Blame Fred Thompson!

The Frederalist ^ | November 23, 2007 | Josh Painter

[Josh Painter]

Duncan Hunter is a good man, a true patriot and a very conservative Republican, although not a small-government, new federalist one. He's still a much better choice than Rudy McRombee, hands down.

I'm a Fred Thompson supporter, but I nevertheless like and admire Hunter. Oh sure, I have a few nits to pick with the man. His less than sterling attendance record in the U.S. House is one. His voting record on fiscal issues is another. Finally, his opposition to free trade is a non-starter for me, although those with a more populist bent will see it as a big plus. However, Duncan Hunter may have more expertise on military matters than anyone else in Washington, D.C. That's why I believe he would be an outstanding SECDEF in a Fred Thompson administration.

I'm not exactly sure why, despite being in the race for the GOP presidential nomination for nearly a year, Hunter has failed to gain traction as a candidate. Perhaps his campaign has not served him well. Perhaps the media hasn't given him enough "face time." Or perhaps some of his more zealous backers are having the opposite effect on his campaign than the one they desire.

That's why this one goes out to those Duncan Hunter supporters who have felt the need to bash Fred Thompson on the political discussion forums, especially on FRee Republic and more especially on the Fred Thompson threads there:

Blame Fred Thompson
(to the tune of Blame Canada)

Times have changed
FReepers are getting worse
They won’t obey their betters
They want to put Thompson first!
Should we blame Club for Growth?
Or blame NTU?
Or should we blame Tanc and the Huckster too?
No, blame Fred Thompson
Blame Fred Thompson
With all their beady little eyes
Those Fredheads are so full of lies
Blame Fred Thompson
Blame Fred Thompson
We need to form a full assault
It’s all Fred Thompson’s fault!
Don’t blame me
For Duncan’s not made a dent
He’s been running nearly a year
And he’s only got four percent!
And our guy Hunter
Should be on everyone’s minds
But he’s lagging so far behind!
Well, blame Fred Thompson
Blame Fred Thompson

It seems that everything’s gone wrong
Since Fred Thompson came along
Blame Fred Thompson
Blame Fred Thompson
He’s not even a real conservative anyway
Duncan could’ve been a contender ahead in the race
Instead nobody even recognizes his face
Should we blame the candidate?
Should we blame his campaign?
Or the donors who shunned him in vain?
Heck no!
Blame Fred Thompson
Blame Fred Thompson

With his federalist hullabaloo
And that bi*ch Matalin too
Blame Fred Thompson
Shame on Fred Thompson
For...
His race we must stop
His dash we must bash
His campaign and run
Must all be undone
We must blame him and cause a FReeper fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!!

SABAZZ!

My apologies to the writers of South Park.

[Josh Painter]

Fredipedia.US: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick-Reference

[Rick_Michael]

I think no one should attack Fred or Duncan.

We should focus our time (in the primaries) on eliminating Rudy, McCain, Huckabee, and Romney from the race. In that order....according to their level of liberalism,insanity, and acting.

We need both Fred and Duncan in this coarse of time.

[papasmurf]

Duncan may be big on Military spending, but he voted against raising pay and benefits to the troops. Not to mention, he’s missed almost 30% of the votes and many of them National Security related.

[Bull Market]

Interesting. I’ve been so enraged at his childish supporters, I never bothered to dig up any info on Hunter himself.

Frankly Hunter is my third choice for running mate. Tancredo has been a much stronger voice in the conservative community than Hunter ever was. But I still take Paul over both just to lock up the necessary votes(and make no mistake, they are necessary) to get Thompson in the White House.

But I realize many disagree.

[GregoTX]

Ditto .... what you said

[daylilly]

I did not know about Hunter’s votes on military pay and benefits. He has several big spending bills that he has voted for, and he votes no on military pay? Who would have thought it.

I find his earmarks for DP-2 to be problematic because they’ve gone on so long without successful tests. A project needs to show some sign of success to end up being funded for so long.

I don’t want to say anything negative about him because he is a conservative, yet it troubles me that some supporters think he is without flaw which just isn’t true.

And there are a few ethics issues like the banking scandal he was involved in about 1993. An ethics issue. The congress ought to live by the same rules as the rest of the country, as Fred says was a reason he was elected in 1994. That banking scandal gave rise to a lot of the feelings that congresspersons act in unethical ways and think they are above the law. And the earmarks which several in Congress have been trying to do something about. Many have engaged in earmarks but that is an ethics issue and some Republicans are trying to do stop them. It would be nice if Hunter would make a statement to support those trying to end the use of earmarks.

Hunter’s supporters act as if we are supposed to ignore his problems and he doesn’t have to explain or give a statement about any of it.

What has he said about limited government that any voter should think he would do any better in the presidency than he has done in congress?

Fred made statements and firmed up his position on immigration a long time ago. Even though some didn’t understand what he meant by enforce the law.

It would be nice if Hunter could be as forthright as Fred on some of these things instead of Hunter or his supporters referring to Fred as a johnny come lately, then ignoring Guiliani and sanctuary cities and Huckabee and his immigration past. What is that compared to someone who hasn’t made a move yet like Guiliani and Huckabee!

Thanks for this post Josh, well done.

[alicewonders]

I agree with you. If all of us that support the conservative candidates will get together and put our support behind the one that has the greatest numbers - that candidate could pull significantly ahead. If we can’t do that, then we will lose.

[Rick_Michael]

But ultimately you would vote for him in a split second in the generals...if that was your chose?

I would...wouldn’t think twice. I just don’t think he’ll get there. Any sort of difference I have with duncan supporters is so SMALL in comparison to Rudy, McCain, Huckabee, Romney supporters...

Our focus should be there, and so should the Duncan supporters. Rudy, McCain, Huckabee, and Romney are the threat to our conservative principles. We should be allied on that.

[Rick_Michael]

Paul’s one of the most disliked candidates among the republicans. I believe Ramussen says 25% of SC incredibly dislikes him. I would say anyone using him as a running mate would disenfrancise more voter than they’d gain. And I’m not really sure you or anyone would want many of those voters.

Some of them are wacky conspiro types.

JMO.

[papasmurf]

Yes, I would vote for Duncan should he be the nominee.

However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to keep giving his supporters a pass when they attack FRed.

I, too, have asked for no attacks on FRed by Duncan supporters, and have myself refrained from attacking Duncan’s mistakes, and believe me, he has made some in his 26 years.

No more.

[Bull Market]

I don’t buy that. It’s tough talk on websites and polling, but I have a really hard time believing enough Republicans would drop Thompson just because he’s running with a more extreme federalist than him. Especially given the fact that VP is, for practical purposes, a worthless position.

[Josh Painter]

Duncan Hunter was never charged with any wrongdoing. His good friend Randy “Duke” Cunningham was convicted of influence peddling, but Hunter is not guilty by association. The Dems would like to taint Hunter for his friendship with Cunningham, much as some Hunter supporters have tried to taint Fred Thompson for his friendship with McCain.

The House of Representatives is a good ol’ boys club, just like the Senate. Nothing wrong with that. In the old days, pre-Clinton, members in both houses commonly developed friendships even with members of the opposing political parties. They put aside their differences at the end of each days’ session and were civil to each other.

So let’s confine our criticism of Hunter to the issues, and let’s not fall for the liberals’ leftist lies about Duncan Hunter. The Dems would try to fabricate something based on Hunter’s association with Cunningham and tell the lie over and over again if Hunter was the GOP nominee - no doubt about that.

There’s enough in the issues to make me prefer Thompson, but I’m primarily a small-government conservative to whom spending issues are high on my list of importance.

Like I said, Hunter’s a good man. I don’t have any ethical problems with him at all. I trust his honesty and consider him to be of good character until proven otherwise, and nobody has proven otherwise because there’s nothing there.

[SoConPubbie]

pissant,

Do you agree with this approach?

[papasmurf]

...Duncan Hunter admitted, in an USA story 11/30/05, that he teamed with Rep. Cunningham and other lawmakers to allocate $190 million for automated data conversion projects from 1993 to 2001— programs the Defense Department neither wanted nor requested. Rep. Hunter also sought out tens of millions of dollars in earmarks for Audre and ADCS, and pushed the Pentagon to purchase their products. In return, Mr. Wilkes steered at least $39,200 in campaign contributions to Rep. Hunter.

That’s not leftist, it’s fact. BTW, the investigation is stalled, not closed. Duncan still has not produced requested documents.

[pissant]

I’m thoroughly enjoying the show. Carry on.

[Josh Painter]

Like I said, nothing has been proven to make me doubt Hunter's character, and no formal charges have ever been filed. If anything was there, Hunter would have been indicted at the same time Cunningham was. In this country we are all innocent until proven otherwise. And, like I said, there's enough in the issues to make me prefer Thompson over Hunter.

[Politicalmom]

Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference

WARNING: If you wish to join, be aware that this ping list is EXTREMELY active.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Duncan may be big on Military spending, but he voted against raising pay and benefits to the troops.

Source?

[Ultra Sonic 007]

...Duncan Hunter admitted, in an USA story 11/30/05, that he teamed with Rep. Cunningham and other lawmakers to allocate $190 million for automated data conversion projects from 1993 to 2001— programs the Defense Department neither wanted nor requested.

The DoD and the Pentagon said the same thing about Hunter's push to get more B-2 bombers built; they did not request those bombers, and they said they didn't want or need them. Less than a decade later, such bombers saw heavy use.

As I've said before, Hunter tends to be right more often than not when it comes to matters like this.

[Bobbisox]

One more thing you should think about. If Duncan’s supporters came on board with Fred, you are still only looking at 2%, if Tancredo’s followed, maybe another 2%, if all of them came on board. We need to break the lock that Romney and Rudy have on Republicans. They can’t be conservatives if they support one of these two...they must be RINOS. Conservatives do not support RINOs. At least, they shouldn’t. Maybe they are just uninformed and going with the “most electable” against Rudy. Based on the MSM, Romney is their best choice. The MSM do not, more than any other candidate, and I don’t know why, want Fred Thompson and they will go out of their way to make everyone believe that his candidacy is dead.

Fred Thompson is an outstanding candidate and there is still plenty of time for him to get that across. Most of Iowa and New Hampshire (from looking at all these polls) have not set their feet in concrete for their candidate.

I have because he is the best candidate of them all.