...............................
"Pro-life" apparently doesn’t mean pro-life. Fred Thompson has received the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee even though he doesn’t favor a human life amendment to the Constitution, didn’t favor Terri Schiavo’s right to life during his November 4 NBC “Meet the Press” appearance, and once lobbied for a pro-abortion group.
One conservative news service claims that Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record. In fact, he got only 86 percent in the 105th Congress.
Even more significant, Thompson has now flip-flopped on one of the most important issues of our time―whether disabled people should have the right to life.
At a November 13 news conference at which the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) announced its endorsement of Thompson for president, NRLC executive director David N. O’Steen said, in response to my questions, that Thompson had provided “some clarifications” of his controversial “Meet the Press” remarks and that he now favors the right to life of disabled people like Terri Schiavo.
Flip-Flopping Fred Thompson and the Right to Life
8mm
But when Thompson finally threw his hat into the ring in early September, it didn't turn out that way. To be sure, he quickly joined the front-runners in what is now a four-way race. In several states, among likely Republican primary voters, he may even be the front-runner. (In others, he has done well but lagged slightly behind Giuliani.) But he assuredly hasn't routed his three somewhat more liberal rivals, and it now appears that he may not do so.
Why not? It's probably mostly a matter of style. Thompson is laid-back, soft-spoken and gives the unfortunate impression of not having thought very hard about some of the issues. (He admitted not giving much attention to the Terri Schiavo case – the brain-damaged woman from St. Petersburg, Fla., who was taken off life support following a whirlwind of controversy – though it had riveted the nation for a month.)
Thompson may yet strike right chord
8mm