He Can Act, But Is Thompson Ready to Lead?

Washington, DC - As lobbyist turned actor Fred Thompson campaigns in Georgia today after a week of cancellations and no-shows that have angered supporters, voters will be wondering if he's really ready to be president. But his commitment to campaigning isn't the only thing that has come into question. From standing with President Bush and his failed stay the course strategy in Iraq to inaccurately claiming Saddam Hussein had WMDs to mistakenly calling Russia the Soviet Union, Thompson has exposed his less-than-stellar foreign policy credentials time after time on the campaign trail.

It's clear that voters aren't impressed with what Fred has to offer. A CNN Poll released this week shows that since announcing his candidacy for president last month, support for Fred has dropped significantly. He entered the race tied for first, but support for Thompson has plummeted from 27% last month to just 19%, as enthusiasm for his campaign has "wavered," according to CNN. [CNN Poll, Released 10/16/07]

"Voters are getting to know Fred Thompson and apparently they don't like what they see," said DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "Weeks of sparse campaigning and embarrassing foreign policy blunders have left people wondering: sure he can act, but can he lead? Fred Thompson is blindly following Bush's failed policies that have kept our troops in Iraq and that turned record budget surpluses into record deficits, but the American people aren't looking for four more years of the same."

THOMPSON ON TERROR

Four More Years Of 'Not Ready To Lead'

Thompson Blindly Follows Bush's Failed Foreign Policy

Same Position Since 2004: "I Would Do…What The President Is Doing." Asked in March 2007 "What would you do now in Iraq?," Thompson said "I would do essentially what the president's doing." This is unchanged from his position in 2004, when he said about Iraq "The only real issue is the will of American people," and said the US has "developed a reputation over a period of years of cutting and running when things got tough. We cannot do that this time." In a later campaign speech, Thompson "fervently backed the Iraq war." [Fox News Sunday, 3/11/07; CNN, 4/90/04; Washington Post, 5/6/07]

Thompson Reiterated His Support For Bush's Disastrous and Unpopular Iraq Policy. In the October 9, 2007 Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan, Thompson again stated his support for President Bush's plans for Iraq, stating, "I think the policy we are engaged in now is the right one." [CNBC/MSNBC/WSJ Republican Debate, 10/9/07]

Thompson Continues To Push An Argument Even Abandoned By Bush: Fred's Time Machine: Thompson Asserts Iraq Had WMD. While on the campaign trail in Iowa, Fred Thompson said "he was certain Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the 4.5 years since the war began. 'We can't forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program,' the former Tennessee senator told an audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe." [Des Moines Register, 10/1/07]

• Repeated Expert Reports Have Concluded There Were "No Credible Indications" Of WMD In Iraq. In 2004, the Iraq Survey Group, under chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, concluded that "while a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter." [Iraq Survey Group Final Report (http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/
  isg-final-report/isg-final-report_vol3_cw_key-findings.htm)]
  
  
• Bush Admits Finding Confirmed Earlier Experts. As President Bush himself said upon the release of the Iraq Survey Group's final report in the fall of 2004 "The chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, has now issued a comprehensive report that confirms the earlier conclusion of David Kay that Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there." [Bush, 10/7/04 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14897-2004Oct7?language=printer)]
  
  
• Silberman-Robb Commission: "Not One Bit Of It Could Be Confirmed. In their March 2005 report, the bipartisan Silberman Robb Commission submitted their report on the "Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction." Their opening paragraph concluded that "on the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United Statesgovernment asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, and had stockpiled and was producing chemical weapons. All of this was based on the assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community. And not one bit of it could be confirmed when the war was over." [Commission On The Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, http://www.wmd.gov/report/report.html#overview]
  

Thompson Said Iraq Was Reviving His Nuclear Program. . . Even Though It Was Not. Politifact.com fact-checked Thompson's statement that "The Iraq Study Group reported that (Saddam Hussein) had designs on reviving the nuclear program," and found that the Iraq Study Group did not actually say that. "The 142-page report focused on the future of Iraq and did not address whether Saddam wanted to restart a nuclear program." [Politifact.com, 10/9/07]

Out-of-Touch Fred Says Osama NOT a Priority

Thompson: Osama Is Merely A Symbol. Thompson said that Osama bin Laden is "more symbolism than anything else." [AP, 9/7/07]

Thompson Argued bin Laden Should Get 'Due Process.' Thompson said that Osama bin Laden "should get due process if he's caught." Thompson also said that catching bin Laden would do little to lessen the threats to the U.S. "You know, that top-dog in Iraqthat we killed a while back, you know, that was a great big deal, too. But how much changed after that?" Thompson posited. [AP, 9/10/07]

Lawyer-Lobbyist Fred Represented Dangerous Foreign Clients

Thompson Helped Represent Libyan Officials Charged With Terrorist Bombing. As a lawyer-lobbyist at the firm of Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin, Thompson aided a colleague in representing "the two Libyan intelligence officials charged in the terrorist bombing" which resulted in the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103, just three years after the tragedy. "Revelations that American firms were representing Libyan interests provoked a furor among the Pan Am victims' families." Some firms even refused to represent both the country and the suspects. Thompson's involvement was never made public, but "But Arent Fox's chairman, Marc L. Fleischaker, confirmed" that Thompson did indeed provide aid for his colleague. [New York Times, 9/8/07]

Thompson Represented Highly Criticized Haitian President. Thompson's lobbying career included representing "widely deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was widely criticized for endorsing 'necklacing,' the gruesome practice of execution where gasoline-soaked tires are thrown over a person's neck and set ablaze." Records revealed that Thompson "called then-White House Chief of Staff John Sununu on Aristide's behalf." [AP, 7/26/07]


Fred Turns to Cliff's Notes?

Thompson Boasts Of Membership In Bipartisan Commission Whose Meetings He Rarely Attended. After expressing concern over Chinese trade issues in the Senate, Thompson was appointed to a bipartisan commission "that advises Congress on Chinese threats to national security" following his Senate tenure. "Although Mr. Thompson nods to his membership in a campaign video, the panel's minutes show that of the 19 hearings during his 2005-6 tenure, he attended only 6." [New York Times, 9/30/07]

Fred Has No Plan On What To Do In Iraq. When asked about the war in Iraq in New Hampshire, Thompson replied that "he would 'try to do the right thing' about the war if elected, but he stopped short of describing a plan." [Concord Monitor, 9/10/07]

Thompson Referred To Russia As The "Soviet Union." In attempting to answer a question about how he would deal with the situation with Iran, if elected President, Thompson said, "I'm afraid that the Soviet Union and China are not ever going to do anything that's going to hurt them that badly but we need to ratchet those up if at all possible," mistakenly referring to the country of Russia. [Radio Iowa Blog, emphasis added, 10/3/07, http://learfield.typepad.com/radioiowa/2007/10/fred-thompson-t.html]