KEEP ON TRUCKIN FRED!
Posted on 08/28/2007 5:26:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WHY WON'T FOLKSY "Law & Order" actor Fred Thompson just admit he's running for president of these here United States?
It all boils down to that pesky NBC show, and using that exposure to your best advantage. Thompson, a Republican, has dabbled in acting, lobbying and lawyering over the years, serving as Tennessee's representative in the United States Senate from 1994 to 2003.
In his twilight days of serving the country, he joined the cast of "Law & Order" in 2002 as good'ol backwoods boy and New York City District Attorney Arthur Branch. Strong character, basically a good guy who litters his speech with colorful sayings like, "My prints put my hand in the fridge. It doesn't mean I finished the Cherry Garcia last night."
Nice image floating around as we gather steam for the 2008 presidential election.
There's just one problem. While there seems to be little doubt about Thompson's hankering for landing the role of president of the United States, he hasn't actually announced anything yet. Yet, he keeps making speeches and popping up looking every inch a candidate.
And that may border on being less than lawful. Federal law allows candidates to test the waters before actually declaring their candidacies. During that time, they don't have to file financial reports with the Federal Election Commission.
But while potential candidates can raise travel and polling money, they aren't supposed to be socking away funds for campaign use later.
According to the Washington Post, a financial report filed with the Internal Revenue Service last month shows Thompson has raised nearly $3.5 million and had spent just $625,000.
Sounds like hoarding to us, and not something we think Arthur Branch would approve of. And it sure isn't something blogger Lane Hudson's going to let slide.
Just last week, an FEC complaint was filed against Thompson by Hudson — best known as the blogger who posted salacious e-mails Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley had sent to teen boys who had formerly served as congressional pages.
Bloggers linked to the site. News networks caught on. A year later, Foley is now an ex-congressman.
What has citizen journalist Hudson all hot and bothered now is that Thompson has been testing the waters for weeks without formally committing. Hudson thinks it's a ploy for Thompson to squirrel away some funds without government regulations.
We think Foley just doesn't understand how Hollywood works.
On May 30, Thompson asked to be released from his television duties. Everyone knew it was in preparation for his bid for the presidency. On June 1, he formed a presidential exploratory committee.
On July 17, NBC offered up their official statement on the problem of equal time considerations. See, if a station sells or gives one minute of time to one candidate, they have to give or sell the same amount to all the other candidates.
Not a problem until you factor in actors. During Ronald Reagan's political campaigns, if a station aired, say, "Bedtime for Bonzo" or "Law and Order," then the station would have to offer equal time to Reagan's opponents.
You don't need Mapquest to see where this is going.
NBC's Julie Rothman says in her statement, "If Fred Thompson formally announces his intention to run for president, NBC will not schedule any further repeats of 'Law & Order' featuring Mr. Thompson beyond those already scheduled..."
And, as Barney would say, wait for it...
"...which conclude on Saturday, Sept. 1," finishes Rothman.
So we're betting those rumors about Thompson's plans to formally announce his plans to run for office after this Labor Day weekend might pan out. Oh, and the lawsuit?
Under FEC rules, Thompson has 15 days from when the complaint was filed — which was around Aug. 22. We're thinking his response is, "Just call me the future Mr. President. Now let me cash those residual checks and don't forget to vote for Arthur, er, me."
I'm not running for anything, but you can still e-mail me at syoung@bayareanewsgroup.com, call me at 925-945-4705 or check out the blog at http://www.ibabuzz.com/unscripted.
“If the world needed an enema, SF is right where they’d stick the tube”
Ssshhhhh! They might enjoy that! LOL
Wonder how much Hillary raised prior to her formal announcement?
It’d take a damn big tube...
I think Fred could care less about Law and Order at this point.
She must be Hilary’s war chest watcher for the California Democrats.
I am curious even if there was some violation, what are the penalties. As far as I can tell, there are none. All the candidates raised significant amounts of money prior to announcing, so Fred has done nothing any of the other major candidates haven’t done.
Of the total raised since Clinton announced her plans to form an exploratory committee, $26 million are new receipts. Eighty percent of the donations were $100 or less, and $4.2 million was received over the Internet. And the 50,000 donors to the committee came from all 50 states, including Washington, D.C. The last $10 million dollars was transferred from Clinton’s 2006 senate reelection campaign.
Anyone wanting to know how Thompson got his start should see this 1985 movie starring Sissy Spacek.
"A woman is determined to reveal the truth about an insidious political corruption. In doing so she risks her safety, career and reputation but will not stop asking questions until the truth is known.
Before Jeffrey Wigand, before Erin Brockovich, there was Marie Ragghianti.
and there was Fred Thompson, the prosecutor she went to for help - who ended up playing himself in the movie.
Yeah... he resigned! Unlike Congressman William Jefferson, who caught with $90K in his freezer, still serves. That's the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. As for Fred, he ain't doing anything wrong here and this is just sniping.
When Fred does declare, they won’t have anything to talk about.
Unless they think of something new [also worthless], or keep talking about all this. This is lame. Do reporters not have anything better to do?
This is a good post, but a bit of trivia. Fred was in private practice when Marie came to him. She was working with the FBI but they were slow, so she hired Fred and sued the governor. After she sued, the FBI and the prosecutors went after the governor.
“What has citizen journalist Hudson all hot and bothered now is that Thompson has been testing the waters for weeks without formally committing. Hudson thinks it’s a ploy for Thompson to squirrel away some funds without government regulations.”
So if he filed 3 months back he would already have 20 million socked away instead of 3.5 mil.
Maybe they should go back and look at what happened to the illegal campaign contributions Hillary got in California.
Bump to a good post.
Main Entry: folksy
Pronunciation: 'fOk-sE
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): folks·i·er; -est
1 : SOCIABLE, FRIENDLY
2 : informal, casual, or familiar in manner or style
Whenever someone calls Fred “folksy” everyone must do a shot.
Good Lord! I haven't been sober in days!
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