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Posted on 09/14/2007 6:16:30 AM PDT by presidio9
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson gave no opinion Thursday when asked about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep Terri Schiavo alive, saying he does not remember details of the right-to-die case that stirred national debate.
Thompson was asked in an interview for Bay News 9's "Political Connections" program whether he thought Congress' intervention to save the life of the brain-damaged woman two years ago was appropriate.
"I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best," Thompson said. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
Congress passed a bill after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in March 2005 to allow a federal court to review the case, and Bush returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court.
Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who left office in 2003, did say, "Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals. I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with."
Earlier, Thompson told a crowd in Jacksonville that Bush's signature education program isn't working and that he would provide federal education money with fewer strings attached.
"We've been spending increasing amounts of federal money for decades, with increasing rules, increasing mandates, increasing regulations," Thompson said. "It's not working."
He added that there are problems with Bush's No Child Left Behind program, which requires annual testing and punishes schools that don't make progress.
"No Child Left Behind — good concept, I'm all for testing — but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test — you can't really tell that everybody's doing that well. And it's not objective," Thompson said.
Instead, he said the federal government should be providing block grants as long as states set up objective testing programs.
He said his message to states would be, "We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right."
The former star of NBC's "Law & Order" was responding to a question as he began a three-day bus tour of Florida, his first visit to the state since announcing his candidacy last week. A woman asked what he would do for education. He told her decisions on how schools are run should be made by local and state officials, not dictated out of Washington.
Thompson voted for the No Child Left Behind law in 2001, as did most of his fellow senators.
"It's your responsibility," he said. "If you don't like what's going on, don't get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, 'I don't like the way the school down the street is being run.'"
Later, in Celebration, he was asked why he was not participating in the Values Voter debate in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. He said he will do his best to participate in debates, but he can't make all of them.
"Debates are important, but let's don't let the tail wag the dog here. Standing up there 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for someone to throw you the next fish is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people," Thompson said. "I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish. I just don't want to do it all the time."
Should I get the popcorn going now, or wait a few?
"That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
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Frankly I always thought a right to life was as important a federal principle as any other. What good are the other rights if you don't have a right to life (provided you aren't going around taking other people's life away from them).
http://www.baynews9.com/PoliticalConnections.html
They don’t have the interview posted yet.
We'd all be a lot better off if politics stopped being a game of gotcha where everybody needs to have an instant opinion on every topic, and if they express an instant opinion but mangle their words, well, that first, inadequate response is held over their head forever. Give me a break!
If a politician says "I don't remember the details, I'm not able to express an opinion at this time" that makes good sense to me.
Probably wont go down too well with the Schiavonauts..
I like the cheese popcorn that the Boy Scouts sell...
Most addictive stuff on the planet.
I see Fred and I have something in common. I just didn’t take part.
Got more work done in those two weeks...
“What good are the other rights if you don’t have a right to life”
Fred Thompson is just another politician and wants to have it both ways. Having no opinion on the Teri Schaivo case should disqualify him from the presidency. I bet he does have an opinion but if stated, he’d be in more trouble with people who still think Life is an inalienable right.
Is federalist position is one of convenience and is a cop out for answering questions on divisive issues. This article proves it. It’s up to the states to decide who’s life is worth living but the federal government is responsible for public education. Right to life is about 50/50 but public education is, maybe, 90/10.
I’m sorry to all of you Fred supporters, but this is exactly what the Democrat (lazy, no accountability) teachers unions say about testing. I keep reading on here how Thompson is the great white hope but so far, he is luke warm at best. Still no major TV interviews, still no campaign adds, still no real platform. And yes I have been to his websites, however Howard Dean proved you can't win a nomination via the Internet.
“If a politician says “I don’t remember the details, I’m not able to express an opinion at this time” that makes good sense to me.”
Imagine yourself saying that. I’m sure you have a strong opinion on the court mandated murder of Teri Schaivo. How could he not have an opinion?
I agree with most of your comment but it’s not like the question was about NAFTA or Kyoto or what to do about Taiwan.
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