Here's some info I found on the Senate votes related to McCain-Feingold ( http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_107_1.htm ). I'm cross-posting this from another thread.
Thompson did vote for it, which is troubling, despite his recent change of heart. That said, if you look at the votes, you'll see that he was not in lockstep with McCain on this. His vote differed from McCain's on a number of different issues listed below.
Most notably, Thompson introduced an amendment to raise hard money limits and index those limits to inflation. He specifically made the point that individual contributions = free speech. McCain voted to kill Thompson's amendment before it reached the floor. However, the amendment did get to the floor, and it passed.
This doesn't in my mind mitigate Thompson's vote in favor of CFR, but it does show that he had concerns about it even then and in many ways did not agree with McCain's approach. I do think this lends credence to his recent repudiation of the bill.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00037
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00038
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00046
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00047
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00049
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00053 (this was Thompson's amendment to increase hard money contributions -- McCain voted to kill it)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r107:1:./temp/~r107Kv5YyZ:e0 (here is the discussion where Thompson calls individual contributions free speech)
:http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00054
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00055 (this is the final vote on Thompson's successful amendment to increase hard money limits. McCain ultimately ended up supporting it, although he tried to kill it before it reached a floor vote)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00056
I for one do not hold it against someone because they changed their mind on an issue.
This should be under Vanity not misc. IMHO
Is that you Rudy?
Why is Giuliani, a cross-dressing, pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-FreeSpeech, anti-Amendment uberliberal who failed to prevent 9/11 and who hasn't held any post higher than a city mayor being pushed as the "frontrunner" for the 2008 Republican nomination?
Thompson '08!
No candidate is going to be perfect. As for the change from pro-choice to pro-life, I personally think it is great because it shows that he can be persuaded after review of the information. I know I did. If he decides to run, then I'm onboard!
Ronald Reagan was an actor, and he didn't do too bad.