Posted on 12/04/2006 6:52:31 AM PST by streetpreacher
Where Have All the Conservatives Gone? Right Runs Out of Potential Presidents
Sunday , December 03, 2006
By Susan Estrich
Are there going to be any running for President?
First it was Virginia’s George Allen, the great white hope, the George on a horse, the governor with a smile, on his way to a White House run, once he got past that frisky re-election campaign.
He was, less than a short year ago, the Hotline’s unknown front-runner, the insider’s best guess, the neocon’s next new best friend.
Now, thanks to a Macaca joke, a ham sandwich joke, a terrible campaign, and some smart moves by senator-elect Jim Webb, he’s toast.
Then there was Rick Santorum. Mr. Conservative. Surely he would at least make a run. Give the hard core a place to be. Just as soon as he got past his Senate re-election campaign in Pennsylvania. The number three Senate Republican and conservative stalwart is as good a friend as conservatives have in the Senate.
Correction: Had. History.
Hello Bob Casey. Goodbye Rick Santorum. Another one bites the dust.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
FRED THOMPSON for PRESIDENT!!!
WOOO HOOO!
Newt? Uh, no.
Newt has zero chance of getting the nomination and even less chance of winning if he did.
Golly, I was just saying this exact thing to Mr. Wouldnt last night.
I sure was sorry to find out Allen had such bad politician skills, but better now than after he got the nomination.
That said, James Webb stinks and will be a blight on Virginia and the nation from Day One.
FRED THOMPSON:
Fred Dalton Thompson (born August 19, 1942) is an American lawyer, actor and former Republican Senator from Tennessee. In addition to acting, he is currently a visiting fellow for the American Enterprise Institute, researching national security and intelligence (China, North Korea, and Russia.) He is also a special program host and senior analyst for ABC News Radio and fills in for Paul Harvey.
Background
Born in Sheffield, Alabama, Thompson grew up attending the public schools in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He attended Memphis State University where he earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and political science in 1964. He received a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1967. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1967 and commenced the practice of law, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1969-1972. He was the campaign manager for Senator Howard Baker's successful re-election campaign in 1972, which led to a close personal friendship with Baker, and he served as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in its investigation of the Watergate scandal, (1973-1974). He was responsible for Baker's asking one of the questions that is said to have led directly to the downfall of President Richard Nixon – "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" Also, Thompson asked the important question concerning recording devices in the White House.
In 1977, Thompson took on a Tennessee Parole Board case that ultimately toppled Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton from power on charges of selling pardons. The scandal became the subject of a book and a movie titled Marie (1985) in which Thompson played himself, supposedly because the producers were unable to find a professional actor who could play him plausibly. This film launched his acting career. Thompson would go on to appear in numerous motion pictures, including The Hunt for Red October (1990), Cape Fear (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993), and Die Hard 2. Even more than most actors, Thompson's roles are generally very similar to his real life persona.
Senate Career
On November 8, 1994, Thompson was elected to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending January 3, 1997, left vacant by the resignation of Al Gore, defeating six-term Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Cooper in a landslide which represented the most votes anyone had ever received for a statewide office in Tennessee history up to that point. Thompson took the oath of office on December 2, 1994. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Washington, D.C. ("while I was still unpacking my boxes," as he put it) Thompson was selected by the Republicans to give a reply to a nationally-televised address by President Bill Clinton. This was no doubt due to his acting background, but many pundits saw this as an attempt to groom him for an even larger political role. Thompson was easily re-elected in 1996 for the term ending January 3, 2003 over Democratic attorney Houston Gordon of Covington, Tennessee by an even larger margin than that by which he had defeated Cooper two years earlier. His name was regularly mentioned in the year 2000 as a potential candidate for Vice President alongside the Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush. In the Republican primaries he initially backed former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander. On Alexander dropping out of the race Thompson endorsed Senator John McCain's bid and became his national cochairman. While in the Senate, he was chair of the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1997 to January 3, 2001 which conducted investigations into allegations China attempted to influence American politics prior to the 1996 elections and January 20, 2001 to June 6, 2001, when the reorganization of the Senate prompted by the resignation of James Jeffords of Vermont from the Republican Party changed the control of the Senate. Thompson then became the ranking minority member.
After the Senate
Thompson was not a candidate for re-election in 2002. He had never planned to make a lifetime career of the Senate, and had often publicly stated as much. Although he announced in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks his intention to seek re-election, upon further reflection, which seems to have been prompted in large part by the sudden death of his daughter from unrelated events, he decided not to pursue this course. In the final months of his term, he joined the cast of the long-running NBC television series Law & Order, playing Arthur Branch. In doing so, he became the first serving U.S. Senator concurrently to hold a full-time television acting job; however, his first scenes as Branch were filmed during the Senate's August 2002 recess, so he missed no legislative time in order to act on television. He is reportedly paid $100,000 per episode of the show in which he appears[citation needed]; if this is in fact true, he earns more from appearing in two shows than he did in an entire year as a Senator, and will earn nearly twice in one television season what his earnings were for his entire Senate career. In the spring of 2005 Thompson concurrently played the role on both the original series and short-lived sister series Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Thompson has also made occasional appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and appeared in the pilot episode of Conviction. He is one of very few actors who played the same regular character on two different series simultaneously.
Thompson did voiceover work at the 2004 Republican National Convention. After the retirement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2005, he was given an informal position by President George W. Bush to help guide the nominated John Roberts to the confirmation through the United States Senate. In 2006, Thompson signed on with ABC News Radio, where he'll serve as a host, commentator, and fill in for Paul Harvey.
There was speculation that Thompson would run for Governor of Tennessee in 2006, but he declined to run against the popular Governor Phil Bredesen.
On June 29, 2002, Thompson married Jeri Kehn, a 35-year-old political media consultant at the Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, and McPherson law firm in Washington, D.C., who once worked for the Senate Republican Conference and the Republican National Committee. In October 2003, they had a daughter, Hayden Victoria Thompson. He also has two sons and five grandchildren from prior marriages/relationships.
W may be misspeak from time to time, but he has never come off in any way, shape or form as Allen did in his campaign.
Misspeaking is one thing. Showing oneself to be a Dum Bass is quite another.
What's sad is that you may be right, depending on the sort of "stature" is required for political success these days.
Bayh/Clinton perhaps. People say she would never deign to go on the second spot, but if she's convinced she probably can't win at the top slot, she might. VPs can be very powerful.
Allen cost "us" the Senate, yet Santorum...well he's Presidential material, by golly. LOL! With a thought process like that it's a wonder any Republican gets elected to anything.
Sometimes I think conservaties are the MSM's biggest fans despite claims to the contrary.
Unfortunately for Allen, not only did he show he could not handle the prime time LSM assault, he did equally poorly with his base.
He ended up imploding with his natural base and no politician can come back from that.
I heard some comments made by Bush that I thought were directed at the Allen campaign and I wouldn't think it's far off the mark that even the White House now thinks Allen is worthless.
And I was a HUGE supporter of the guy before this deeply flawed campaign.
The question I have about Bayh is how this will play into the MRS BILL CLINTON scenario.
Why didnt I think of him? DAMN!
Oh, I can imagine it. Once people start smelling the power, they do funny things.
And I can imagine her taking it---if she becomes convinced that she can't win the top slot or win at the top slot.
She might even start thinking the VP position isn't so bad after all---this would put HER and HER ALONE in the White House---in other words, she wouldn't have to have BUBBA tagging along behind her all the time while she was at work.
I agree.
Results talk. Period. Spare me the tiny violins while the country goes up in flames b/c a bunch of people voted their "hearts" and so on rather than based on reality, the possible, the probable and what is at stake for our country.
You thought fighting the war was a stupid thing?
Hmm.
But Allen lost what was regarded as a totally safe seat.
Allen didn't lose to Webb, he lost to the unions. Webb is bought and paid for by the unions, just like Arlen Specter.
Yes, we all know that he shouldn't have lost. But those of use who were in the trenches with him are not so ignorant as to blame the loss of the entire Senate on George Allen.
If the rest of the Republicans in the Senate and the House had ever learned to govern like Republicans, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Yes, the race was Allen's to lose and he did so masterfully. But blaming the loss of the ENTIRE Senate on George Allen is sheer stoopidity.
And it turns a blind eye to what the real problems with the Republican Party are.
We didn't lose the Senate and the House because George Allen screwed up.
We lost the Senate and the House because the Republican Party screwed us.
McCain will finish the job of dooming the Repubs that the Bushes started. Moderates who can't decide which side of the aisle they are on, don't inspire enthusiam.
Bush hurt Repub voter turn out via unending drum beating for his widely unpopular illegal amnesty.
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