Victoria Delsoul wrote: "So here is my question – are divorced Protestants above criticism when it comes to fooling around for over 15 years without marrying any of his/her lovers? Or are the Catholics the only ones who get censured for marrying his/her lover instead of continuing to fool around with a string of women/men for over 15 years?
I hear crickets.
Don't get me wrong, I have liked the guy since I was a teenager..."
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Yeah, I can really tell how much you "like" Thompson from your post in which you and your "crickets" unsuccessfully attempt to sling dirt on the character of a very good man.
He has been married twice and dated different women while single before he met his second wife. Good Lord, let's get a rope, find a tree and hang his sorry butt right now!
The truth is that Fred Thompson's first marriage, from well over twenty years in the past, is well-known in Washington and Hollywood circles. His ex-wife Sarah has never said anything bad about him in public, nor he about her. I don't know whether he divorced her, she divorced him or they had a mutual parting of the ways, and neither do you. So don't say things like "the fact that he divorced his wife of 26 years" when you don't know whether it's a "fact" or not.
As for FDT's single life after his divorce, it's been my understanding that a bachelor or bachlorette is free in this country to court and spark whomever he or she chooses. But if that has somehow changed, please advise us.
In a field of GOP hopefuls who, with the exceptions of M&M (Mitt and McCain) cheated on their wives or had divorce papers served to their hospital beds, Fred Dalton Thompson is a breath of fresh air.
The leftist Washington Monthly did a hit piece on Fred Thompson in 1996 (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/archives/9612.cottle.html), and the worst thing writer Michelle Cottle could find to say of Fred was that his good ol' boy demeanor seemed to her to be somewhat affected, and that ol' red pickup truck he drove was a rental. Now, if there were any real dirt on Thompson or actual skeletons rattling around in his closet, that liberal rag would have gleefully printed it.
IMO, the result of the dirt slinging by you and your crickets is that more of it landed on you than the guy you were throwing it at.
I wouldn't put Mitt and McCain together--Mitt has been married only once. McCain's first wife worked hard to raise public awareness of the prisoner-of-war issue while he was in prison in Hanoi, but when he came home he divorced her and married a much younger and wealthier woman. I say that as someone who doesn't want either of the M&M's to be the nominee.
My point is clear - that in many instances on FR, when it comes to Rudy the facts just don't matter. For instance, we don't know if his second wife was a witch and he just couldn't stand her anymore, and we don't know who initiated what as their marriage dissolved. Those trashing Rudy over the divorce couldn't care less about the details. In contrast, I posted a few verifiable facts about Fred (which all of you can google), and I get questions about not knowing the details of his divorce and who started what.
Fred and Sarah Lindsey were married on September 12, 1959 and were divorced in 1985. Whether she initiated the divorce or not, and weather she was the bad person or not, is irrelevant. This is also true in Rudy's case, though many of the Rudy haters lambaste him for getting divorced. The Thompsons divorced in 1985, the same year of Fred's movie career took off, and also his wife worked hard to support him with his law school education. So folks shouldn't be quick to protest with don't “sling dirt on the character of a very good man” level before you do your own research.
“He received his B.S. from Memphis State University, then went on to Vanderbilt University Law School--a great place for a son of the rural South to forge bonds with the state's up-and-comers. (Al Gore and former Sen. Jim Sasser are both Vanderbilt Law arums.) Fred and his wife, Sarah (from whom he was divorced in 1985), both worked to put Thompson through Vanderbilt and support their three kids.” link
Fred is a good man - I never said he isn't, and I agree that he doesn't carry the same baggage as Rudy in terms of divorces and public scrutiny, but he isn't perfect when it comes to divorce and marriages. That was my point.