Posted on 12/01/2007 5:01:26 PM PST by Jay777
I think I see the symbiotic relationship between RINOs and Democrats as going a bit deeper than you do. While I doubt there's much explicit collusion, both RINOs and Democrats benefit from the following scenario:
Well, the only problem with that scenario is that although it gets the job done, it doesn’t give the Democrats power directly. They don’t just want to pass their agenda, they want to get into office themselves, so they can suck up pork for their families and friends.
They supported Jim Jeffords because he gave the Democrats a majority in the Senate and control over all of the committees and the pork, not because they liked his leftist agenda. When he ceased to be of use in that way, they dropped him like a hot potato.
Well, some Democrats get greedy, but a lot of them benefit quite nicely by letting the RINOs implement their policies. Although the Democrats don't like to admit that "a rising tide lifts all boats", they are well aware of the phenomenon. Getting 30% of the pork from a bloated government is better than getting 50% of the pork from a government that's only half as big.
The problem is, Rudy wants to win. Fred is only running because his wife wants to be first lady. Fred is lazy. Flame away."
Big words for a newbie. So the Rudy Julie-Annie campaign sent you to Free Republic to knock down Fred? Is he really that afraid of someone that "is only running because his wife wants to be first lady" and "is lazy" and all that? Why is that, do you think?
(Larry) KING: How do you react to those who say Fred Thompson doesn’t want to work hard?
F(red) THOMPSON: I don’t usually have much of a reaction to them at all.
KING: Do you think that’s folly or... F. THOMPSON: Yes. It’s — somebody asked me about that on one of the debates and I went — got to thinking about it a little bit. And my response to them was that I started out in a factory when I was a kid, in a small town in Tennessee. I worked and bartered my way through school. I had a family at that time. I was a prosecutor, a federal prosecutor, when I was in my 20s. I was the Watergate counsel when I was 30. I got elected to the United States Senate twice, by 20 point margins, in a state that Bill Clinton carried twice.
When I decided to do this job that Jeri was talking about, the television job, I had two jobs at that time. I’ve been called upon by the president to help judge John Roberts to be chief justice, John Roberts. I was called on by Condoleezza Rice to head up an advisory board on international security matters because that was my — one of my areas of expertise when I was in the Senate.
And I’m the father of two children under the age of five. And I said then, I said if a man can be lazy and do that, then I highly recommend it to everybody.
KING: How do you react to that critique, Jeri?
J(eri) THOMPSON: It’s frustrating for me. I think it would be frustrating for anyone, you know, to have your — to have your spouse denigrated that way. But it’s — it’s — we did. We laughed. We really — I mean we were almost a chortle (ph) to know that he was working two full-time jobs and doing these civil service, you know, jobs on the side. And when he had — we had to keep up the highest classification for his — for him to, you know, be able to have these briefings.
F. THOMPSON: Security classification briefings.
J. THOMPSON: The security — yes, thank you — the security clearances. I mean that — that in and of itself ought to denote something, you know, about where his heart was and what he was doing. I think when there’s not much to attack, you go after these stories. And they do — they do what they can to — to look for something to try to attack him on.
He’s a slower talker. He moves a little slower. And I think that people go — and they go at that and try to think that that’s — that’s what it is. It’s just — it’s just (INAUDIBLE)...
F. THOMPSON: Slow talking, slow walking Tennessee boys (INAUDIBLE)...
J. THOMPSON: It’s just flat out ridiculous.
Source: Larry King Live Transcript (CNN), 11/30/2007
FRED THOMPSON IS NOT ONLY THE ANTI-RUDY, HE WILL BE SAVING OUR ENTIRE PARTY FROM EXTINCTION!!!
Let me see if I can bring you into reality. I have been married 35 years, raised a set of twins who are now grown and in their own homes. I can guarantee you that no wife of 5 years can talk her husband into making the kind of sacrifice that is required just because she wants to be First Lady. In FRED’s mind, she already is. FRED and JERI have a wonderful life, comfort, wealth and very happy with their new family. JERI is very busy with her children and keeping an eye on FRED’s health and happiness as well. The mental, emotional, and tireless commitment required for this incredibly time consuming sacrifice to a man like FRED, is enormous.
FRED has carefully and thoughtfully put in place his proposals for the future of America, a better life for all of us, out of the grips of the socialist democrats. Believe me, I know what lazy looks like, and FRED is not lazy. When FRED is not in the public eye, he is having brain-storming sessions with advisors in every field of expertise. If that were not the case, FRED could run around the country pumping ideas into talk just like the rest of them, no proposals, just rhetoric. FRED has put out his proposals on numerous of the most serious problems our country faces, proposals that the MSM cannot tear apart, because they are good sound proposals and good for our country. They can’t fight good proposals, so the best way they know is to discourage the electorate with stories about how lazy he is and non-committal to the process. FRED is side-stepping the MSM as part of his strategy. This strategy has made the MSM angry and at their wits end as to how to stop him. FRED won’t play their games, as the others are doing. Trust me, I am married to a man who has strived to get to the years when he could slow down and live a simple life, as I am sure FRED has considered.
FRED could have done that, but his call to service for his country is a higher priority than his own wants and needs. FRED recognizes that our country needs his type of leadership and strength, and does not see that strength or leadership in any of the other candidates. Now, if you don’t want to vote for FRED for other reasons, I will understand that and respect that, but I don’t want to hear one more word about FRED being lazy. It is foolish and wrong minded and denigrates the very essence of serving one’s country. FRED has every reason in the world to lay back and enjoy the fruits of his very long life of hard work, but has made this sacrifice for all of us.
FRED THOMPSON is the right man, for the right time, and if you cannot recognize that, then at least have the respect for him to not continue with this lazy reasoning.
I bet you haven’t accomplished NEARLY as much with your life as FRed has.
I heard directly from one of Fred’s former speechwriters that Fred being lazy is a load of garbage, that Fred often was in his office long after everyone went home. I also heard an interview with the author of the new Thompson biography and he described his conversation with one of Fred’s Tennessee aides, who laughed at the charge and said she QUIT because it was killing her trying to keep up with Fred’s pace.
From John Fund:
Indeed, it is his need to wake up at 5 a.m. the next morning, so he can tape three Harvey segments before returning to the “Law and Order” set for a long day of shooting, that prompts Mr. Thompson to close out our chat. “With my current schedule I might have more time to myself if I gave all this up and did start a campaign,” he says as he dons a sports coat and heads for his car.
*
Every profile I’ve read on Thompson contains references, by the typical unnamed coward sources, to him being “lazy”, his Senate career lackluster, and gasp, there’s not a piece of legislation with his name on it! (Well gee, Teddy Kennedy has his name on a bunch of bills - and that’s made the nation a better place, n’est ce pas?)
My experience with Senator Thompson dates to when I was the public affairs chief for GAO, the Government Accountability Office, a legislative branch agency providing oversight of the feds. Thompson was chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the complementary panel to GAO. It’s kind of a backwater committee, with not the visibility of say, Foreign Affairs, or Armed Services, or Appropriations. But the committee is essential to investigating the mechanics of government - and how those gears can be made to work more efficiently.
So yeah, Thompson was a big show boater - a huge proponent of the Clinger-Cohen Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, doncha know; which required that the “government information technology shop be operated exactly as an efficient and profitable business would be operated.” Then there was his support for the President’s Management Agenda, announced in the summer of 2001, “an aggressive strategy for improving the management of the Federal government…focusing on Expanding E-Government: Improved Service Delivery for the American People Using Information Technology and Expanding E-Government: Partnering for a Results-Oriented Government.” Yowzah, man, hot Hot HOT! Front page baby!
...So now I hear the stories about Thompson, which are typical of 1. Opponents who want to drag him down, which is the way it works, and 2. A lazy press corps who but for a few stalwarts, didn’t cover this subject matter when Thompson was preaching at the wind.
Now, I’m too much of a nothing burger to have any say in this race. But Thompson, whatever his faults, is not getting a fair shake. When you’re waxing on about OMB circulars and Clinger-Cohen’s e-billing protocols, you’re not exactly lazy or lackluster. In fact, you’re actually doing what government is supposed to be doing, which is trying to do better.
- Jeff Nelligan, The Coastmaster..., June 8, 2007
http://coastmaster.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-slacker-big-fred-grinds-it-out.html
*
Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, said he saw Thompson as a thoughtful lawmaker able to reach across party lines.
“He worked plenty and he absorbed plenty,” said Ornstein.
Thomas Ferraro, Capitol Hill Blue, June 2, 2007
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2619
*
In interviews, several of his former Senate aides expressed surprise at suggestions by unnamed critics that their old boss might be lethargic.
“Whoever says this man is lazy never worked for him,” said Bill Outhier, a former aide who recalled the campaign finance staff “working until midnight” because the senator was still in the office.
- Julia Malone, Cox News Service, May 11, 2007
*
As Robert Novak reported last week, the rap againt Thomspon is that “he was not a hard worker during his eight years in the Senate.” Yet I’m told by a source who was there that Thompson was a reasonably diligent member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In any case, this rap is unlikely to hurt Thompson with voters outside the beltway.
What will matter is whether Thompson is prepared to campaign diligently for the nomination. If so, he likely will represent a force to be reckoned with.
- Paul Mirengoff, Power Line, March 25, 2007
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/017150.php
*
The rap on Thompson is that he was “lazy” when he was in the Senate. This is precisely the same sort of rap that Leftists made about Ronald Reagan. In fact, this is strength. Because Thompson acts from principle, he does not need to engage in the Machiavellian machinations which pass for “work” in Washington. The reality is that it is absurd to consider Thompson, who has worked during his life in more real jobs than almost any politician in Washington and who today stars in two television programs as well as being the substitute for Paul Harvey and a frequent commentator in conservative periodicals is “lazy” at all. Like Reagan, he probably works harder than anyone in Washington.
- Bruce Walker, Intellectual Conservative, March 22, 2007
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/03/22/yes-the-next-reagan
*
Thompson schedule belies ‘lazy’ charge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1930189/posts
I liken it to the guy who walks down the hallway with a “kick me” sign on his back, you just can’t take them seriously, especially when you realize he put the sign there in the first place.
Ask Arnold.
Excellent example.
Massachusetts?...you ought to be kidding me! Look what this warped state delivered us as Senators, and you want me to believe that I should take them seriously?!Come on, tell me it was a joke!
It’s not a joke - look at the crosstabs. For my part I’m more than happy for the GOP to win any state it can, even Massachusetts. McCain runs competetive there (and nearly everywhere).
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