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CAUSE CÉLÈBRE: Will Fred Thompson's racist role have political repercussions?
LA Times ^ | May 4, 2007 | Tina Daunt,

Posted on 05/03/2007 5:40:00 PM PDT by traderrob6

Ronald Reagan became president even though he worked with chimps in B movies.

Arnold Schwarzenegger played a murderous robot, and that didn't keep him from becoming governor.

So can "Law & Order" actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) become the first presidential candidate with this credit? Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of "Mein Kampf" on a television drama 19 years ago.

His colleagues say that he was just an actor putting everything he had into playing the role of a charismatic racist, named Knox Pooley, in three episodes of CBS' hit show "Wiseguy" in 1988. "Do you call Tom Cruise a killer because he played one in a movie?" asked show creator and writer Stephen J. Cannell.

But in the age of YouTube, this performance could raise an intriguing political question: How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace? Some conservative political blogs are already considering the problem.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fred; fredthompson; knoxpooley; runfredrun; thompson; wiseguy
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To: Wiseghy
One of the most memorable 3 episode characters I remember on any TV show. Knox Pooley was a bad, bad man. Thompson did a great job portraying the role. I was 12 years old at the time and I still remember Knox Pooley.
21 posted on 05/03/2007 6:01:32 PM PDT by Carling (It's Danny, Sir)
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To: traderrob6

Well, that just pegged my Stupid Meter.


22 posted on 05/03/2007 6:09:27 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("I AM A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR!!!" --http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0439.html)
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To: traderrob6
Will Fred Thompson's racist role have political repercussions?

Only in the sense that playing the role of president in a teevee show givee Martin Sheen the power to deploy the nation's nuclear misiles. Sheeeesh. Liberals are truly illusional
23 posted on 05/03/2007 6:10:37 PM PDT by RedMonqey ( The truth is never PC)
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To: Carling

Great show.


24 posted on 05/03/2007 6:10:57 PM PDT by panzer_grey
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To: traderrob6
Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of "Mein Kampf" on a television drama 19 years ago.

Evidently, nobody ever explained the difference between make believe and reality to the author.
25 posted on 05/03/2007 6:11:11 PM PDT by Lord Basil (stupisticated - Having a refined fantasy view of the world that is typically based on group-think.)
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To: traderrob6

This is absolutely absurd.

By this logic, Ronald Reagan’s political career should never have gotten off the ground after his role in the 1964 movie ‘The Killers’, where he played a very BAD man, he actually slapped Angie Dickinson (as part of the script of course).

‘The Killers’ was in fact the only movie in which Reagan played a villain, and it was his last movie before entering politics.


26 posted on 05/03/2007 6:11:21 PM PDT by mkjessup (Jan 20, 2009 - "We Don't Know. Where Rudy Went. Just Glad He's Not. The President. Burma Shave.")
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To: traderrob6

Wow. The Flying Monkey Research Team has been really busy! I think Fred has them worried.


27 posted on 05/03/2007 6:14:05 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Battle Axe; traderrob6
Didn't Ronald Reagan work with a chimp....Oh yeah. That gave him some experience working with the dims.

At least the chimps were house broken.

28 posted on 05/03/2007 6:17:06 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: traderrob6
But in the age of YouTube, this performance could raise an intriguing political question: How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace?

Folks aren't getting the point of this article.

The purpose of this article is to bring this footage to the attention of the moonbats in hopes that they will do exactly that.

29 posted on 05/03/2007 6:24:19 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: kellynla

LATimes giving Fred a Mark Fuhrman treatment? Wanted to say “amazing” but no, not really....


30 posted on 05/03/2007 6:28:32 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: Wiseghy
Boy, if this is the best that the LA times can come up with, the Dems are in real trouble.

Better said: If this thread is the best that FR Rudytoots can come up with they are in real trouble.

I don't quite understand why they hate Fred, but I can certainly understand why they fear him.

Something else that I don't quite understand is why people who claim to be conservative will so enthusiastically support a man who has historically taken stands at least as far to the left as any of the Democrat candidates on practically all of the most important social, cultural, and moral issues. As far as I know Rudy has never expressed regret for any his hyper-liberal positions he held before, during, and after his tenure as NYC mayor. He just glibly spouts his newly discovered quasi-conservative principles and expects us to believe that they are now his sincerely held beliefs.

31 posted on 05/03/2007 6:34:12 PM PDT by epow (A well balanced meal is a bag of Hershey kisses in each hand)
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To: traderrob6

I remember Clinton’s famous movie role...where he pretended to be a sad president, crying during Ron Brown’s funeral.


32 posted on 05/03/2007 6:47:47 PM PDT by syriacus (Dems removed our troops too soon from S. Korea. 30,000 US troops died in 30 mos to RE-WIN SK freedom)
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To: ChildOfThe60s
No one held it against Bill that he liked to hit on girls with big hair and big boobs.

Yea well who doesn't :>

33 posted on 05/03/2007 6:52:14 PM PDT by tophat9000 (Al-Qaidacrats =A new political party combining the anti American left and the anti Semite right)
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To: traderrob6
And Richard Dreyfuss was a Republican Senator in The American President.

What's the point?

I can only imagine the ridicule which would rain down on someone forwarding a YouTube clip of Thompson to people outside the DU message boards.

34 posted on 05/03/2007 7:00:48 PM PDT by GoBucks2002
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To: GoBucks2002
I can only imagine the ridicule which would rain down on someone forwarding a YouTube clip of Thompson to people outside the DU message boards.

I agree for the most part. But, as hard as it is to believe (don't even try to understand), a sizable group of people in this country can't distinguish between a fantasy character an actor plays on the screen and the real life person.

Actors who have made careers playing heavies have many times been very disliked by some movie goers that believe they are really nasty people.

Some actors now get treated as if they are bright, articulate people simply because they follow a script that portrays a character that is so. When in reality, these same actors can barely wipe their own rear ends without a personal coach providing step by step instructions. Charlie Sheen comes to mind. I wonder if he can function without a personal attendant. Talk about dumb.

35 posted on 05/03/2007 7:15:27 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s......you weren't really there)
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To: Battle Axe

36 posted on 05/03/2007 7:17:36 PM PDT by Clock King (Bring the noise!)
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To: traderrob6

Fred plays Ulysses S Grant in an upcoming tv movie, so that balances things out

:)


37 posted on 05/03/2007 7:19:12 PM PDT by NeoCaveman (A proud member of the Frederalist society. Gnats don't bother us)
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To: tophat9000

Point taken.

A buddy of mine and I both have smart, assertive women for wives. He and I were having a beer one day and he said, ya know, good looking dumb women do have their pluses. I agreed. Then we both looked over our shoulders to see if they heard us.


38 posted on 05/03/2007 7:19:16 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s......you weren't really there)
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To: traderrob6; jellybean; Politicalmom; STARWISE

LOL ping!


39 posted on 05/03/2007 7:22:56 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: traderrob6

CAUSE CÉLÈBRE: Will Fred Thompson’s racist role have political repercussions?
The democrats sure hope so! Attacked from every MSM angle, no possibility too small...


40 posted on 05/03/2007 7:30:03 PM PDT by abovethefray
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