Free Republic

Carl Cameron says it'll become offical sometime later this week. Oh well, we're doomed. Let's hope it'll be minimal damage until 2012.

LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. - "Freddie! Freddie!" came the chant from nearly 3,000 people as towering Fred Thompson entered the final minutes of a pivotal game for his Lawrence County High School basketball team. Grabbing crucial rebounds, Thompson helped win the regional final. It hardly mattered that the team didn't survive the 1959 state tournament. Next year, Freddie would be a full-time star. But there would be no next year. Just as Thompson turned 17, his girlfriend became pregnant, and he married her in a small, quickly arranged ceremony. The high school rules were clear: Married students did not play sports. It...

DNC seeks dirt on ThompsonAs Fred Thompson tested the presidential waters this summer, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was looking to dig up dirt on the former Tennessee senator. DNC researcher David Schnitzer filed many Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that sought all communications between federal agencies and Thompson, according to a review of government FOIA logs. Schnitzer’s search for information was broad. He sent FOIA requests to dozens of agencies, ranging from the Federal Trade Commission to the Department of Transportation to the National Indian Gaming Commission. Requesting such data is not unusual for political operatives. But Schnitzer’s...

A few months ago, when Fred Thompson first began to ruminate about running for the White House, I wondered aloud about just what line of attack the MSM would settle upon when they began going after Thompson in earnest. There were several candidates, but the one I thought would be their favorite charge would be that of the "he's just an actor" meme. And it looks like this is, indeed, the winning MSM charge against Thompson, as since my first article, the line has been used in many more Thompson hit pieces promulgated by the MSM. Here Mr. Thompson is...

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) – A woman screaming “you’re not a real conservative, sirâ€ù was removed by police from a welcoming reception for likely GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson Wednesday morning. A second protester was also taken from the room.

As a Senator, he took marching orders from James Zogby of the pan-Islamist Arab American Institute, opposing profiling of Arabs, the use of secret evidence against Muslims (at the behest of Muslim groups), attempting to repeal the Clinton counterterrorism package, refusing to fund computer tracking of student and other foreign aliens, giving millions in our tax money right to Hezbollah, and putting CAIR on the map on Capitol Hill (taking the group's officials around to meet other Senators and Members of Congress). He took campaign contributions from the relatives of Hezbollah-backed top Lebanese officials after he got the group millions...

The picture in the paper the other day of Fred Thompson and his wife was eye-catching and it wasn’t because he towered over her like some giant out of an old circus. (At six foot six he would be the tallest president in United States history.) It’s because he looked old enough to be her father. He’s sixty-four, she’s forty: a twenty-four year difference. The gap in their ages may or may not become an issue in the election should the former senator choose to run for president. But it shouldn’t be considered unprecedented in a presidential couple as some...

To those of you who roll your eyes and groan when you hear people go on and on about the biased news media that injects its personal opinions into news stories and peppers them with assumptions that the writer more than “critics say” seems to hold, roll your eyes no longer. The New York Times has a piece that makes you conclude: somewhere at that (once stellar) newspaper, an editor was asleep at the switch: AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public...

Fred Thompson has had a relatively easy ride as he has flirted with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. His strategists have found traction promoting him as the heir to Ronald Reagan -- and a conservative alternative to the top tier of the GOP field. But the ride is starting to get a bit bumpy. Opponents and their researchers have begun working -- mostly behind the scenes -- to highlight perceived soft spots in his conservative bona fides. And Thompson will have to neutralize questions on the campaign trail and in the media about his centrist votes in the...

1. Who would you vote for, given the current field? A. Gilmore B. Giuliani C. Huckabee D. Hunter E. McCain F. Paul G. Romney H. Tancredo I. Tommy Thompson 2. Who would you vote for, knowing that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich would be candidates? A. Gilmore B. Gingrich C. Giuliani D. Huckabee E. Hunter F. McCain G. Paul H. Romney I. Tancredo J. Fred Thompson K. Tommy Thompson 3. Suppose it's after New Hampshire, and most of the lesser known candidates have dropped out. Who would you vote for? (PLEASE answer this one.) A. Giuliani B. McCain C. Romney...

Everywhere Fred Thompson goes these days, he seems to be followed by inflated expectations. Those waiting outside the Capitol Hill Club yesterday for the not-quite-yet presidential candidate to arrive counted 35 House Republicans entering the building to meet with him. One participant, Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.), reported that there were 40 in the room. Another, Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), upped the figure to "45 to 50." Then the organizer, Rep. Zach Wamp (Tenn.) came out. "I think the number was 53," he said. "Between 50 and 60." However hyped their numbers, the conservative lawmakers who came to hear the actor...

Senator Obama joked with David Letterman, "I think it is possible that in that kind of situation, we might have to have a brokered convention and, Dave, we might turn to you." It's a stupid joke, but it may reveal that the prospect of a brokered convention is already on candidates' minds. And it already seems likely to some, due to a complete breakdown of the primary system. The Wall Street Journal's Brian Carney says, "The presidential primary system as we have known it for 35 years is dead. History books will record that the era that began with the...

There has been some discussion of when he became a pro-lifer (notably by Evangelicals for Mitt, a site that seems to imply, I think wrongly, that being pro-life was the default position of Republicans in Tennessee during the 1980s and 1990s). I wrote about the issue in 2000. He seems to have had a change of heart some time after 1997.

Ex-senator questions Fitzgerald's case 14 minutes ago Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., went on the attack Tuesday against Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, saying the prosecutor had to have known from the start that it was not a crime to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity. A fundraiser for the defense of I. Lewis Libby, Thompson depicted Fitzgerald as out of control, telling ABC News there was "no brake and no check and no balance" on the prosecutor. Thompson's objections are the same ones Democratic politicians made in the 1990s about independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who spent six years investigating President Clinton...