Fred Thompson on Hannity and Colmes 5/1/07 (Live Thread)

Fox News Channel | 5/1/07 | Politicalmom

[Politicalmom]

Tuesday, May 1:

• EXCLUSIVE! Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson sits down with us tonight. Will he or won't he enter the 2008 presidential race?

[AFPhys]

Given your “analysis”, I don’t believe you’ve ever been in NY, Conn, or MA. I wonder if you’ve ever been on college campus.

Those who espouse liberal thought have much stronger and deeper support than you portray.

[altura]

I get you about the odd lack of enthusiasm for Mitt. In a way, he seems to have it all. He’s young, good looking, articulate, has a funny (if low key)personality. I would love to see him as Veep so the country could get to know him.

I think a lot of people are afraid the Mormon thing would drag him down and are desperate for a candidate who could win.

But Fred just has a presence and charisma...and, it’s hard to explain but, there it is.

[Squidpup]

Hoefully that comes true

All - I’m late to this thread - Thanks for the running commentary and highlights.. Sounds like he “done good”

[Enchante]

"...what the president knows: that this war is lost, that the surge is not accomplishing anything"

Reid is rambling (babbling) in that quote, but I take him to be asserting that Pres. Bush "knows" that "this war is lost" but won't admit it....... since the surge has hardly begun and is going well in very many respects, this is just the usual Defeatocrat propaganda.

[AFPhys]

I agree with you about Mitt.
I would support and work for Romney without reservation.

[Jalapeno]

Evidently, that link on Fox is an editted interview.

the you tube vids are a little better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmU4-XSgZ0s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oya6BQeOEzg

[Squidpup]

oops “Hopefully”

what a slip!

[Gelato]

I'm just asking questions.

Where's the evidence that Fred Thompson has left behind his moderate mindset and adopted our conservative agenda?

Why should Thompson get a pass, when no one else has?

If we don't demand that he prove himself now, how can we expect to have any influence down the road?

(Does the emperor have any clothes?)

[TheKidster]

Yeah, I’ve considered calling his hate hannity line to call him out on his hypocritical shilling for Rudy who stands for most of what Sean says he’s against

[TheKidster]

cool, thanks I’ll check ‘em out!

[TheKidster]

cool, thanks I watched it on TV last night though.

[pillut48]

Eh?? I've got two degrees from college, nothing fancy, A.A. and B.S.in Elem. Ed. Some work on a graduate degree I didn't get to finish. I'm a certified teacher in both Texas AND California, although I've long since retired. I've been to NY, Conn. briefly and was raised until age 12 in Mass. I know those places are crammed full of liberals. :-) Never said I was a professional political analyst. ;-) I'm just speaking from the heart. Fred is going to mow down all these other wannabes once he announces. They act like they are too good to be true, but Fred is the real deal. Yeah, there's a boatload of libbies out there. BUT never discount the conservatives who lurk on the sidelines, living their lives without immersion in the political cesspool that is Washington D.C. Everyday Joes and Joannes who are doing what they do, trying to take care of their families, trying to do 'the right thing' when it comes to voting. Rudy's become so popular because there hasn't been a better alternative so far. Fred IS the better alternative--to ALL the candidates so far. ALL of them, regardless of party affiliation. I still believe there's going to be a heck of a Fred landslide in '08. Just a gut feeling. :-)

[pillut48]

Yeah, if you listen to him daily on his radio AND tv show, you’ll see his pattern of pushing Rudy. I think his interview with Fred may have interrupted that though...

[TheKidster]

Look at his voting record in the senate, ya goof. Also on one of the ping lists you can get to a page full of all of his speeches, etc. including some discussion of McCain Feingold. If you are genuinely interested the info is only a few clicks away.

If all you want to do is try to muddy the waters with questions I and many of us had 2 months ago that have been answered over and over and over and over again, well then you’re just wasting your time. Our FRiends who want to get answers can do so easily, those who want to try and sew doubt for alterior motives will generally be ignored and/or flamed.

[AFPhys]

Sean likes the way Rudy handled NYC, and believes the WoT is the foremost concern. He doesn’t like Rudy’s stance on social issues, and badgers him consistantly about why social conservatives should be expected to support his candidacy.

I don’t know why this approach would bother you, but given Sean’s very well known socially conservative stances, I believe he handles Rudy well. I don’t believe he will be working for Rudy in any primary situation. He clearly does not agree with him in this respect.

[ichabod1]

It’s plenty for now.

[gimme1ibertee]

RUNFREDRUNFREDRUNFREDRUNFREDRUNFREDRUNFRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ichabod1]

I’m not claiming Thompson is a Buckley conservative. What he is is a guy who is legitimately conservative enough to get the base excited and that can probably woo the squishy middle as well. I think he can probably pull a lot of Liebermann style democrats and be the first president since Reagan to govern with a real mandate.

The problem with Rudy is that there are too many of us that won’t vote for him no way, no how. I’ll immanentize the eschaton first.

(I’m not arguing with you, just chose you as a vehicle to comment on some things I’ve seen in the last 30 posts or so.)

[Gelato]

Look at his voting record in the senate, ya goof.

George Allen had a decent pro-life voting record in the Senate, too. Yet he supported first-trimester abortions. Reportedly, Fred Thompon held the same view, did not support the pro-life plank in the party, opposed a human life amendment to end abortion, opposed criminalizing doctors who perform abortion, and urged that "we need to concentrate on what brings us together and not what divides us."

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, a pro-choice 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. (AP, 8/6/96) THOMPSON'S MIXED ABORTION RECORD?

"I think when you get right down to the question that you’ve posed, should the government come in and criminalize, let’s say, a young girl and her parents and her doctor--which, as aiders and abettors, that would be involved--I think not." -- Fred Thompson, 1994 debate (Note that most pro-life advocates favor punishments on doctors, not mothers and their parents.)

If we are to ignore these statements and look at his Senate record as the sole judge of his mindset, consider that his primary accomplishment in the Senate was the passage of McCain-Feingold.

"If McCain-Feingold passes, it will not have happened if it weren't for Fred Thompson," said McCain's chief of staff, Mark Salter, on Wednesday evening.

Thompson had his name associated with the thing from its inception until the end, and tried to attach spending limits on Senate campaigns. He jumped aboard McCain's campaign in 2000 for this very reason.

---

McCain picks up Thompson endorsement

August 18, 1999
Web posted at: 1:38 p.m. EDT (1738 GMT)

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's bid for the Republican 2000 presidential nomination got a boost Wednesday when he was endorsed by fellow Sen. Fred Thompson, who joined McCain's campaign as national co-chairman.

"When it comes to personal courage and integrity and the courage to do what he thinks is right, regardless of whether or not it's particularly popular at the moment, John McCain has shown characteristics of leadership like no one else I've ever seen," Thompson said at a press conference.

Thompson, a Tennessee Republican, and McCain are both independent minded senators who have bucked their party, most notably on the issue of campaign finance reform. McCain has repeatedly sponsored a campaign finance reform bill with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) to ban the so-called "soft money" donated to political parties and Thompson has endorsed his efforts.

When it comes to reform of the way Washington does business, John McCain is the leader," Thompson said.

McCain is a three-term GOP senator from Arizona. He was a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam war who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war.

Thompson headed a Senate investigation into President Bill Clinton's campaign fund-raising practices and was once mentioned as a possible presidential candidate himself.

In preparing for the Senate campaign finance hearings, Thompson irritated several Republicans when he expressed a desire to investigate congressional campaigns, possibly putting certain GOP congressmen at risk for fund-raising wrongdoing. In the end, the Senate approved an extended investigation.

Thompson had endorsed his campaign of his fellow Tennessean, Lamar Alexander, who dropped out of the GOP race after his poor showing in the Iowa straw poll. Alexander said his showing hurt his ability to raise money. Thompson said he had told McCain that he would help him if Alexander left the race, and they both said they regretted Alexander's decision to drop out.

"I regretted the circumstances because it seemed to be about money rather than ideas," McCain said.

At the press conference and in an earlier speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention, McCain criticized the Clinton Administration for its foreign policy, saying it lacked coherence.

Thompson's endorsement went to McCain after Lamar Alexander dropped out of the race

"This administration has conducted a feckless, photo-op foreign policy which is always surprised, which always reacts and reacts on an ad-hoc basis," he said.

Thompson said that during the war in Kosovo, McCain became the only credible voice in Washington on the subject. Once the U.S. began bombing, McCain was forthright that the U.S. must win the war at all costs once it committed.

"During this last encounter, John McCain became the leading voice on this issue in Washington, D.C., including the White House," Thompson said, adding "the fact of the matter is that he took a strong position early on because he was able to analyze it and he had the courage to go forward with it, and he turned out to be right, which always helps."

McCain did not spare his fellow members of Congress, saying that pork-barrel spending continues to dominate the appropriations process, especially defense spending, which is the largest appropriations bill.

"Congress looks at the defense appropriations bill the way Willie Sutton used to look at banks," he said, referring to the bank robber who said he robbed banks because "that's where the money is."

In his VFW speech, he pounded Congress for not closing unneeded military bases and military depots while armed service personnel qualify for food stamps and veterans' needs go unfunded. "I'm ashamed that Congress finds billions for pork-barrel subsidies but fails to find money for veterans' health care," McCain said.

He also said that both Congress and the Clinton Administration have failed to fund defense spending properly and military readiness has suffered.

"For nearly a decade now, government has failed to meet its most important responsibility -- to provide for the common defense," he said in his speech to the VFW.

Questioned about gun control, McCain said existing laws should be enforced, noting that the Clinton Administration has been "derelict" in doing that. But he also said that he supported the recent gun control legislation passed by the Senate and he also said that in light of the recent spate of shootings, new proposals by the Clinton Administration should be looked at by Congress and not dismissed out of hand.

---

The time to hold Thompson to account is now, not later.

My vote is something he has to earn.

[NavyCanDo]

Last show of the season for Law & Order I believe is the first week of June, which also is around Sweeps Week. I think he would have to be very careful in what he says, so he does not jump the gun to soon which would cause some contractual problems with the show, and you can bet the liberal are recording his every word hoping he slips up.