"I'll kiss any butt, suck any toes for a photo op."- Dick Morris
Posted on 09/21/2007 8:57:06 AM PDT by Fred
The onetime ultimate D.C insider, Dick Morris recently brandished the allegation that Fred Thompson is awkward in answering questions. What a hoot coming from the guy that Chris Matthews kicked off the air and out of the Hardball studio -- probably the only guy ever to receive such treatment from Matthews -- for defaming Catholicism. But aside from the pot calling the kettle black issue, Morris accidentally put his finger on the thing that middle Americans get about Thompson which beltway insiders don't: substance over image and the difference between the two.
Morris finds fault with Thompson because:
* He does not know enough about the details of the Terry Schiavo case to comment. * He is also unfamiliar with the proposal to lower soaring insurance premiums Floridians must pay for home storm coverage since the hurricanes. * He didn't know enough about drilling in the Everglades to comment.
I find it refreshing. Most politicians who do not know the specifics of a particular subject would merely answer with platitudes, misdirection, or broad generalizations. How often do we hear a politician say "I don't know"? I personally would much rather hear that said then a five minute dissertation of painfully obvious drivel. He could have answered the Shiavo question with something inane like "It's always an unfortunate tragedy when a young person suffers a debilitating disease or injury" if he did not know the specifics. That's the kind of response the politicos expect and that middle America balks at.
Do we expect our politicians to know everything or do we just expect them to pretend they do? Have the D.C. insiders become so desensitized to political BS (like what Morris wrote for Bill Clinton during his administration) that they no longer understand the difference between informed comment and obvious pandering for the great media sound bite; "I feel your pain" comes to mind.
Now that Morris has damned Thompson for a failure of omnipotence and a lack-of-enthusiasm for failing to try and bluff the public, what are his other grievances?
Staff turnover, lobbying influence, non-conservative positions, and because Thompson said that Iraqis were supporting us because of al Qaeda's ban on smoking.
It's easier to throw out baseless accusations which require no research than to review the facts and form an opinion. So I will not try to answer all these accusations. But let me discuss two of the most irritating lies in his column.
Morris loses credibility with his complaint about Thompson's al Qaeda comment. What Thompson referred to were the reports that al Qaeda in Iraq was killing and maiming Muslims they caught smoking. This heavy-handed treatment of Iraqi Sunnis along with other atrocities as noted by Thompson caused them to turn on al Qaeda. It brings great discredit on Morris's typically straight shooting analysis that he has parroted the liberal crank websites with this pabulum. Even the New York Daily News which broke the story of Thompson's comments didn't try to make it look like smoking was the only factor for which Thompson attributed the change in Iraq.
Most damaging is Morris's claim:
"As a lobbyist, he helped the attorney representing the Libyan terrorists who blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to fight requests to extradite them to the U.K. to stand trial."
His misrepresentation of rather innocuous work reflects a hyperventilating New Republic article in which the magazine demonizes lawyer Thompson for logging a few hours assisting a senior partner by researching venue questions. Apparently TNR, the purveyor of the Scott Thomas lie, is now offended at the thought that an American could help the enemy. Pot, kettle, black.
TNR is perplexed that an international flight of an American carrier, carrying people from many nations, originating from Germany, blown up over Scotland, and attacked by Libyans would require a couple of hours to research jurisdictional issues. TNR implies that since jurisdiction was immediately obvious, who knows the nefarious goings on that Thompson spent the rest of that three hour billing on? Again, Morris really goes bottom feeding to legitimize such nonsense.
Even the New York Times which broke the story seemed subdued and provided rare, fair context about a conservative politician. As they rightly note, all criminal prosecutions require a defense or else they can't be tried and that Thompson was not a member of the defense team and was only consulted because of his specialized knowledge. That's a far cry from the misleading impression Morris and TNR gives of the matter.
Look, I happened to fly to Germany on my first military duty assignment a few days after that terrorist attack. I attended a memorial service in Wiesbaden for Sgt. Willis Larry Coursey who died on that plane. I still have the memorial service program stashed away. It was my first eye-opening personal experience with the brutality of terrorism. I don't take it lightly although I won't try to say I ‘feel the pain' of Sergeant Coursey's family as Dick might urge me to say. To equate a few hours researching jurisdiction to sympathy for those terrorists is the typical beltway nonsense that turns us in the heartland away from beltway insiders like Morris.
Out of curiosity does Morris favor Rudy ? ;-)
Maybe there’s a reason he’s so tired some times.....
If the campaign bus is a rockin don’t bother knockin.......................... ;-)
Yup with the distinction of having been thrown out of the Clinton administration for not having high enough morals.
What would a leftist pro-abort apostate like Chrissie Matthews know about Catholicism except as a distant memory???? About as much as the similar John Kerry.
‘Unfortunately I agree - thompson sounds like he is fumbling for answers a lot and parsing his words lately...
I wish he would go back to talking like Fred and tell the reporters in plain englich to STFU when they deserve it..’
I agree as well...one thing is O believe Dick Morris has had Gov Huckaby as a client...so perhaps thats it ..
( Dick Morris doesn’t like Fred Thompson ) so ? who cares.
“The list of people and MSM outlets that don’t like Fred are the best endorsement he could get.
He’s got all the right enemies.”
I agree. I just heard that Fred Thompson will be on the Bill Bennett radio show on Monday morning. :)
Don’t trust Morris. This is the same guy that was playing phone “footsie” with Bill Clinton. He claims to despise Madam Hillary and yet he has proclaimed her as the next potus.
BTTT! People have been brainwashed into thinking drill sites look like the pictures from the 1920's, in reality they leave the area in better shape than when they arrived, albeit a little flatter...;)
Didn't take long for you to figure it out [grin]...
“Since seeing him approve of oil-drilling in the everglades......I will not vote for him on that alone”.
Well, I wouldn’t vote for anyone who opposes drilling here in the U.S. to help achieve energy independence from the Ragheads.
Oil drilling has not hurt anyone in Texas, Oklahoma or Louisiana. In fact, it is the best thing that ever happened to offshore fishing in Texas by the drilling structures creating new fish Habitat. Go out in the Gulf and guess where you’ll find the fishing boats. You got it. Right next to the drilling rigs.
I personally think that states like Fla. and California which prohibit drilling should be prohibited from using gasoline created from our oil.
Even Rush says it's an 80% probability.
Exactly right.
Dick Morris doesn't like Fred ThompsonLook at the photo that Fred just posted on Flickr, taken at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island this weekend: Dick Morris loves talking to Fred. LOLOL!!
"I'll kiss any butt, suck any toes for a photo op."- Dick Morris
Classic : )
Fred is such a gentleman. And the smile on Jeri’s face.
This picture deserves its own thread.
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