Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

REPUBLICAN 2: Fred Thompson Auditioning for role of a lifetime:
McClatchy Newspapers ^ | 02/01/2008 | Margaret Talev

Posted on 02/01/2008 7:44:42 AM PST by TheThirdRuffian

Editor's Note: Fred Thompson will appear as the second candidate on Connecticut's Republican primary ballot, even though he has withdrawn from the campaign.

WASHINGTON — Fatherhood and ambition. In Fred Thompson's life, they rise and fall together, a recurring couplet in the nostalgic story of a Tennessee fella who's guided more by life's surprises and others' expectations than he is by any master plan.

Consider:

The small-town jock called "Freddie" and "Moose," who, at 17, upon getting his high school girlfriend pregnant, married her, heeded her politically connected family and made something of himself.

The divorced U.S. senator, lawyer, lobbyist and actor who dropped out of politics when one of his three grown children died from a prescription drug overdose.

The unlikely 65-year-old comeback kid, now remarried with a 4-year-old girl and a 1-old boy, who's running for the Republican nomination for president.

On the campaign trail, Thompson treats criticism that he doesn't have enough fire in the belly with a father-knows-best attitude.

"I've had the worst thing that can happen to a father, and the best thing that can happen to a father," Thompson told retirees this fall in South Carolina, in the drawl that's central to his persona. "I think you come out from the other end of that with a sense of what's important and not important."

Two of Thompson's most important experiences played out in the public eye: the Watergate hearings and his 1985 movie debut, "Marie." But with voters, he talks about parenting as much as he does about politics and acting.

Seeing daughter Hayden's sonogram — the first time he'd glimpsed any of his children in the womb — strengthened his anti-abortion views, he says. Wanting a stable world for his second family helped nudge him to audition for a part that would be less fun than TV shoots, but more consequential.

His wife, Jeri, a former Republican consultant, said that one night while they were still mulling whether to make the race, they sat at their kitchen table in Northern Virginia and saw their little girl perched at the top of the staircase.

"He had this very strange look on his face," she recalled of her husband. "I said, 'What are you thinking?' and he said, 'A lot goes through my mind from the time she's at the top step to the time she's at the bottom.' It's when he decided, I think. In his mind, there was a decision made."

Thompson has children older than his wife, 41, and younger than his grandchildren.

His progeny span two generations, bookends like the Vietnam and Iraq wars to the major societal, economic and global changes that have rocked America in his lifetime.

Thompson was born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee by parents whose formal education ended with junior high school. He graduated from Memphis State University and the Vanderbilt University law school while working and raising children.

He read Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative," started a Young Republicans group and worked on a congressional campaign, as a federal prosecutor and for the re-election of Tennessee Republican Sen. Howard Baker Jr.

Baker became a powerful mentor. He gave the young Thompson, whom Richard Nixon once called "dumb as hell," a job as chief Republican counsel on the committee investigating Watergate.

Thompson wasn't the staffer who discovered Nixon's secret audio taping system, and he later admitted that he warned the White House that it would be revealed. He didn't initially understand the administration's culpability. But Baker arranged for Thompson to ask about the tapes in televised hearings, and that helped bring down the president.

Thompson got national exposure; a book deal and an anti-corruption reputation that drew clients, including state parole official Marie Ragghianti, to his new law practice.

Ragghianti exposed a cash-for-clemency scheme under Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton, lost her job and hired Thompson to clear her name.

"He's personable and straightforward, and he was just what I needed at a very dark hour in my life," Ragghianti said in an interview.

There was a book about the case, then a movie with Sissy Spacek — "Marie" — in which Thompson played himself. That launched his career as an actor even as he kept a hand in on Capitol Hill.

Celebrity eased Thompson's election to an open Senate seat; he replaced Tennessee's Al Gore, who became Bill Clinton's vice president.

Serving from 1994 through 2002, Thompson got mixed reviews. He was a reliable Republican vote, but critics said he lacked the appetite for the long hours and tedium and didn't leave much of a legacy.

In 1997, he was chosen to lead a Senate inquiry into alleged campaign finance abuses by the Clinton afministration. Expanding that to look at Republican wrongdoing won him points with Democrats and independents, but angered many in his party.

They also he let the Clinton probe fizzle.

"He was rolled by Senate opponents and the Clinton machine," said Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

"He did not act with the aggressiveness and energy appropriate, given the allegations."

The final year of Thompson's Senate career, his daughter Betsy, who had bipolar disorder, died from what was deemed an accidental overdose of painkillers.

"That basically took all the proverbial wind out of his sail," said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who attended the funeral in 2002 and began pushing last year for Thompson to run for president.

"It took his heart right out of his body."

Thompson went back to acting, and making money, as fictional District Attorney Arthur Branch on TV's "Law & Order." He also gave up the single life, marrying Jeri, whom he'd met years earlier while grocery shopping. Then they had children.

His wife said they neither planned it nor ruled it out. "We do both believe in God having his hand in things," she said. "We went with that."

"I saw him completely get a second lease on life with Jeri and the kids," Wamp said.

About this time, Thompson was diagnosed with a non-fatal lymphoma, which required chemotherapy.

But he had a new appetite for GOP politics. He helped manage Chief Justice John Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2005, was chairman of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board and championed President Bush's commutation of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence in the CIA leak case — all while taping the crime series and working for ABC Radio.

When retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said last year that he wouldn't seek the presidency, Wamp pressed Thompson to get in.

Thompson wasn't interested, Wamp said. But Baker intervened, and Jeri encouraged him.

No other Republican had an easy lock on the nomination.

Wamp thinks that Thompson's image and message are selling points, and so is his personal experience of "raising a second family in a different generation than the first."

"I remember when Bush 41 didn't know the price of a gallon of milk," Wamp said, referring to a much-hyped 1992 campaign incident when the first President Bush was reportedly surprised by grocery store scanners, and his critics seized on that to charge that he was out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Thompson, on the other hand, has a campaign bus with a diaper-changing table.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: 2008; ct2008; fred; fredthompson; thompson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-138 next last
To: Ancesthntr
Hillary will nominate Schumer or Spitzer types. Do you want that?

There are also rumors that she might appoint Bill.

101 posted on 02/01/2008 6:50:38 PM PST by reg45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: RDTF

I know what I am saying, I also live in a state where his name is on the ballet.


102 posted on 02/01/2008 7:15:27 PM PST by lolhelp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: RDTF

I know what I am saying, I also live in a state where his name is on the ballot.


103 posted on 02/01/2008 7:16:18 PM PST by lolhelp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: lolhelp

ok - well - still, you are in dreamland. Sorry but it’s true. You should realize it.


104 posted on 02/01/2008 9:23:12 PM PST by RDTF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 102 | View Replies]

To: Fiddlstix
I’m gonna write him in.

Really? Super! Bless you!

Thompson was MY FIRST choice too!

You give me FOOD for thought. If Romney is still in it
when we get to vote, I am voting for him. But if NOT,
a Thompson write-in may be my message to the GOP too!

105 posted on 02/01/2008 10:10:15 PM PST by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Chili Girl

yes, that would be a great choice.


106 posted on 02/01/2008 10:26:05 PM PST by fabian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: fabian

This is still America

Let people vote as they want to

Dont go telling them how to vote

Their vote is not wasted

Its their vote not yours

You do whatever you want with yours

Its a vote not small change for an ice cream

Stop acting like a kid dictating the flavor


107 posted on 02/01/2008 10:35:01 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SkyPilot

:)

FRed and Duncan

The only conservatives who were in the race

Run off by these same RINOs who are now trying to choke us with their own liberal choices


108 posted on 02/01/2008 10:37:29 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: RDTF

I plan to get a bumper sticker made so you liberals can read it for the next 4 years

“I DIDNT VOTE FOR THIS MESS”


109 posted on 02/01/2008 10:39:16 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Resolute Conservative

:)


110 posted on 02/01/2008 10:39:40 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: I'm ALL Right!

:)


111 posted on 02/01/2008 10:39:58 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian

Romney “became” a conservative about 2 weeks before running for office”

Two weeks already ???

My how time does fly


112 posted on 02/01/2008 10:42:47 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana

it’s my duty to implore them not to waste a vote when there is a good choice for us...any real research shows that Romney ran a basically conservative state. If basically isn’t good enough then we will probably end up with an extremely liberal president which will hurt all of us. Yes, this is still America, that’s why I am trying to get people to see the “right wing” judgementalism and be pragmatic, for God’s sakes. Sometimes the darkside plays like a conservative in our minds and gets us to throw the baby out with the bath water.


113 posted on 02/01/2008 10:56:32 PM PST by fabian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian

Fred bump!

I will write him in.


114 posted on 02/01/2008 11:03:50 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

If Fred is on the ballot here in NJ, I will vote for him. If not, I will write him in.

Now, for those who say it is a wasted vote, well... it is mine to waste... and I would rather waste it on something I believe in than to cast it falsely while holding my nose then trying to justify it to myself and I try to live with it.

And for those who say that a vote for Fred is a vote for hillary/mccain/huckabee/obama... NO! A vote for Fred, is a vote for Fred. Looking at who is left running... they are all the same. The only different one is Ron Paul, and in that case, different is not a positive thing. They are all the same. McCain or Hillary... there is no difference. There is not one other person running that I trust to do the right thing and I am tired of compromising, I am tired of giving in, I am tired of voting the lesser of the Weasels.

I believe that if enough of us write in Fred, we might send a message. And even if it is not a strong enough message to get Fred back, at least a message will be sent that we want a CONSERVATIVE and a brokered convention will bring us someone worthy.

But, what I will NOT do... NOT do... is to cast my vote for a liberal. I will not sell myself out and cast my vote for a liberal even if they do fake it with a (R) after their name. I will not allow my vote to redefine the conservative party that way for the future.

Flame me if you will, but I will vote my conscience and vote/write in Fred.


115 posted on 02/01/2008 11:17:53 PM PST by KarenMarie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fabian

RINO Romney is no conservative

RINO Romney is a liberal

who has endorsed and supported liberal Democrats,

Lied about Ronald Reagan

Lied about Barry goldwater

Romney’s father hated both men BTW

He is an Aboetion-on-Demand pusher

He forced sam-sex marriages on Justices of the Peace

He tossed the Boy Scouts out of the Olympics because of their Gay stand

He pushed Gay Rights

he still belongs to an organization that is racist

He passed mandatory Universal health care

And that’s just RINO Romney’s better points

I’m a conservative what you are suggesting is anathema to me

So you go pimp for RINO Romney elsewhere


116 posted on 02/01/2008 11:36:23 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: fabian

a bunch of fools. Knee jerk reactions.


117 posted on 02/02/2008 6:27:37 AM PST by RDTF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana

“you liberals”

who exactly are you calling a liberal?


118 posted on 02/02/2008 6:28:24 AM PST by RDTF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana
Here is a little somthing for you...


119 posted on 02/02/2008 6:31:15 AM PST by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: MeekOneGOP
......a Thompson write-in may be my message to the GOP too!

Then you can join the club and proudly display.....


120 posted on 02/02/2008 6:34:40 AM PST by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-138 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson