Fred Thompson - The New Al Gore?
This one is going to cause a stir in Republican ranks. With all due respect to our fellow bloggers, We Scooped You!
Alexander J. Madison - 11/19/07
Just as the fond memories of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign may be fading from our collective memories, it appears that some Republican candidates are busy trying on the former Vice President’s glass slippers. As is well documented, Algore had a penchant for telling some pretty tall tales and generally making an ass of himself. From his fibs about working the tobacco fields, to the phony story about a grandma recycling aluminum cans to buy medicine, to his false claims of flying with the FEMA director to check out Texas wildfires, to his role in founding the internet, to his “I didn’t realize I was in a Buddhist temple” remark, to having the water adjusted in the Connecticut River for a photo-op canoe ride, Algore is rightfully a clownish laughingstock to all but the most committed leftists. Unfortunately, the inability to level with the American people is certainly not a malady affecting only democrats.
Rudy Giuliani now claims that he “understands the 2nd Amendment”, after an entire career of proving definitively he not only does not understand it, he abhors it. Rudy justified his 2000 lawsuit against 26 US firearms manufacturers by claiming they “overproduced guns, way beyond what is necessary for hunting and law enforcement”. That one statement alone should have been enough for the GOP to banish him forever from the party. Instead, the liberal gun-grabber is the current front runner.
Mike Huckabee claims to have been an aggressive ‘tax cutter’ while in the Arkansas governor’s chair. Yet you will find folks from the National Taxpayer’s Union, the CATO Institute, and every independent organization that evaluates such records give the Huckster abysmal grades. Of course, his recent statements that he never supported amnesty for illegal aliens are also patently false, unless one believes that the McCain-Kennedy bill was something other than amnesty. And trust me, no conservative believes that.
John McCain? Well, let’s just say he still believes his McCain-Kennedy bill was not amnesty and that McCain-Feingold-Thompson is not an assault on the Constitution. Delusions perhaps, but not lies. His many Gorgasms, however, cover many years. Not the least of which is his claim these days to support the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003; and the only reason he opposed them then was to force concurrent spending restraints. Pure balderdash. In 2001 McCain bellowed on the Senate floor, “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief.”. I guess I’d contemplate lying too if I had sounded like a clone of John Kerry during the tax cut debates.
Mitt Romney does not have a guy in a dolphin suit following him around for no reason. The other candidates all call him Flip Romney. Genuine movements toward conservative positions are always welcome. However, fudging one’s history to bolster conservative bona fides is not. Perhaps the most hilarious example is his claim to be a lifelong hunter, only to find out he took some pot shots as a kid at some rodents. Today, he can honestly say he is lifetime member of the NRA (the same group he derided as Massachusetts Governor) - he bought a lifetime membership last year. Too funny.
But perhaps the most egregious Gorelian republican has been Fred Dalton Thompson. He seems to have a difficult time either remembering his past or owning up to it. My guess is the latter, since he remembers in vivid detail the good things he had proposed or championed- fighting for Federalism, voting for tax cuts, etc – during his stint in office. But when it comes to the hairy turds he let drop during his Senate career, he dashes for the polishing kit in lieu of confessing to a change of position. For a candidate that fancies himself a straight talker, his 2008 campaign has been anything but. Then again, John Edwards claims to be a straight talker as well, and I still have not figured out if his haircut was $400 or $1200.
For starters, just replay Fred’s early September 2007 interview with Laura Ingraham. After the usual niceties, Laura attempts to get down to brass tacks on Fred’s role in, and support of, the Campaign Finance Reform abomination. Fred Thompson was front and center in the efforts to get this anti-constitutional leviathan passed into law from its inception in 1995. He also used his position as chairmen of the China-Gate hearings to craft a months long advertisement for CFR, investigating folks like the Christian Coalition and Americans for Tax Reform, to show how bipartisan ‘the problem’ was. No Fred, the problem was communist Chinese influence peddling and cash, not conservative or liberal American interest groups. But interrupted by Laura - “Fred, what about the issue ads?” - while attempting a long-winded filibuster and defense of the other 50 pages of CFR regulation, Fred finally bellied up to the bar and said this: “Now THEY added on something that was a mistake. And that is the issue ads you were talking about, and I voted for all of it, so I support the first part, but I don’t support that.”
George Will took Fred to the woodshed for this dissembling. First, it was not “they” who “added on something that was a mistake”. It was fully endorsed and sponsored by one Fred Thompson. And it was not an add-on either. It was a very critical and perhaps the most controversial part of CFR. And it was hatched by Olympia Snowe, Jim Jeffords and Fred Thompson a full 4 years prior to CFR winning passage in 2001. It was lambasted in the conservative media, yet Fred defended it not only during the Senate debates, but also in the Supreme Court when it was challenged 2 years later. I guess it depends on what the meaning of “they” is, Fred?
Then we have the kerfuffle over the LA Times abortion lobbying story. What should have been a minor embarrassment easily swept away turned out to be another major chink in the honesty department instead. First, Fred sent his spokesman Mark Corallo out to issue a blanket denial to the Times: “Fred Thompson did not lobby for this group, period. There’s no documents to prove it, there’s no billing records, and Thompson says he has no recollection of it, says it didn’t happen.” Two days later, as the story snowballed, Corallo corrected the blanket denial to:
“He has no recollection of doing any work for this group. And since he was of counsel and not a member of the firm, it was not unusual for the firm’s partners to trot their clients in to meet him, get his views and even some advice.”
Then the billing records for lobbying were indeed uncovered as well as the phone logs that show Thompson talked directly to the head of the abortionist group, Judith DeSarno, a whopping 22 times. The notion that an ostensibly ‘pro-life’ (more on that later) individual could not remember servicing a pro-abortion outfit is patently absurd, and false.
When it comes to global warming, 2008 presidential candidate Thompson made quite a stir and rallied much conservative enthusiasm with his ABC Radio commentary this past March. He sounded like a genuine skeptic when he mockingly mentioned the warming “fever” that apparently has spread to Mars and Jupiter. He added, “This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle.” Great stuff, indeed.
Unfortunately, during his last year in office, Fred had a radically different take on global warming. In fact, Mr. Thompson was a cosponsor of the most radical legislation to be crammed down America’s throat in the last decade, with the possible exception of McCain-Feingold-Thompson. And it was well hidden in an omnibus spending bill, no less. This monstrosity is called DIVISION D—INTEGRATION OF ENERGY POLICY AND CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY. TITLE X—NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY.
It was originally a Tom Daschle creation to address global warming and inserted into Amendment 2917 to Senate appropriations bill S. 517. But the Centrist Coalition got their paws on it and led by Senators Bingaman, Snowe, Hagel, John Kerry and Fred Thompson, they offered a substitute for Title X, which was approved. To read the text of this boondoggle, go to the hyper link embedded below, adjacent to TEXT OF AMENDMENT AS SUBMITTED. Here are the basics:
S.AMDT.3232
Amends: S.517 , S.AMDT.2917
Sponsor: Sen Bingaman, Jeff [NM] (submitted 4/22/2002) (proposed 4/23/2002)
AMENDMENT PURPOSE:
To establish a national climate change policy.
TEXT OF AMENDMENT AS SUBMITTED: CR S3054-3059
STATUS:
4/23/2002:
Amendment SA 3232 proposed by Senator Bingaman to Amendment SA 2917. (consideration: CR S3145-3148)
4/23/2002:
Amendment SA 3232 agreed to in Senate by Voice Vote.
COSPONSORS(8):
Sen Murkowski, Frank H. [AK] - 4/22/2002
Sen Byrd, Robert C. [WV] - 4/22/2002
Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] - 4/22/2002
Sen Thompson, Fred [TN] - 4/22/2002
Sen Hollings, Ernest F. [SC] - 4/22/2002
Sen Kerry, John F. [MA] - 4/22/2002
Sen Hagel, Chuck [NE] - 4/22/2002
Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] - 4/22/2002
But to briefly summarize this thing, it is a bill that declares that man made Global Warming is occurring. For example, the list of 12 ‘findings’ include:
(1) Evidence continues to build that increases in atmospheric concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases are contributing to global climate change.
(4) The IPCC has stated that in the last 40 years, the global average sea level has risen, ocean heat content has increased, and snow cover and ice extent have decreased, which threatens to inundate low-lying island nations and coastal regions throughout the world.
(8) There is a shared international responsibility to address this problem, as industrial nations are the largest historic and current emitters of greenhouse gases and developing nations’ emissions will significantly increase in the future.
It continues on for many dozens of pages that make mincemeat out of virtually every government entity remotely related to energy or not. It included this “Sense of the Congress” as well:
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of the United States Congress that the United States should demonstrate international leadership and responsibility in reducing the health, environmental, and economic risks posed by climate change by:
(1) taking responsible action to ensure significant and meaningful reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases from all sectors:
(2) creating flexible international and domestic mechanisms, including joint implementation, technology deployment, tradable credits for emissions reductions and carbon sequestration projects that will reduce, avoid, and sequester greenhouse gas emissions; and
(3) participating in international negotiations, including putting forth a proposal to the Conference of the Parties, with the objective of securing United States’ participation in a future binding climate change Treaty in a manner that is consistent with the environmental objectives of the UNFCCC, that protects the economic interests of the United States, and recognizes the shared international responsibility for addressing climate change, including developing country participation.
And to top it off, they appropriated over 5 billion dollars for this bill!! The largest portion under the new Director of the Department Office:
(1) USE OF AVAILABLE APPROPRIATIONS.—From funds made available to Federal agencies for the fiscal year in which this subtitle is enacted, the President shall provide such sums as are necessary to carry out the duties of the Department Office under this subtitle until the date on which funds are made available under paragraph (2).
(2) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary, to carry out the duties of the Department Office under this subtitle, $4,750,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2003 through 2011, to remain available through September 30, 2011.
(3) ADDITONAL AMOUNTS.—Amounts authorized to be appropriated under this section shall be in addition to— (A) amounts made available to carry out the United States Global Change Research Program under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2921 et seq.); and (B) amounts made available under other provisions of law for energy research and development.
This bill, my friends, is a crime against the United States: For succumbing to the Algore inspired hysteria, for leading directly towards an internationally binding, sovereignty usurping treaty, and for hiding this beast in the bowels of an omnibus spending bill. And yet the co-author is still considered a viable GOP candidate because he can currently spin a good yarn?!? Rudy, Mitt, Huckabee, and Algore combined have not done as much damage to the USA as what this law does.
And this brings us to another area where Fred Dalton Thompson has not squared his electioneering rhetoric with his moderate past. In the last few weeks, Fred has taken a liking to a new campaign slogan, repeated in several versions on the campaign trail. It is this: “With me, what you see is what you get. I was a conservative yesterday. I’m a conservative today and I’ll be a conservative tomorrow. And all my new buddies now running for president who have found the beauties of conservativism, I say, ‘Welcome to the club.’”
Considering Fred’s membership in the Senate’s loathsome Centrist Coalition for nearly his entire stay in office, his lead roles in McCain-Feingold-Thompson and the above mentioned Title X global warming spending spree, his weak kneed positions on illegal immigration where he showed ZERO leadership on the issue, his enthusiastic co-chairmanship of the McCain 2000 presidential run, his support of liberal mentor Howard Baker over Ronald Reagan in 1980, his attempts – along with Feingold and John Kerry – to snuff out the B-2 bomber program, his awful record on education, his late blooming support for the National Endowment for the Arts, his ineffectual and purposely diluted investigation into China-gate, his selective use of federalist principles (he and bill Frist gave Robert Byrd a run for our money), and his waffling on one or the Articles of Impeachment against Slick Willy, it is impossible to characterize his Senate career as ‘conservative’. When folks ranging from Sally Quinn to EJ Dionne to Richard Viguerie to Ann Coulter consider you a moderate, you ARE a moderate!
Finally, he has attempted to sweep his previous pro-choice sentiments completely under the rug. In fact, he gave the old “I don’t remember” defense several times, earlier this spring. Whether it was his direct quotes such as “The ultimate decision must be made by the women. Government should treat its citizens as adults capable of making moral decisions on their own”, or the multiple questionnaires filed during his 1994 and 1996 campaigns that demonstrated his pro-choice positions, or the multitudes of news outlets describing him as pro-choice, Fred was in no way a pro-lifer. His all purpose trump card is that he voted for certain restrictions on abortion when they came before the Senate. However, as Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review and many others have pointed out repeatedly, these votes do not make one pro-life; Pro-restrictions, but not pro life. Fred had stated more than once that he was not in favor of ANY restrictions during the 1st trimester. That is PRO-CHOICE. Yet he prances around the country in his Gucci loafers pretending he has always been against abortion. Amazing.
Algore was nailed to the wall for his fabrications and revisionist history, even at times by the MSM. And trust me, fellow conservatives, Fred Thompson will be filleted and de-boned like an Atlantic Mackerel by the press and the democrats if he manages to win the GOP nomination. Our goal should be to prevent that possibility, and save ourselves the embarrassment, by electing a real conservative that does not have a long distance relationship with the truth. The future of our Republic depends on it!
