’)Fred Thompson, Nixon-defender, is thinking of parlaying his acting role on Law & Order into the presidency. Well, at least he’s another hard-right Republican whose caboose is tied to the Bush train.
Oh, he’s also a pal of convicted felon Scooter Libby.
I think it says a lot about the current frontrunners that the idea that Thompson could get the nomination is not completely ridiculous.
Fred Thompson, Nixon-defender,
Oliver you really need to remove the rose colored glasses from time to time.
Fred Thompson was not a “Nixon defender.” He was a campaign manager for Howard Baker n 1972. His friendship with Baker led to him being the chief co-counsel on the Senate Watergate Committee. He is responsible for Baker asking the one question that supposedly brought down Nixon, which was “What the did the President know and when did he know it?”
Well, at least he’s another hard-right Republican whose caboose is tied to the Bush train.
Right. The guy who endorsed McCain in 2000 and was the national co-chair of McCain’s campaign.
Don’t you do even the most basic of research or do you just revel in throwing out the red meat?
Oh, he’s also a pal of convicted felon Scooter Libby.
So what?
Seven years ago = now
Seven years ago = now
Lord Byron, when one considers that for the last five years, Thompson has been on a NY soundstage, Olivers statement is still ignorant.
Shut up and sing, Fred.
Clearly it isn’t, based on his policies and statements.
Actual demonstrable pro-Bush agenda versus job he had seven years ago. Hmm. I wonder which is the stronger out of those two?
Fred Thompson is actually a pretty moderate guy. His friendships are not uncommon for his position within the Republican party. I could more easily vote for this guy than any of the other bad choices flying under the Republican banner, but he’s still not even half as interesting at Obama.
Clearly it isn’t, based on his policies and statements.
Exactly what policies does one have portraying a District Attorney on television, Ringo?
They’re listed on the link, Dee Dee.
Sorry Benny Hill, but that proves he has standard GOP positions on various issues. He’s pro-life. Shocking! He’s opposed to gay marriage! Amazing! He’s a 2nd amendment supporter. Holy cow!
So he supports the troop increase. None of that supports Oliver’s contention that he’s “another hard-right Republican whose caboose is tied to the Bush train.”
Of course, in the World of Willis, just being a Republican makes somebody “hard right.”
Obviously he shouldn’t get any support in the primaries, seeing as he’s a hollywood leftist…. right?
Well, clearly it does (inasmuch as obvious hyperbole needs to be heavily corroborated as if it were serious analytical dialogue) but you’re never going to admit to being wrong about anything.
So if you’re in support of the wildly unpopular troop increase, you’re not tied to the Bush train?
In an early Roseanne episode, he played a sexually harrasing boss. Maybe it’s to YouTube that one.
An actor as President? Impossible!
Oh, wait… There was Bill Clinton.
The comedy stylings of Frank di Salle, ladies and gentlemen. He’ll be here all week, I expect, so maybe you should go somewhere else. Try the veal.
You don’t think John McCain has a very conservative (hard right) record? There are moderate Republicans out there – Olympia Snowe, for example, but they are increasingly driven out of the GOP for reasons of idealogical purity.
jay: c’mon – you’re not honestly suggesting that Thompson is ideologically, practically and politically aligned w/ this administration are you? LOL
while I’m at it – you’re saying that once folks leave govt – they don’t have any contact/involvement/activism within it? LOL some more…
Please – let the man run, the field is going to be more like Nascar anyway, let ‘im run… will make for a more interesting race – to say the least.
Thompson could be dangerous and hard to beat.
He is a trained actor and a fairly decent one. Okay he is not De Niro but he doesn’t blow.
As an actor he knows how to work an audience. As an actor he will be able to rally that Paris Hilton watching NASCAR base.
Remember Ronald Reagan was an actor, a lousy one, and he won two terms.
Thompson could make the campaign about image, style and who looks most “Presidential” as opposed to a campaign about issues, substance and who has the best judgement.
Oliver, as you well know, in today’s media environment HR Haldeman or John Ehrlichman could run (if they weren’t dead) and the press might mention that they may have had low level positions in the Nixon White House.
Unfortunately 21st Century politics is all about style and image. If there is one thing an actor knows it is style and image.
Up until now I have been feeling that any of the Democratic candidates could beat any of the Republican candidates. I think Thompson could get out the Republican base while sounding reasoned and serious enough to win over the moderates.
(Remember I am not saying Thompson is a reasoned and serious statesman but that as an actor he will be able to PLAY a reasoned and serious statesman.)
You don’t think John McCain has a very conservative (hard right) record?
For normal people, he has a conservative record which is where most Americans are (despite what you think. Of course, you believe the GOP has won 7 out of the last 10 Presidential elections purely out of luck) and not from planet lefty.
There are moderate Republicans out there – Olympia Snowe, for example, but they are increasingly driven out of the GOP for reasons of idealogical purity.
Really? Was Lincoln Chaffee “driven out of the GOP”? Nope. He was voted out because he basically was a Democrat with an R after his name and voters said, “What the hell, let’s just elect a Democrat.” Snowe’s views are hardly Republican. Unlike Democrats who pissed all over Joe Lieberman when he votes with Democrats like 98% of the time. Heal thyself Willis.
jay: c’mon – you’re not honestly suggesting that Thompson is ideologically, practically and politically aligned w/ this administration are you? LOL
while I’m at it – you’re saying that once folks leave govt – they don’t have any contact/involvement/activism within it? LOL some more…
Please – let the man run, the field is going to be more like Nascar anyway, let ‘im run… will make for a more interesting race – to say the least.
Kevin. This isn’t a chat room. Save the LOL’s ok?
The point is, Oliver’s illustration just makes no freaking sense. President Bush is not the embodiment of conservatism. We’ve been peddled this lie that Bush is “the most conservative President ever”, yet his propensity to spend more money than Ted Kennedy on a weekend bender in Palm Beach, doesn’t endear him to a lot of conservatives.
Bottom line: Oliver’s comments :
A. Make no sense
B. Dumb
He’s the embodiment of neoconservatism, though. Not that anyone brought that whole angle up anyway.
Yesterday, Sen Fred got star treatment on Rush, Sean, and LEvin’s shows, the NY Post, and FOX News.
I think the right-wing leasdership has selected this guy, and we are going to see a whole lot more of him.
Giuliani was hurt badly last week by the YouTube clips:
general anti-Con positions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVBtPIrEleM
him going all-out for funding abortions for poor women,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALDfwXIYUX0
and the Rethugs have come to a dead stop, just dead in the water.
Rudy had won firm front-runner position on McCain this year, taking almost 20 poll points away from him in 3 months.
Now, the GOP is like an Iraqi hospital, dying and wounded bleeding everywhere, from the YouTube IED’s!!
Enter Fred Thompson, stage right.
It may not be seemly to rejoice in catastrophe, disaster, misfortune and just plain bad luck for the opposition, but hey: It’s hard not to, especially when they are busy eating their own.
LOL!!
Here’s the inimitable Wolcott on this. If I could write like him, I’d be, well, the inimitable James Wolcott:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2007/03/caught_fred_tho.html
A Fred in Our Future?
Caught Fred Thompson on Fox News Sunday, flirting with a presidential run, though I can’t imagine whom he’d drive into an amorous caucus frenzy. God what a grumpy old dog farting on the front porch he was yesterday, parked across the table from Chris Wallace. I so hope he runs. He has all the sparkle, verve, charisma, and inspirational lift of Lawrence Eagleburger acting as if it’s some great imposition on him to discuss foreign policy and explain subtleties to idiots. Despite being a two-time Senator, Thompson acts as if he didn’t cotton the way they do things in Washington and shouldn’t be confused with the rest of those deal-cutting politicians. Put his gruff ego on the debate stage and the energy level will drop five octaves and take everybody else down with it. My TV isn’t equipped with the special high-frequency decoder that enables me to understand Republican dog whistling, but none of Thompson’s political positions–opposed to Roe v. Wade? check against gun control? check–struck me as any different than what Duncan Hunter or Sam Brownback or John McCain or the newly reconstituted Mitt Romney espouses. Yet he’s labeled a “true conservative,” and somehow the rest of the field is somehow considered suspect, vaguely inadequate.
Again, I hope he runs, in no small part because it’ll get him off Law & Order and we won’t have to listen to his gravy-soaked homilies another season more.