Thanks to you both for your (over) generous comments.
I read this a few seconds after again appreciating your eloquence in post #37 on the Schiavo argument, where you note: But the federal government cannot be the backstop for 10 million state court rulings per year. It would not work and would wind up creating more miscarriages of justice than it would remedy. That is all Fred was saying, and I don’t know how his view can be reasonably disputed.
I don't think I was being overgenerous. I think you state things very civilly and well. Reading that post above, I had already been trying to clarify in my own mind how I'd express why I think Thompson was so RIGHT on the Schiavo thing. Then again, I am also of the opinion that the whole Schiavo case was a conservative take on tawdry personal melodrama and an invasion of all kinds of peoples' privacy that was shameful. Many Republicans such as Hannity made hysterical busy-body spectacles of themselves. I was pretty disgusted that so many conservatives presumed to take it as a cause. All the folks with such strong nattering opinions on what should and shouldn't and did and didn't happen in that case and in those hospital rooms and in the hearts of those family members, strike me as self-righteous old-ladies-in-tennis-shoes of the most obnoxious type.
Thompson impressed me on the Schiavo question on MTP.