In mid-September, while campaigning in Florida, Fred Thompson was asked for his thoughts on the Terri Schiavo case from 2005. Thompson pleaded ignorance. “That’s going back in history,” he said. “I don’t remember the details of it.”
It seemed a little odd. 2005 wasn’t all that long ago. In fact, Thompson helped prep John Roberts for his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2005, and they presumably went over the Schiavo controversy. For that matter, a few months later, “Law & Order” did an episode, featuring Thompson, based on the case.
As it turns out, Thompson does remember the controversy, and addressed it yesterday in some detail.
In his public life, former Senator Fred D. Thompson has long refrained from speaking about the death of his daughter from an accidental drug overdose in 2002, an episode that friends and colleagues say played into his decision not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2002.
But on Monday, when questioned at a news conference about his reaction to the Terri Schiavo case, Mr. Thompson opened up about the death, suggesting the Schiavo matter had particular resonance for him because of how his daughter, Elizabeth Panici, known as Betsy, had died.
“Obviously, I knew about the Schiavo case,” he said. “I had to face a situation like that in my own personal life with my own daughter.” … “Making this into a political football is something that I don’t welcome, and this will probably be the last time I ever address it,” he said. “It should be decided by the families — the federal government and the state government too, except for the court system, ought to stay out of those matters as far as I am concerned.”
Obviously, this approach may put Thompson in the American mainstream, at least on this issue, but this is certainly not what the Republican Party’s far-right base wanted to hear.
Dick Polman explained that Christian conservatives will likely see this as a major insult.
Thompson’s stance is definitely not in tune with the Christian conservative agenda. Their attitude – as evidenced by the Terri Schiavo case, the 24/7 cable TV melodrama of 2005 – is that the federal government should intervene in the private lives of families, and ensure, in accordance with their views of morality, that the doomed patient remains attached to the feeding tube. […]
It’s probably bad enough, from their perspective, that Thompson is known to be an infrequent churchgoer, that he once lobbied for an abortion rights group, and that he bestirred few hearts at the weekend Values Voter Summit. And now, from Thompson at his news conference, comes this blasphemy.
Indeed, I imagine the Dobson crowd will hear Thompson talking about government staying out of family matters and question the candidate’s commitment to most of the far-right agenda, practically all of which is predicated on the notion of the government getting entirely involved in family matters.
As for Thompson’s other problem — his apparent dislike for actually running as a presidential candidate — the actor/lobbyist/politician said yesterday that he won’t change.
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.”
Well, he can try. It probably won’t work, though.