Posted: July 12, 2007 1:22 PM
Questions Arise About Thompson's Conservative Credentials
 Email This
Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times had an ominous question for the nascent Fred Thompson campaign this week, wondering in a piece, “Will conservatives continue to be attracted to [Fred Thompson] once they know more about his record?”
Some have championed Thompson as the quintessential conservative alternative to the other presidential candidates who don’t meet the right’s criteria.
But in her article, Hook said despite his conservative voting record, Thompson often diverged from Republican ranks. For example, he cosponsored a campaign finance initiative with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., voted against one of two measures on former President Clinton’s impeachment and opposed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. Many conservatives also criticized the way in which Thompson oversaw the 1997 Senate hearings into alleged fund-raising abuses by Democrats during a 1996 campaign. Other questions about Thompson’s conservative credentials surfaced this week when a New York Times article reported an abortion rights group hired Thompson as a lobbyist in 1991.
But a Thompson spokesman denied the candidate lobbied former President George H.W. Bush’s administration to ease the ban on abortion counseling at federally financed clinics.
It is just one example of how Thompson’s role as lobbyist, rather than that of District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC’s “Law and Order”, that has drawn the media’ attention.
David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times touched on the role lobbying has played in Thompson’s family, which may impact how the would-be candidate’s efforts to present himself as a beltway outsider will be viewed.
But not to be left out of the media’s scrutiny, Thompson’s wife, media consultant and GOP activist Jeri Kehn Thompson, also found herself in the press this week. Susan Saulny, also of the Times, explored the candidate’s personal side, asking whether his younger wife will help or hurt his potential presidential bid.
-- By , NewsHour with Jim Lehrer | Comments | Link
|
Vote 2008 Subscriptions 
Does it amuse anyone else that the resemblance between Thompson's presidential bid and Ronald Reagan's -- to whom he is invariably compared -- are based on pure flash and appearance, not the "values," GOP voters insist they prize? When people praise Thompson they say he "looks" presidential, that he's got a great voice, that he's got the on-camera skills reminiscent of Reagan's. Well, sure, but this is party that says it's all about deep-seated beliefs, not guys with sizzle and flash, however deep their voices. Thompson's record as a lobbyist and senator is a go-along-to-get-along compromiser who knows how to play the game -- nothing dishonorable about that -- but it's endlessly funny how his supporters want to make him into a White Knight with a Vision who'll enter Washington for the first time and clean up the town. All these expectations for the guy from "Die Hard II: Die Harder?"