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Fred Thompson
The third installment in an occasional series leading up to the Iowa caucuses.
The Washington Times


Fred Thompson's varied resume denotes a renaissance man of diverse talents, from impressive legal analytics to formidable acting skills. In the 2008 White House race, Mr. Thompson's portfolio and personality have failed to garner the cohesive affection of conservative Republicans, including some who speculated during preparatory campaign stages that the folksy former senator from Tennessee would emerge as the true successor to Ronald Reagan and inspire factions within the movement to coalesce behind one man. However, since its launch, the Thompson campaign has stumbled, undergoing several major staff shakeups and maintaining a sluggish pace that has led the national press to paint the candidate as lethargic and lackadaisical.

Despite these challenges, Mr. Thompson, 65, remains a viable and conceivable candidate for the Republican nomination, capturing second place in many national polls and garnering impressive funds tapped from a broad base of donors. A study of Mr. Thompson's life yields a clear commitment to the rule of law and his overall competency.

After studying law at Vanderbilt University, Mr. Thompson was an assistant U.S. attorney before working as minority counsel to the Senate select committee tasked with ferreting out details of the Watergate scandal. Mr. Thompson further distinguished himself in 1977 by representing Marie Ragghianti, the former Tennessee Parole Board chairman who was fired for refusing to grant clemency to felons who had bribed aides to Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton. Ms. Ragghianti filed a wrongful termination suit against Mr. Blanton's office, and under Mr. Thompson's watch, was reinstated to her job and received back pay. The episode eventually led to Mr. Blanton's removal as well as a 1985 blockbuster film where Mr. Thompson played himself, a job that helped launched his future acting career on the popular NBC television show "Law & Order."

After stints advising the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, Mr. Thompson won a Senate seat in a 1994 special election to replace Al Gore. He won re-election in 1996 but did not run again in 2002, choosing instead to pursue acting full time.

While painting himself as the true conservative in the race — indeed, who isn't these days? — Mr. Thompson has a mixed record. He has a solid record of supporting the Second Amendment, which led the National Rifle Association (NRA) to issue him a grade "A" rating during his time in the Senate, when he voted to loosen license and background checks rules at gun shows and supported a bill to continue allowing guns to be sold without trigger locks. During an NRA conference in September of this year, Mr. Thompson appeared to be the favorite of many attendees. Following the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, he postulated that allowing concealed weapons on college campuses could have prevented some of the carnage.

While most candidates are shy about discussing the looming problem of Social Security's unsustainability, Mr. Thompson has proposed a Social Security reform plan that would slow down future benefits by indexing them to inflation rather than wages and provide for add-on private savings accounts with matching government funds. He has offered a tax plan that would make permanent the Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003. Critics have assailed the plan, asserting that it fails to account for the rising national debt and budget deficits.

On immigration, Mr. Thompson has denounced efforts at so-called "comprehensive" reform of the nation's policies. He recently launched an ad campaign in Iowa denouncing plans that would lead to amnesty for illegal immigrants and calling for increased border security.

Concerning the issue of abortion, Mr. Thompson won the backing of the National Right to Life Committee, perhaps the nation's most formidable pro-life group. However, that endorsement caused a stir among some conservatives, who are skeptical of Mr. Thompson's past lobbying work for the pro-choice National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. Some conservatives also questioned Mr. Thompson's time in the Senate, when he repeatedly voted to uphold the McCain-Feingold campaign finance restrictions recently opposed by the NRLC's own Wisconsin chapter. Recently, Mr. Thompson refused to support a constitutional amendment to protect life by restricting the availability of abortions. This sanctity-of-life amendment was a key part of the 2004 Republican Party platform, but Mr. Thompson has said he could not support it. He said his objection stems from his federalist views; however, he voted in favor of a 1995 constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.

On the issue of homosexual "marriage," Mr. Thompson supports defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but does not support a constitutional amendment defining it as such. He believes the matter should be left up to the states, because while he personally thinks same-sex "marriage" is a bad idea, he told Fox News that "[I]n many of these cases where there's real dispute in the country, these things are not going to be ever resolved."

While he has irked some social conservatives for admitting he is an infrequent churchgoer and entering into a second marriage with what they consider to be a "trophy" wife (who is an experienced political operative in her own right), Mr. Thompson maintains that he is the obvious conservative choice in the field. But as reams of fractured polling suggest, this claim has yet to be realized.

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Thompson: Arctic Oil Can Lower Gas Prices
GOP Presidential Candidate Supports Drilling To Reduce Dependence On Middle East
CBS News


(AP) Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Wednesday that tapping oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would help lower gas prices.

“We've got this silly battle going on about ANWR,â€