senator, Ben Nelson, introduced a federal CCW reciprocity bill this year! And in the anti-gun Dim party and after he'd just been re-elected too! Even so, Mitt could somehow find the courage to take a pro-CCW stand in the pro-gun party.
59 posted on 08/23/2007 4:51:46 AM PDT by George W. Bush (Rudy: tough on terror, scared of Iowa, wets himself over YouTube)
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To: calcowgirl

Yes, I am aware that many conservatives voted against Prop 76, because it didn’t go far enough. Just as many conservatives allowed the Democrats to retake the house and Senate because Bush is a New World Order moderate who didn’t go far enough to please conservatives.

Just like Conservatives would not vote for a social liberal like Giuliani and would let Hillary ascend the throne as a result.

Sometimes you have to take the best deal you have and not the dream you will never achieve.

My take on the changes to school funding are that Prop 76 was a net good thing. It looks like they eliminated the automatic return to high spending in the good years, and the trade-off was no automatic reduction in spending during bad years. Since we tend to see many more good years than bad, this would have reduced school spending, in my opinion. By keeping the automatic floor, we are stuck with the automatic ceiling, and we are currently paying the price.

Prop 76 was voted down. We kept the status quo. And you are telling me we are better off, as if somebody on a white horse is going to come in and give you the ideal spending restraints you want in a socialist run blue state. This is never going to happen. So by voting against 76, we get stuck with the status quo and we are going to see one massive budget crisis after another.


60 posted on 08/23/2007 1:43:57 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free
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