Fred Thompson’s Immigration Opportunity

VolunteerVoters.com ^ | November 1st, 2007 | A. C. Kleinheider

[E. Pluribus Unum]

By Kleinheider
November 1st, 2007 - 8:13 am

Steve Gill pens a column this morning counseling Fred Thompson to hit the immigration issue hard — especially Hillary Clinton’s rambling answer in Tuesday night’s Democratic debate regarding drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. An answer she has now retracted.

Steve Gill on Fred’s immigration opportunity:

Thompson has the opportunity to pounce on the issue and make it his, which would give him an advantage in both the Republican Primary as well as the general election. Granted, Thompson’s personality and style do not fit well with the image of a quick, cat-like “pounce.” So perhaps he should be more like a grizzly bear and launch a big pawed “swipe” at Hillary…with the claws out.

It would appear that Fred is already heeding Gill’s advice:

While Hillary Clinton was speaking out both sides of her mouth at last night’s debate over the issue of drivers licenses for illegal aliens, what went unsaid is that this is a recipe for increased voter fraud. Under the federal “Motor Voter” law (the National Voter Registration Act of 1993), states must provide applicants for drivers licenses with the opportunity to register to vote.

Giving legal drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is wrong and would provide them the opportunity to register to vote in our country. People who are not citizens of the United States should not be encouraged by pandering politicians to further break our laws and risk the health of our political system.

And Clinton is not his only target on the issue. Fred is going after Mitt Romney as well:

Thompson’s campaign also included all the usual oppo on Romney’s prevous, much softer stance on immigration, including the oft-cited Boston Globe interview from November of 2005 in which Romney called an early version of comprehensive reform “reasonable.”

If he has one, this could be Thompson’s moment. No top-tier Republican has effectively made any hay out of Romney’s marked change in tone on immigration. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani have cited the 2005 Globe story umpteen times, but have not been able to do any damage to Romney on immigration because of their own difficulties on the issue.

Fred Thompson is floundering in the polls and the media elite have already handicapped the race and decided on high that he will lose.

Fred Thompson can reasonable be said to be losing the horserace aspect of this campaign. Of course, this is a game he was never intent on playing. He is, or so he says, unconcerned by polling and elite opinion.

That may be true, however, does he not still need something, anything, that will resonate with the public and get him back in this race? Romney has the money and organization. Giuliani has the compelling narrative of 9/11, elements of the Religious Right are coalescing around Huckabee and Ron Paul is attempting to lead a social movement. Fred Thompson needs something in his campaign right now. Is it immigration? Can immigration be the issue that put Fred Thompson back in this hunt in defiance of elite opinion and polling numbers?

SEE ALSO: Fore Left

[Politicalmom]

You are a LOT more forgiving than I am.

[Paperdoll]

I would think that if NumbersUSA misrepresented FDT’s voting record, they could be easily sued - Fred, being a lawyer himself would know that, of course. So when is the court hearing?

[mnehring]

You and I both know it would be bad PR if he did.

[seekthetruth]

Thanks for the heads up on Fred being on Sean’s show. Coming up soon, I guess.

[Kevmo]

Your car will look good with a Duncan Hunter Bumper Sticker. But I’m not sure Formula1 allows bumper stickers in their races, we’d have to check...

[Paperdoll]

>You and I both know it would be bad PR if he did.<

I don’t know about that. If he can prove NumbersUSA misrepresented his record, it would show the voters that he can fight for what is right. And, you’ll have to admit, a legal action would get him a great deal of news coverage! :)

[mnehring]

The problem is, they can just say they did represent a specific vote correctly as most of their problems are absence of information. For example, one major vote they have him voting Yes on when he actually voted No- they have listed a procedural vote to move it from one committee to another but they don’t list the actual vote on the bill itself. Deception through picking and choosing what they want to list.

[ejonesie22]

It comes from the knowledge I am on the winning team...

[Paperdoll]

Oh dear. Things do get complicated, don’t they?

[Kevmo]

I got in trouble for answering a non-immigration question on this thread, so I won’t answer yours. You might try posting it on a Fred thread that goes into Fiscon issues.

[Politicalmom]

It was rhetorical for all the zealots who bash us, but can’t even explain why Hunter doesn’t show up for work 30% of the time.

[Kevmo]

Oh, a rhetorical question.

Well, then I suppose here’s my rhetorical answer:

umm I’ll get back to you /rhq

[The Pack Knight]

Fred Thompson is a lawyer who either knows or could easily find out that he'd have to prove a whole lot more than simple "misrepresentation" to win such a case, especially given that he is a public figure, and especially given that the speech is political in nature. The Supreme Court held in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that the test in such cases is "actual malice", and that test is very strictly applied.

Except in cases of clear, deliberate, malicious deception, the First Amendment trumps any right of a public figure to recover on defamatory political speech. Fred has better things to do, particularly considering that NumbersUSA isn't really all that influential.

As for the substance, NumbersUSA doesn't give the whole story on each piece of legislation Fred voted for or against. For instance, Fred pointed out in committee that part of the "worker verification program" included a provision forbidding state and federal agencies to accept birth certificates that did not conform to certain federal regulations. This would, in effect, regulate state issuance of birth certificates, a constitutionally dubious proposition at best.

If NumbersUSA wanted to be truly objective, they might look into why Fred voted the way he did.

[daylilly]

” How about if we all BOOST Hunter and Thompson and let the voters decide”

That’s good. You are right with that comment. Until now, Hunter has refrained from nastiness.
Now he calls Fred a Johnny come lately on immigration? I guess Hunter does not want to stand WITH anyone else [even though Fred has a good record on immigration], he wants to stand alone and think he’s the only one. He doesn’t deserve support with saying things like that.

Well, he is practically standing alone, and he looks like a loser with a comment like that.

Hunter is a conservative with the few issues he cares about. He’s AWOL on some issues. He might say a little bit, but not much.

[CottonBall]

It is all spin. I do not trust any poll, I do not care how scientific they claim to be. The press is wanting to split the party and they know and Rooty or Romney nomination will do that over a Hunter or FDT nod.

Over a decade ago when CA was voting on prop. 187, the media said from the minute the polls opened that it was 50/50 based on post-election polling. They stuck with that story the entire day. When numbers starting trickling in - it was never even close. It passed by a landslide. From that day on, I've never trusted a poll until I know who paid for it, read the questions exactly as they were asked, and knew what group they were polling. And if it's an MSM poll, it'll be biased no matter what.

[CottonBall]

The problem is that Thompson and Hunter are probably the two best, conservative candidates out of the bunch and all of this tearing each up over these two, as if they were the enemy, doesn’t help the big picture cause.

I'd like to see Thompson team up with Hunter. If he added a true conservative to his administration, I'd have a lot less doubts about his own conservatism.

[Kevmo]

Have a look at Intrade.

www.intrade.com

Their only bias is whether or not you can make money selling futures contracts on the candidates. Thompson is tanking over there.