Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

The Plot Against Fred

David Weigel | 9.11.2007 2:47 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Bill Quick senses a conspiracy against Fred Thompson, and I am Marcus Junius Brutus.

Case in point: Libertarian mag Reason's Dave Weigel offers up a badly-researched - no, an entirely unresearched and unsupported - slam at "Light Fred" on September 7.

On September 8, Giuliani flack Rick Brookhiser blurts an almost identical rant about "Done-Nothing Fred."

And immediately after Fred declared, the Romney campaign put up a web site chock full of such thoughtful political arguments against Thompson as "dubbing the former TV star and senator Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred."

Now, three instances in a week or so don't make a trend, but they may make a leading indicator. My hunch is that everybody has had their oppo research teams combing over Fred's entire life story since it became obvious that Thompson would eventually enter the race, but they didn't come up with much they could convincingly attack him with.

I may as well confess: I was at the meeting with Everybody. George Soros and Judi Nathan Giuliani served salmon and hummus and gave a splendid Powerpoint presentation about the Fred Threat. We we warned that if we didn't sink Thompson with our blog posts and whisper campaigns, he stood to become the most effective and popular president in history. Rick Brookhiser, however, was not at the meeting, as he's busy doing oppo research on Alexander Hamilton.

Seriously, Quick doesn't understand how this stuff works. I've been following Thompson for a while, reading contemporary and older profiles, listening to speeches, combing his ballyhooed (more so now than it was at release) report "Government at the Brink." After a six month pre-campaign his pitch is pretty free of substance: No tax plans, no health care plans, no vision for Iraq or the war on terror apart from some bromides that could have come from a Michael Ledeen word jumble. I'll engage Fred's ideas as soon as he offers some.

UPDATE: Michael Pack points out that "presidents are not suppose to have tax and health care plans." I agree that presidents shouldn't actually pledge to solve all of our problems as if they have an unbottled genie in the Treasury and Congress is a bunch of bobbleheads with rubber-stamp attachments. That's not an argument against taking positions, though. Thompson used to support Social Security accounts, and now he wants "bipartisan study" of what to do with Social Security. There's a happy medium between Rudy Giuliani's 10-point plans and Ron Paul's "abolish departments we don't need," but Thompson isn't there.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Will Super Smart Artificial Intelligences Keep Humans Around As Pets?

David Weigel is a contributing editor at Reason.

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (87)

Latest

More Than 1,800 'No Kings' Protests Aim for Nonviolent Pushback Against Trump Policies

Nancy Rommelmann | 6.14.2025 10:10 AM

Have Presidents Grown Too Powerful To Be Removed From Office?

Gene Healy | 6.14.2025 8:00 AM

Some Federal Agencies Are Actually Getting More Efficient

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 6.14.2025 7:00 AM

Trad Wives and Tallow Fries: How the Wellness Wars Flipped Health and Food Politics Upside Down

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | From the July 2025 issue

The Trump Administration Just Created Hundreds of Thousands of Illegal Immigrants

Autumn Billings | 6.13.2025 4:15 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!