Posted on 10/17/2007 8:08:58 PM PDT by Calpernia
Dateline: NASHVILLE
U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson says he seldom hears about abortion in campaign travels throughout Tennessee and hopes the issue is downplayed at the Republican National Convention.
The Tennessee Republican, an abortion-rights defender in a party with an anti-abortion tilt, is preparing for next week's convention in San Diego . He said the party must avoid distracting issues and focus on electing Bob Dole as president.
''We need to concentrate on what brings us together and not what divides us,'' Thompson said in an interview with The Tennessean published Tuesday.
Thompson said he opposes making early-term abortions a crime, as some Republicans would like to do with a constitutional amendment.
''But I don't think you should bolt on one issue. I'm still not convinced platforms are a good idea. We know what we believe in and I don't think we need to write it all down in a document,'' Thompson said.
''We're going to have to decide in this country whether we reduce the number of abortions or fight about the number of abortions. There are lots of things that we could do in terms of education and adoption to reduce the number of abortions. The two sides are so vigorous in opposing each other that they ignore the question of the number of abortions taking place.''
Thompson, a lawyer and actor born in Lawrenceburg, is seeking to keep the Senate seat once held by Vice President Gore.
In 1994, an obscure opponent got 37 percent of the vote against Thompson in the Republican primary, which some observers attribute to an abortion backlash.
Last week Thompson got 96 percent of the Republican primary vote against another unknown opponent.
Abortion isn't likely to emerge as an issue in Thompson's 1996 general election campaign. His Democratic opponent, Covington lawyer Houston Gordon, favors abortion rights, said campaign manager Joyce McDaniel.
Thompson said he has voted consistently against providing federal funding for abortions and voted for a bill, vetoed by President Clinton, to ban late term partial-birth abortions.
http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/republican_iowa_caucus
But hey, he looks presidential. I don’t think the American people are as gullible as they used to be. We have a lot of alternative news sources now. The GOP machinery needs to get with the program and understand that the same things that took Kerry down will easily bring down their front-shelf game pieces. There are good men in America, but gone are the days when the media can totally shape a campaign with money.
With the margin of error, that might be -3%.
‘’We need to concentrate on what brings us together and not what divides us,’’ Thompson said in an interview with The Tennessean published Tuesday.”
Hmmm... Let’s not worry about what divides us.
Let’s hold hands and sing really loud, and maybe we won’t have to think about all those nasty little dismemberment machines.
You cover your eyes, he’ll cover his ears, and I won’t say a word.
Won’t that make it a pretty little world?
The source of this is “unknown”?
LOL! How nebulous can the anti-Freds be?
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN)
August 7, 1996
THOMPSON WANTS DEBATE ON ABORTION DOWNPLAYED
The Associated Press
You can find it here in the archives.
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1. Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - August 7, 1996
THOMPSON WANTS DEBATE ON ABORTION DOWNPLAYED
U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson says he seldom hears about abortion in campaign travels throughout Tennessee and hopes the issue is downplayed at the Republican National Convention.The Tennessee Republican, an abortion-rights defender in a party with an anti-abortion tilt, is preparing for next week’s convention in San Diego. He said the party must avoid distracting issues and focus on electing Bob Dole as president.’’We need to concentrate on what brings...
Purchase Complete Article, of 413 words
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives
I know its hard to believe, but most news from 1994 to 1998 is only available via purchase, thru sites like Newsbank and Lexis/Nexis.
Ping!
digg deeeeeeeppppppp......
Really old unknown source...
The first post by the thread initiator removed...
Fred, who has been hailed buy both Tennessee and National Right to Life organizations as being a strong pro life voter.
A stellar Senate record.
I am reminded of trying to get that last little bit of mayonnaise out of the bottom of a jar.
Come on guys, you can parse his record all you want, you can even pitch an argument that many years ago he was at the worst ambivalent on the topic (so was I) but that's about it.
You are confusing strategy with conviction. If we were not in the office, then it matter not whether Republicans were pro life or not, because Clinton certainly wasn’t.
We can argue ethical and moral issues all the time, but when mixed in with politics we have to be in the drivers seat to have our views prevail.
What is all this Bob Dole and 1996 stuff?
I just wanted to check in with you: You told us repeatedly over the summer, as you posted as much anti-Thompson material as you could, that, hey, Thompson is your #2 choice. Using the “fish or cut bait” scenario, Hunter is going to be cutting bait very soon. Is Thompson still your #2? Will we be seeing your pro-Thompson posts, or are you going to flip flop?
Any senator that aids and abets high crimes and misdemeanors in the White House is unfit to reside in the White House.
One of the things that made me most angry at Bob Dole, the one thing that almost made me vote third party in the 1996 election, was his disdain for the Republican Party Platform. His statements about it, mostly because it was pro-life and conservative, were infuriating. Little did I know that one of the architects of the movement against the conservative platform was none other than Fred Thompson. Thanks for re-opening an old wound and pouring some Fred Thompson salt on it.
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