I’m not sure why so many people are pushing Fred Thompson. Maybe, I’m biased because I’ve discovered through research that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill would not have passed without Fred’s undaunted support of it. I hate campaign finance reform because it limits our first amendment freedoms. Last election, my mother got pulled over by an attorney for handing out voter guides she made herself from research. With McCain’s legislation, in the days preceding an election, one has to now be apart of an official campaign. Also, if you are still unconvinced, look at Kentucky, last Tuesday, they had an governor primary. Ernie Fletcher the Republican incumbent should have had no chance since he has been convicted of misdemeanor crimes as governor. Thanks to McCain and his buddy Fred Thompson, grassroots efforts for unheard of candidates does not get off the ground. Now, the Democrat will have an easy win in Kentucky. The same was true in my home state with Senator Mike Dewine and now he has been replaced by the extreme liberal Sherrod Brown.
Although he voted pro-life as a Senator, Thompson promoted big-tent restructuring of the Republican party in 1996 where abortion was deemphasized; and Bob Dole lost.
Fred Thompson is also a globalist and serves on the Council of Foreign Relations. For those who think he is great on immigration, go to www.ontheissues.org and look up his voting record. He has consistently supporting Mexican workers taking the place of American workers and supports NAFTA and our trade arrangements with China which each have cost America 1.8 million jobs.
Duncan Hunter is a much better candidate and makes Thompson’s conservitism look moderate. I also belive Duncan Hunter is the most electable too. He is the only Republican candidate with a real plan and motivation to change these trade laws which are causing American jobs to leave our shores. For my home state, Ohio and and the rest of the rust belt, this is a major issue. President Bush had a very difficult time winning Ohio because of all of the manufacturing jobs we have lost.
I encourage you to do your research and be intellectually honest. Always remember, the Republicans cannot win without the votes of Christian conservatives like me.
But don’t you know Fred Thompson is a glitzy actor?!! THAT is reason enough to have him as GOP nominee! /s
That’s what people would like us all to believe. Fred is a decent conservative but he shows a little too much bad judgments on important issues such as campaign finance reform and his softness for illegal immigration to not be fawned over like he is. He was not an effective Senator and was too much of the softy with the Demonrat opposition. He provides no change for the GOP. I wouldn’t trust him with a Demonrat Congress. And he has never proven himself an effective messenger.
“He has consistently supporting Mexican workers taking the place of American workers and supports NAFTA and our trade arrangements with China which each have cost America 1.8 million jobs.”
That statement is beyond dubious. We have created about 10 million jobs in the last 12 or so years since NAFTA was created and the economy has done well. We have no special deals with China except for that we buy and sell with them.
Trade doesnt hurt our country, it helps it.
What hurts our economy is socialist economic policies by our own Government.
Protectionism will not save us but make things work. OTOH if we simply moved from taxing production to taxing consumption we would get most of the way to balancing the imbalance on trade.
I share your grave distate for McCain-Feingold.
Thanks for asking! Here’s just a partial list of what we know about Fred Thompson so far:
From Fred Dalton Thompson’s voting record, we know that he consistently voted for gun owners (the NRA called him a “staunch supporter of the Second Amendment”), against abortion, for business, against higher taxes, for a balanced budget, for a strong defense, for ANWR drilling, for capping foreign aid, for free trade, for private property rights, for personal retirement accounts, for the Iraq War Resolution and for welfare reform.
From his interest group ratings, we know that FDT earned a perfect zero from National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action, a perfect 100% from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, only 11% from the ACLU, 86% from the American Conservative Union, 86% from the Center for Security Policy, a perfect zero from the American Federation of Teachers, 6% from the National Education Association, 90% from the League of Private Property Voters, 97% from the National Tax Limitation committee, 88% from the National Taxpayers Union and a perfect zero from the liberal ADA. In a 1995 analysis, Project Vote Smart listed Thompson as having supported Contract With America items 100% of the time.
We know that among FDT’s Senate accomplishments were his election as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1997, making him among the most junior senators in history to serve as Chairman of a major Senate Committee. He served as Chairman until June of 2001.
We know that the Governmental Affairs Committee is charged with overseeing the management of the federal government. We kow that during his Chairmanship, Sen. Thompson’s committee actively pursued an agenda aimed at producing a smaller, more efficient, and more accountable government. Of his efforts, the Kingsport Times-News wrote, “Sen. Thompson is to be applauded for keeping a watchful eye over Washington fiscal matters. There should be more like him.”
We know that Sen. Thompson held hearings on topics such as improving the federal regulatory process; reforming the IRS; exploring ways to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse; and a number of national security issues, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies. Thompson also investigated and successfully enacted solutions to information management problems such as the security of the federal government’s and the military’s computer systems.
We know that Thompson was also a member of the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare reform, and international trade. From this position, he focused on reducing taxes, reforming the tax code to make it simpler and fairer, and restoring the Social Security and Medicare programs to long-term solvency.
We know that while he was a strong supporter of free trade, Sen. Thompson advocated a balanced approach to trade and national security. He pushed for an export control policy that protects our country’s national security without unnecessarily burdening American industry with bureaucratic red tape. He also proposed legislation to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by China and other countries and to strengthen the United States’ response to such activities.
We know that FDT served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the National Security Working Group, which observes and monitors executive branch negotiations with foreign governments.
We know that even the liberal Washington Monthly, in a 1999 hit piece on Thompson, had to begrudgingly admit that as a Senator, Thompson worked hard to keep his campaign promises. We know that Democratic strategist Bob Beckel admitted, in a discussion on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes program, that Fred Thompson for president would be the Dems’ “worst nightmare” because of his communications skills and ability to appeal to swing voters. We know that many backers of Fred’s GOP opponents such as yourself attack him for no other reason than he poses a major threat to their candidates even before he officially gets in the race.
We know that Thompson isn’t perfect. We are aware of his stances on immigration (he wasn’t a hawk on it) and McCain? Feingold (he supported it) in the 1990s. But we also know that those votes were a full decade ago, and since then FDT has taken a much tougher stance on securing our borders before all else, and he has admitted that McCain Feingold was campaign finance reform gone bad.
We know that Mitt Romney had a change of heart and mind on gays, guns and abortion, so we believe that FDT should at least be given some consideration for admitting that both he and Ronald Reagan were wrong on immigration, and the reforms he hoped McCain-Feingold would produce didn’t turn out to be “reforms” at all. We know that Fred is a stand-up guy, and he will answer questions on any issues honestly and in a straitforward manner when he gets into the race.
We know that Fred Thompson is media-savvy, has a commanding presence, enjoys superb name recognition (thanks to his Law & Order and movie roles and his hard-hitting commentary for ABC Radio) and left the Senate with a solid conservative voting record. We know that Fred is the first to admit that there was and will ever be only one Ronald Reagan, and Fred is one of Reagan’s smartest students and most consistent disciples. We know that like Reagan, Thompson is that rare sort of conservative who can sell conservative ideas to moderates and independents. And we know that, again like Reagan, Thompson may be the only potential candidate who can unite the factions of the Republican Party right now.
Oh, and we know that Ronald Reagan was an actor/entertainer and a radio commentator, too.
That’s just a few of the things we know about Fred. But it was and is compelling enough to ignite and maintain the momentum of a grassroots movement to draft Fred to run for President of the United States. And we know that we won’t rest until Fred has taken the oath of office.
source: FredThompsonFAQ.com