Whitehouse 2008: October 2007

Fred Thompson on Hannity & Colmes After Florida Debate

Thompson will ' campaign the way I want'

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 22, 2:22 PM ET

CELEBRATION, Fla. - Defending his campaign work schedule, Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said Monday his strategy is working and "I'm going to do it the way I want to do it."

His absences in early-voting states have been noticed. Thompson hasn't been in South Carolina in more than a month, he scrapped a recent trip to New Hampshire and then canceled a news conference Saturday in Florida.

"You can name a lot of places that I haven't been, and you can name a lot of places that I have been several times," Thompson said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I've been to Florida three or four times," he said. "The mainstream media, with all due respect, likes to concentrate on the process game on a daily basis, and I can't get caught up in that. I'm going to do it the way I want to do it."

Thompson pointed out he comes in second among Republicans in most national polls and has more than 100,000 contributors, despite making decisions that defy conventional wisdom.

He addressed the same issue at Sunday night's Republican debate in Orlando, answering a question about whether he is lazy. Thompson described his trajectory from teenage father to factory worker to federal prosecutor to Watergate counsel and senator, saying, "If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody."

People with great vision

"People with great vision will always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds."

- Albert Einstein

Fred Thompson the True Conservative

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After the noon event in Kennesaw, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson held a fund-raising luncheon with state lawmakers in downtown Atlanta.

Afterwards, in the 36th floor offices of Tom Bell, CEO of Cousins Properties, Thompson had time for a 10-minute, two-topic interview. The subjects were illegal immigration, and concerns of evangelical voters.

Here’s the transcript that served as a basis for Friday’s AJC story.

The first question was about immigration, and its impact on the South.

Said Thompson:

“Illegal immigration is a problem all over this country. I don’t think it’s limited to just Southern states. People are concerned that the politicians kind of announced one day that there are ‘X’ million people that have come here, and are illegal, and there’s more on the way.

“And there’s basically nothing that we’re doing to stop it.

“We have essentially open borders. I think that came as a surprise to a lot of people, and there’s been a reaction to that. There was a reaction to that bill that they tried to pass. It was a bad bill.

“And so now we’re struggling with securing the border, which has got to be the first thing that we do — securing the border, which is part of enforcing the law, as the first fundamental step we’ve got to take.”

(Read the rest on the jump below.)

Are you talking about a physical wall or electronic surveillance?

“All of the above, plus I think the border patrol has still got to be enhanced. The numbers have been increased somewhat, but it appears that we need more. Whatever it is we need we’re going to have to have.

“It’s not a matter of a lack of technology. We used to say, we can go to the moon but we can’t do this? It’s been a long time since we’ve gone to the moon, and we’re telling the American people that we can’t secure our own borders? Certainly, we can. Obviously, we can.

“Electronic means is a part of that. The wall is a part of that. There’s several hundred miles already on the books, that are supposed to have been built. And we just need to get about doing that.”

And the 12 million or so who are already here?

“If you secure the borders, stop luring people here with sanctuary cities, with in-state tuition treatment for illegal immigrants and other things of that nature, if you’ll help these employers do more to identify illegals, with an E-verify system that will allow them to quickly and electronically do that, with the help of the federal government, you will address the problem by attrition in large measure.

“They set up a false choice — either we get giant busloads of people tomorrow, and round them all up, or we have to grant amnesty. Attrition by enforcement is what makes the most sense.”

Do you favor boosting penalties on employers?

“I don’t know that you have to boost penalties on anyone if they know that the law is going to be enforced. I think the issue now has to do more with enforcement than it has to do with the size of the penalties.

“No one wants to have a penalty levied against them. That’s a stigma and bad for business.”

You’re going to talk to the Values Voter Summit in Washington. You’ve had people question your church-going habits, your faith. James Dobson and such. What do you say to them?

“Everybody has their critics. And everybody has things coming at them from different directions. I’m no different there. I point to my record.

“I am a consistent conservative. Over eight years of service at the national level, dealing with national issues. I have been a consistent tax-cutter, a budget balancer — which we did not long after I got elected. Welfare reform. Strong national defense, and 100 percent voting record with regard to pro-life issues.

“I’m a strong believer that a source of a lot of the problems in this country has to do with the judiciary, and that we need strong federal judges who will apply the constitution and the laws of this country and not make it up as they go along, according to their own personal dictates and desire to change social policy.

“I think that underlies a lot of the difficulties that we have, in regard to social and religious decisions that have been made over the last several years.

“My record is consistent on that. While a lot of people are saying a lot of the same things regarding these issues, certainly some are not.”

Is a discussion of the strength of your beliefs fair game?

“I think it’s fair to discuss. I don’t have any problem with discussing any of that. I’m a person of conviction. I’m a person of faith. I’ve been blessed in many ways. I’m aware of those blessings.

“I have received the worst tragedy that a man can have in his life. [This is a reference to the death of his grown daughter.] I’ve received the greatest blessings. I have been a father at a very young age. I’m now the father of a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old.

“You learn from that what’s important and what’s not. You learn the importance of God in your life, and the need to try to live your life in a way that your loved ones will be proud of.

“If you’re right with the man upstairs, and you’re right with those who love you, and those who you love, then everything else will take care of itself.”

At the airport, someone in the audience asked if you regretted the lobbying work you did for an abortions rights group. Do you?

“No, I don’t. I was practicing law, and this was a client of a big firm. They asked me to help out on a couple matters.

“Now, [the same abortion rights group is] out there trying to defeat me because I went to the United States Senate and voted against them for eight straight years, on everything that came up — whether it be federal funding for abortion, whether it be Mexico City policy, whether it be partial-birth abortion or any of those issues that they may have been interested in.”

“[Supreme Court] Chief Justice John Roberts was asked similar questions about clients of his law firm, and he pointed out that, in our country, don’t confuse the lawyer with the client. And I don’t think most people make that mistake.”