Fred Thompson Finally Gets In The Deep End
September 5th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
“Fred Thompson looks like a Tennessee moonshiner who got rich — somebody sent him to a haberdasher when he heard he was going to Washington… Attitudes of Thomp-Baker & Gurney are critical — they related (sic) to Nixon’s survival chances — rats off a sinking ship…”
— Hunter S. Thompson “The Notebooks” Rolling Stone #144, 1973
That’s Dr. Thompson being particularly hard on the counsel for the minority in the Watergate hearings, which, believe it or not, featured Hunter in one of the front rows behind the witness table. Hunter took absurd but interesting notes throughout the hearings, sometimes from the committee room, sometimes from beside his hotel pool, and occasionally sitting naked on his porch in Colorado (or so he says).
Dr. Thompson seemed oddly fascinated with the young lawyer from Tennessee — and I think he would be surprised but not shocked to know that in September 2007, Fred Thompson would be announcing (finally) his campaign for Nixon’s old job.
Fred is fresh from his second-place finish in the illustrious Texas Straw Poll, and the big showing has provided a nice segue into the lustre of his official announcement, set for midnight tonight — even though he’s been quasi-officially running for president for months.
Echoing his Texas Straw Poll coup, he enters the race in second place (behind Rudy Giuliani), if you believe any of the early national polls. However, Fred is being taken seriously also because he is and has been a proponent of the conservative values that play a critical role in the GOP primary fight, namely a dogmatic anti-abortion stance and a no-holds-barred, own-your-own-tank approach to gun rights. Fred’s web site says as much, quoting the New York Daily News:
Thompson is absolutely pro-life, period, no waffling about it… He is solidly pro-Second Amendment, period, no dithering… He’s a gung-ho war on terror man, a no-nonsense border security man.
Fred’s role in the Watergate hearings is certainly worth another look, if only because it is a matter of record, and heck of a lot of new details have been released pertaining to the scandal in the intervening decades. Hunter also reminds us that Nixon faced a primary fight against a Romney — George Romney, the father of the GOP’s likely early third-place candidate, Mitt Romney. Notably however, Fred starts off as a likely favorite in the early primary states of South Carolina and (a little later) California, which certainly has him well-positioned for a tight, packed Republican primary.
It seems like his acting career has made many forget that he has ever been anything other than a gruff, tough tv lawyer. There are other roles more memorable. My favorite is the time he played a sexually harassing, wage-slashing jerk of a boss on Roseanne. Then of course there is his role as a lobbyist for federal pro-choice provisions for his client the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. It’s already fun watching him try to explain that to the base, and he isn’t even a candidate yet.
In any case the real upshot of tonight’s announcement will be the fact that Fred now has to get on the same field as the other players and take questions from debaters, offer a position on Iraq, etc… While they are at it, someone should ask him what he thinks of Nixon’s deceit — as well as whether or not as president he would continue the Nixonian practices of the current administration.
p.s. here’s a link to the definition of haberdasher.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Fred is in the race! YAAAAYYY!
Come discuss Fred Thompson with your fellow Neocons at the Fred Thompson Forum for Neoconservatives!
Fred Thompson Forum