Posted on 09/14/2007 6:16:30 AM PDT by presidio9
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson gave no opinion Thursday when asked about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep Terri Schiavo alive, saying he does not remember details of the right-to-die case that stirred national debate.
Thompson was asked in an interview for Bay News 9's "Political Connections" program whether he thought Congress' intervention to save the life of the brain-damaged woman two years ago was appropriate.
"I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best," Thompson said. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
Congress passed a bill after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in March 2005 to allow a federal court to review the case, and Bush returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court.
Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who left office in 2003, did say, "Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals. I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with."
Earlier, Thompson told a crowd in Jacksonville that Bush's signature education program isn't working and that he would provide federal education money with fewer strings attached.
"We've been spending increasing amounts of federal money for decades, with increasing rules, increasing mandates, increasing regulations," Thompson said. "It's not working."
He added that there are problems with Bush's No Child Left Behind program, which requires annual testing and punishes schools that don't make progress.
"No Child Left Behind — good concept, I'm all for testing — but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test — you can't really tell that everybody's doing that well. And it's not objective," Thompson said.
Instead, he said the federal government should be providing block grants as long as states set up objective testing programs.
He said his message to states would be, "We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right."
The former star of NBC's "Law & Order" was responding to a question as he began a three-day bus tour of Florida, his first visit to the state since announcing his candidacy last week. A woman asked what he would do for education. He told her decisions on how schools are run should be made by local and state officials, not dictated out of Washington.
Thompson voted for the No Child Left Behind law in 2001, as did most of his fellow senators.
"It's your responsibility," he said. "If you don't like what's going on, don't get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, 'I don't like the way the school down the street is being run.'"
Later, in Celebration, he was asked why he was not participating in the Values Voter debate in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. He said he will do his best to participate in debates, but he can't make all of them.
"Debates are important, but let's don't let the tail wag the dog here. Standing up there 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for someone to throw you the next fish is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people," Thompson said. "I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish. I just don't want to do it all the time."
Way to go check the record. This creates some context. I don’t know who I will support in GOP primaries, but I do hope that analysis of candidates, at least here at FR will be on issues and not attacks.
As an aside, I think each poster should disclose his/her favorite candidate (if he/she has one) so that biases will be disclosed. Disclosing one’s biases, by the way, doesn’t make one’s point wrong, but it does point to what may be its motivation.
It signals that he will not allow the President to be some organ-grinder's monkey for the press.
If he doesn't feel like extemporaneously opining on some complex issue, then, fine.
For crying out loud, the whole campaigning process, let alone the whole political culture, has devolved into the press just trying to trick the candidate into saying something he is not prepared to say.
Clinton took one route to deal with this problem as president, which was to just say babbling bull$hit all the time: platitudes like, "There's enough right about the country to fix what's wrong about the country," and other concatenations of cant and sheer words without meaning -- except, of course, when he was lying, dissembling or prevaricating.
Fred is taking more the FDR route... FDR would say stuff like, "I don't have anything to say about that today," which he would rectify when and if he chose to at a later date.
The Constitution says that the President is supposed to report to Congress "from time to time", not in ridiculous daily press conferences or monthly or whatever.
The worst thing about the Presidency now is that the press are allowed in to the White House at all. Fred ought to boot them all out of the White House and turn the press briefing room back into a bowling alley or a swimming pool or whatever Nixon had it as.
Throw the press out, regain some dignity for the office and the country.
The President should manipulate the press, not the other way around, as it is now.
Congress passed a bill after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in March 2005 to allow a federal court to review the case, ...Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who left office in 2003,
LMAO !!!
Now that is funny !
The problem is some schools are just teaching to this because they only answer to groups whose only interest is high scores, not education. I am all for testing, but local school boards are pushing more for scores than actual learning. The problem here is parents not being involved in the school's actions and the boards aren't disclosing curriculum... this follows perfectly with Thompson's next comment:
"We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don't work out right.... It's your responsibility," he said. "If you don't like what's going on, don't get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, 'I don't like the way the school down the street is being run.'"
It goes back to the problem, the oversight in the testing piece is done by those whose only vested interest is in high scores, not education. It takes the parents out of the mix and leaves the responsibility to the government bureaucracy.
“his/her”
There’s women in here?
Same article, but slightly tweaked text and title.
1) "No child left behind" predates the Terri Schaivo case, and yet he can't remember the more recent?
2) His opinions on "No child left behind" are almost a verbatum quote from the NEA.
Before I read this I was much more positively inclined towards Thompson.
The more I hear out of Fred the less I’m impressed. Maybe he should have waited until January to get into the race.
Slavery and abortion. Life and liberty. The pursuit of happiness I'll leveave for another day. That one starts to attract the gay marriage and medical marijuana types.
All I care about are Thompson’s opinions on Hillary.
Horrible as it is, I would settle for life being a state issue (ugh!) if I thought the federalism principle would be applied consistently. But in reality it is trotted out only in an effort to fight conservatives during disagreements like the Shaivo case. If a husband were seeking to execute a healthy wife with the blessings of a state judge (the state legislators wanted to help Terry) then I would certainly hope the federal gov’t would step in. Terry’s husband shouldn’t have even been considered her husband legally since he was living with and having children with another woman.
I’m disappointed. The first chink in Thompson’s armor for me, I’m afraid.
See post # 18.
2) His opinions on "No child left behind" are almost a verbatum quote from the NEA.
You must not have read all his comments because he branched off significantly from the NEA when he put the responsibility back on the parents and his complaint was that the boards who oversee this aren't answerable to the parents.
Before I read this I was much more positively inclined towards Thompson.
That's why you made comments in the past like "I've got too much self respect to vote for him", (He) "play a politician on the Tee Vee", "Hunter is the only Republican candidate that I find interesting. The rest seem to be "Dems in disguise"", "Hunter's judges would be (far) better than Thompson's", "Fred Thompson has all the credentials to be "just another insider"".... No positive inclination anywhere in there...
I like what another poster said. Everyone should disclose who they endorse so at least we can judge motivation (and honesty in this case.) You are doing Hunter no favors by trying these little tricks.
See #36
D'oh!
Yup...you got me by 28 seconds. You can spot those “I’m starting to sour on Fred” plants a mile away.
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