See, this is what has bothered me. This claim of Fred being lazy was a complete media and establishment fabrication. In other words, it was total bull$hit.
Larry King Live with Jeri & Fred Thompson, 11/30/2007
KING: How do you react to those who say Fred Thompson doesn’t want to work hard?
F. 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. 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.