Buddies ready for Thompson

St. Petersburg Times ^ | June3, 2007 | ADAM C. SMITH

[Politicalmom]

We're hearing lots of Florida Buzz lately for actor/former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who is testing the waters for a presidential campaign by opening a political committee to raise money. Many veterans of GOP presidential campaigns in Florida worked closely with Thompson when he was helping organize his mentor Howard Baker's campaign for a strong showing at the Florida GOP's "Presidency II" straw poll in 1979. Just before that vote, Baker dropped out and Baker's Florida delegates were handed off to George H.W. Bush.

Among the prominent former Pinellas legislators now helping the Law & Order actor's prospective '08 campaign: RZ "Sandy" Safley formerly with Mitt Romney, Curt Kiser (formerly with Rudy Giuliani) and Jack Latvala. It says something about a candidate who can earn endorsements from such moderate Pinellas Republicans as well as glowing words from former Florida gubernatorial candidate and Florida Right to Life president Ken Connor and Florida Family Policy Council president John Stemberger.

The buzz is we can expect state Reps. Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, and Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, to jump on board if Thompson gets all the way in. Lobbyist/politico Oscar Juarez of Orlando, another former Baker organizer, is enthusiastic about his longtime friend Thompson and may jump ship from John McCain, and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has been calling a bunch of Florida GOP money raisers lately urging support for Thompson.

"The Fred Thompson tent is very, very broad, " said Safley, who is among the key supporters across the country committed to raise at least $46, 000 in the next month. "He has a very clear vision, and a charisma and presence. He's a folksy person, but he's viewed as being very bright, very calm, very reasonable at a time when this country is looking for calmness and strong leadership."

[Josh Painter]

Well done, Storm! I could really use your help on the new Fred Thompson FAQ website. Care to lend a hand?

[stephenjohnbanker]

B T T T

[Josh Painter]

Part of that in #24 was mine. On DraftFredThompson.com a good while back, we anticipated that as the Fred buzz became louder, there would be both genuine questions about him, but also false charges made by supporters of other GOP presidential candidates and by Dem moles pretending to be Republicans and conservatives.

So I worked up some Rapid Responses for our members to use when talking about Fred on other discussion boards. I used the RR's to spin off questions and answers about Fred for the Fred Thompson FAQ site.

Rather than try to determine if someone is genuinely interested in Fred or a mole working for some other candidate, it's much easier to just post a link to the FAQs. That way, if it was someone interested, they got their question and many more questions answered. If it was a mole, then he or she is forced to come back with a question of substance or expose himself for what he really is.

Either way, it's a win for Fred! So please, everyone just use this link to the FAQ to direct questioners to the answers: FredThompsonFAQ.com.

Unless this poster is a known troll, please don't accuse them of anything. If you're wrong, you've just lost a potential backer for Fred. Just give them the FAQ link and wait to see what they say next. If they're a troll or a mole, they'll expose themselves eventually. They always do.

Thanks for your help!

Ruger



Fredipedia v2.37: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick Reference

[Politicalmom]

We are all a bit jumpy. We have been seeing lots of people coming on Thompson threads and asking the same question over and over, yet even after receiving the answer numerous times, they claim they still don’t know anything about Fred.

We are all pretty tired of it.

Sorry if you got caught up in the furor.

[Politicalmom]

I think that was “mine”, cobbling together some of my research with that of others.

[statered]

Look, Fred posts have been here daily for more than the last month. Within each the Fred ping list person has put in links to a “Fred Resource,” Fredipedia or some such. There have been ample opportunities to get up to speed. When someone comes across as “he hasn’t done anything, but then again I don’t know anything about him” it looks like another disingenuous attempt to belittle the man and support some other candidate.

[jellybean]

The website looks FRedtastic! I’ll use it as the link on my pings from now on. :)

[KoRn]

ROFL!!!

[jellybean]

You and Sturm get credit then! :)

[lonevoice]

Forehead>Keyboard>Knockout

That's one of the most superb bits of political satire I've seen. Are you the author? If so,"we're not worthy!"

I loved this one especially...

Fred Thompson is the only person to have ever bested Miyamato Mushashi in a duel.

Obscure to the average reader, yet right on point. Hysterical!

[Brices Crossroads]

sorry, i can’t download it. Do you have a you tube link?

[SuziQ]

Check out the “Fredipedia” in Post #2 of this thread. Sturm Ruger and Politicalmom have done a great job gathering all this information and links for folks to learn more about Fred Thompson.

[Politicalmom]

Nope. That is all Sturm’s work. I am just advertising for him. :)

[SuziQ]

Hey, even if you didn’t gather the info, you’re doing a great job pointing it out for folks. It’s terrific that we have a place to send people who want to know more about Fred. Once he announces, the attacks are going to start coming fast and furious, from his Republican opponents, as well as the Dems’, and it will be good to have some well researched info to which we can point them.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Yes, sure, I’d love to! (Sorry, didn’t see the ping earlier!)

[ellery]

Hi! Yes, that last bit with the awards Fred got from CAGW, National Association of State Legislatures, etc., was from some research I did. I’m not worried about attribution, though — I figure the facts all belong to Fred. :)

Thank you all so much for all the great work!

[catiwompus]

I can’t claim credit for the list. As I said, I did a simple search on FR and the first item on the list was this one;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1800103/posts

I thought it was worth passing on. Very clever.