Dems Apparently Fear Thompson

[The Reaper]

Interesting read.

TR

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/dems_apparently_fear_thompson.html

July 16, 2007
Dems Apparently Fear Thompson
By Peter Brown

When one political party tries to influence the other's presidential primary race the reasonable assumption is that someone is trying to stop the nomination of a candidate that party does not want to face in November.

That's why a Democrat-aligned group injecting itself into the Republican campaign by alleging that Fred Thompson lobbied for abortion rights is a pretty good indication the other side thinks he has serious potential.

Thompson has become a force in the GOP polls even though almost half of Republicans and more than half the rest of the electorate say they don't know enough about him to form an opinion.

In this case his Democratic foes are trying to define him negatively for GOP voters before he can make a good first impression.

That's why in the last few weeks we have seen a stream of stories that would seem to be aimed at derailing his candidacy. Some were clearly planted in the news media with information from partisans of other candidates or causes. Others may have arisen independently from a news media itching to vet Thompson.

The former Tennessee senator and movie/TV actor had experienced a sharp rise in the polls, making everyone take seriously what only months ago might have seemed a flight of fancy.

Thompson runs a consistent second among Republican voters nationally and in most states. In many southern states he leads GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

So far he trails the major Democratic contenders in trial heats, but given voters' lack of familiarity with him at least some Democrats are worried he could be difficult to beat in November should he win the GOP nomination.

Thompson's candidacy has reshaped the campaign so much that even before he officially announced, adversaries were seeking to undermine his candidacy.

Most interesting - and perhaps most telling of his potential - was the effort by a Democrat-aligned abortion rights group to tarnish his credentials among social conservatives, who are a large part of the GOP primary electorate.

And don't forget it is the Democratic National Commitee -- not his GOP competitors -- that is suggesting the Federal Election Commission cite him for campaign law violations because he has allegedly been abusing his "testing the waters" committee to effectively run for president without having to disclose contributors and spending.

The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association claimed that Thompson had lobbied the White House on its behalf in 1991. Thompson denied the charge, and John Sununu, who was White House chief of staff at the time, backed up Thompson.

Only time will tell which side eventually turns out to be perceived as being truthful by the electorate. But regardless of the truth of the allegation, its presence is remarkable at this stage of the race.

Memory does not produce a similar case where an interest group tied to one of the major political parties sought so overtly to influence the debate and outcome of the other parties' nomination fight, especially before a candidate even formally announced.

Think how unusual it would be if, for instance, a conservative group opposed to immigration reform that would allow any legalization of those here illegally claimed that Sen. Barack Obama, before he was in the Senate, had been active in anti-Hispanic activities.

In that mythical case it would be Republicans trying to damage Obama's reputation with a key Democratic voting block, Hispanics - just as the current allegations about Thompson are aimed at planting doubt about him among GOP-leaning Christian conservatives.

Also appearing in the news media in recent weeks has been a report on files that showed Richard Nixon critical of Thompson's abilities as a Senate investigator during Watergate.

Those files also led the news media to raise questions about whether Thompson showed a previously unknown willingness to cooperate with the White House in a way that might benefit Nixon. Such questions would undermine the positive benefits to Thompson's candidacy of his service as a lawyer for the Senate Watergate Committee, where he revealed that Nixon had a secret Oval Office taping system.

Other media reports in recent days also put the spotlight on Thompson's wife, Jeri, who is 24 years younger than he, and attractive enough that one TV talk show compared her to a stripper.

Presidential politics is a contact sport.

The coming months will show whether Thompson can take a hit and keep on fighting.

And, if he is smart, he will look both to the right and the left when he is crossing the street.

[Gypsy]

Very interesting read, TR. I think once he formally declares he'll be the candidate to beat.

Would love to know (specifically) who's digging...


http://www.gopusa.com/news/2007/july/0716_thompson_papers1.shtml

Interest in Fred Thompson's Papers High
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press
July 16, 2007

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- If one man's trash is another man's treasure, then one politician's old papers are potentially another politician's -- or journalist's -- gold mine.

Which explains why Republican Fred Thompson's previously little-noticed personal papers at the University of Tennessee from his eight years in the Senate are suddenly in demand as he nears a decision on a 2008 presidential run.

Thompson donated the documents four years ago when he gave up his political career in favor of acting. Academics haven't paid much attention, chief archivist Bobby Holt said, but journalists have been poring through the more than 400 boxes held by UT's Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

While the papers haven't yielded any bombshells so far, they reveal a candidate whose record on public issues is sometimes inconsistent, often nuanced and occasionally surprising. Some examples:

-- Thompson recently said he was opposed to abortion rights and noted that National Right to Life endorsed him in his 1994 Senate race. But he told the Memphis group FLARE (Family, Life, America, Responsible Education Under God) in a 1996 questionnaire that, ''I will not set a litmus test for any U.S. Supreme court nominee who has shown an understanding of the principles set forth by the Constitution.''

As a senator, Thompson voted for legislation to ban so-called partial-birth abortion and to prohibit federal funding of abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.

But he also told the Eagle Forum in a 1994 questionnaire, ''I do not believe abortion should be criminalized. This battle will be won in the hearts and souls of the American people.''

In a candidate survey the same year for The Tennessean newspaper, Thompson said that states should have the right to impose ''reasonable restrictions on abortions such as parental notification.'' But he said, ''The ultimate decision on abortion should be left with the woman and not the government.''

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thompson was retained by an abortion rights group, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, to lobby the administration of President George H.W. Bush to ease a regulation that prevented clinics that received federal money from offering any abortion counseling.

-- Thompson told the Christian Coalition he opposed allowing federal employees to strike, but told the Memphis Business Journal he also opposed legislation supporting the replacement of striking workers, saying it would upset ''the balance between labor and management'' to bargain in good faith.

-- He told the Concord Coalition he would back a balanced federal budget -- and later voted for such a measure -- but not the group's deficit-reduction plan because ''it calls for higher taxes.''

-- He told the National Rifle Association he supported every suggested reason to own a firearm -- from constitutional right to personal protection -- and ''no prohibition'' on their manufacture, sale or transfer.

-- Although Thompson has appeared in some 20 movies and has played District Attorney Arthur Branch in the NBC series ''Law & Order,'' he wrote Tennesseans for the Arts: ''And while I support funding for the arts, I will have no choice but to support reduced funding to the National Endowment of the Arts'' without ''suitable guidelines.''

Thompson said no material deemed unfit for broadcast by the Federal Communications Commission, works that desecrated the U.S. flag or those containing ''any part of the human embryo or fetus'' should get federal funding.

Thompson, 64, represented Tennessee in the Senate from 1994 to 2002. His voting record covers more than 170 boxes in the collection. Most of the rest contains reports and background papers, daily schedules, newspaper clippings, some correspondence and related documents, such as articles and public polls on the 2000 presidential race in which Thompson was considered a long-shot candidate.

The librarians won't say who is looking at his papers, but it's a sure bet that Thompson's political opposition -- Republicans and Democrats -- will be sifting through the letters, staff reports, background papers and daily schedules.

''There is nothing in there that I can say is going to be earth-shattering or reveals something that people don't already know,'' Thompson said as he formally presented the papers to the university in 2005 with his mentor, Howard Baker.

Holt said the papers are on loan and the former senator could recall any of the files at any time. But so far he has left them alone, Holt said.


Thompson Archives: http://www.mpa.utk.edu/thompson/