I have been skeptical about the rumors that Fred Thompson is only running to divide up conservative votes so John McCain can win the Republican nomination. But now I'm reconsidering.
A friend tells me that when Fred was in the Senate he was very close to McCain. He says they would always sit together in the back of the room at a separate table during the weekly GOP lunches. Everyone knows Lindsey Graham is McCain's buddy now but apparently Fred was the original McCain booster.
Fred has tossed a few barbs McCain's way but they are always sandwiched between a half-dozen attacks on the other candidates.
It may seem far-fetched to some that Fred would run just to help McCain but it was always known that McCain needed a divided field to win, especially when the race reached South Carolina. Fred supported McCain in 2000 and he has done very little in 2008 other than other than divide the conservative field and make a McCain nomination possible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Man! That would be devious!
But there may be something to this. Your friend is right about the "coziness" of the relationship between Maverick and Fred while in the senate. And you are right that he tempers his criticisms of Maverick...check out this exchange between Fred and Glenn Beck, it is hardly stinging criticism from the so-called conservative in the race and one could easily see him dropping out and throwing his support to McCain:
GLENN: How do you explain with conservatives going out to vote, how are they supporting John McCain? What is this — where is this coming from?
SENATOR THOMPSON: I think the basis of it is national security, national defense. John was right, I think, with regard to Iraq and he stood tough during tough times and I think he turned out to be right. And I was the same place the whole time and have been. We agree on that. But John is wrong on some other important things and he was wrong when he voted against the Bush tax cuts.
GLENN: But wait a minute. I mean –
SENATOR THOMPSON: He says he’s changed his mind about that now and, you know, sobeit. But, you know, I was there during part of that time and I voted the other way. I believed the other way then, I believe the other way now. He’s certainly wrong with regard to the immigration bill that they tried to get the American people sign off on last year and they gave a resounding no and now everybody’s getting tough on the border. But on taxes and immigration, especially, you know, I think he’s wrong. But so is Huckabee as far as that’s concerned.
GLENN: But he’s also wrong with McCain/Lieberman where he wants to sign treaties for global warming. He wants to give away sovereignty on global warming. This guy is not a conservative.
SENATOR THOMPSON: No, I think he’s in the wrong direction on that, too. I think that that’s absolutely true. But, you know, he’s like everybody else. You know, he has his strong suits and his weak suits. But I think that the direction that he and Huckabee and others really, I think Giuliani and where Romney has been in the past all are going in a so-called moderate direction, which is going to lead to, you know, so-called big government conservativism or bigger government conservativism anyway.
Post a Comment