Scathing Words About Fred Thompson

Dick Morris

Fox News Political Analysts Dick Morris and Eileen McGann aren't hunting jobs with the Fred Thompson campaign. In their analysis, Thompson is a "Political Light Weight", "Political Insider", has "Questionable Conservative Credentials" and "No Dough." They say all of that in headers, prior to their substantive criticisms.

Here are samples:

"The New York Times reported this week that in 1992, Thompson’s old law firm actually advised the lawyer for the Libyan terrorists who were charged with planting the bomb on Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The firm was paid over $800,000 — that’s a lot of lawyering. The Libyans billed the firm for several hours for conferring with the lead attorney on the case. According to the firm’s lawyers, Thompson advised them on “jurisdictional” issues.

Translation: how to keep the terrorists from being extradited to stand trial.

At the time, Libya was refusing to extradite the suspects and the entire international community was outraged. It was then that the U.S. added Libya to the list of countries where there is state-sponsored terrorism. Ultimately, the suspects were extradited and tried in Scotland. One of them was convicted, while the other was acquitted. In 2003, Libya admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the survivors — no thanks to Fred and his law firm." - Emphasis added.

Or this nugget:

"Former Congressman Michael D. Barnes (D-Md) confirms that Thompson worked for the abortion rights group. He was employed by the same lobbying and law firm that Thompson worked for and he said he talked to Thompson “while he was doing it [lobbying for the group], and I talked to [De Sarno] about the fact that she was very pleased with the work he was doing for her organization.” He added: “I have strong, total recollection of that. This is not something I dreamed up or she dreamed up. This is a fact.” How odd that Thompson would have “no recollection.”

When Thompson first ran for the Senate in 1994, he checked a box on a questionnaire about abortion indicating that he believed that abortion “should be legal in all circumstances for the first three months.”

And when he ran again in 1996, he told the Christian Coalition that he “opposed” a constitutional amendment protecting “the sanctity of human life.” He wrote on the questionnaire “I do not believe that abortion should be criminalized. This battle will be won in the hearts and souls of the American people.”

With a Republican field of a pro-choice candidate (Giuliani), a recent convert to pro-life (Mitt Romney) and a former abortion lobbyist (Fred Thompson), the right wing doesn’t have much to choose from." - Read the full analysis here.

The facts don't bode well for Thompson under the withering scrutiny, not of the old media - which could serve as a rallying point - but with the conservative base. And it isn't simply the social conservatives who have trouble with Thompson. Fiscal conservatives don't much care for his spending record and traditional conservatives don't like his work to gag free speech with his unflinching work on McCain-Feingold.

The taint on Thompson is visible and will be hard for him to overcome.