Absolutely ;o)
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."
“I just checked on something.. during the time the Schiavo situation was going on, Thompson was heading the advisory group to help nominate John Robers to the USSC. Right after Robert’s nomination (Schiavo case still going on), Thompson was chairing of the International Security Advisory Board (chaired this until July 2007).. so yea, he had a lot of time to get involved with this case.. Little, unimportant things like the Supreme Court and Terrorism going on, Thompson had no excuse to not be personally involved in this case.//sarc”
I’m sorry that’s a bit of a stretch. He was too busy to have an opinion or a even a recollection of the case?!? The story dominated the country. If he doesn’t remember it he’s either trying to duck the issue or he’s out of touch. Either way, his non-answer is a dissapointment.
amen
“To be disappointed, you had to have an expectation, which for disclosure, you should post your expectation or opinion on Thompson to show your motivation.”
We have to post our expectations and motivations now before we can comment on something?!? Wow, this must be something new.
“Quote from Teddyballgame: Not only is he a coward, he’s an egotistcal Hollywood actor. .. So, what disappointed you, it seems more like the way you misread this fit right into your expectation..”
Now we are pulling quotes out of a different context? Your as bad as the Drive By Media.
A good follow-up answer on this could help Fred a lot.
The National Education Association is driven by its desire to avoid accountability so it blasts the federal mandate to improve test scores.
The standard should be set at the local level, it should be high and there should be accountability. That means union members could lose their jobs.
Fred seems to get the local thing right on this one but I would have offered a strong opinion about union extremists wanting to avoid teaching reading and writing.
Of course, I’d remind parents to get involved to.
I’m not committed for president right now but my incliniation is always towards conservative candidates who are not on the top tier.
McCain and Ron Paul are out the door in my book.
I’m listening to all the rest from the top guys (Romney, Giuliani, Thompson) through the rest from Huckabee to Hunter, Tancredo, etc.
..but I would have offered a strong opinion about union extremists wanting to avoid teaching reading and writing.
I said this about another candidate, but I am starting to believe this with everyone.. Politics is really a political Rorscach test, people don't want to vote for a candidate, they want to vote for themselves.
I feel a bit dorky using a nickname. Shouldn’t we use our real names? Maybe not, maybe Al Qaeda would find out where we life and behead us.
One time, I sent an email to the government of North Korea and was a little concerned about using my real name.
“The more I hear out of Fred the less I’m impressed.”
I saw red flags, all proving to be proper indicators.
Here’re some of them.
Endorsed John McCain in 00
Works for Hollywood
Not Christian
Divorced to marry trophy wife
Worked for Abortion lobby
I seriously understand the clamor for his candidacy. It’s scary to think of having Hitlery as president with a Rat congress while fighting for our survival against Mexican invaders and Islmofascist. It looked like Rudy was the only hope to beat Her and the real conservatives couldn’t get above 2% in the polls. Then along comes a guy who seems like he has a pretty solid conservative record, is recognizable and likable, and can unite the RINOs and the “evangelicals”.
Oh, but his record isn’t so spotless and is actually troublesome. He says he doesn’t have an opinion on what I see as the core of our party/movement and one of the only reasons I vote for republicans. His life reflects those of the morally bankrupt Hollywood/Washington elite.
The red flags point to another President Bush and I will not vote for him again. Fred Thompson would mean our slow death would continue and that’s not much better than the quick death Hitlery will give us.
Endorsed John McCain in 00 - McCain was a different candidate then.
Works for Hollywood - and this is a drawback how?
Not Christian - sez who?
Divorced to marry trophy wife - an absolute lie and you know it. Something about 10 years between wives?
Worked for Abortion lobby - another accusation that has been debunked over and over.
He says he doesn’t have an opinion - False, the reporter said this, the comments listed, however, paint a different picture.
His life reflects those of the morally bankrupt Hollywood/Washington elite.- False, you may not like that he was married more than once, but he has a strong Conservative voting record with only a few flaws (Campaign Finance Reform) that he doesn't shy away from saying was a mistake.
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