Fred Thompson in Orange County: Discussing Important Issues

Well, I’m back from the Sen. Fred Thompson rally this morning, the Fred Thompson fundraiser at Noon, and the early afternoon promotion ceremony of my former brigade combat team commander, Brigadier General John Harrel to Major General John Harrel (two-stars).  General Harrel is a great citizen-soldier leader in the California Army National Guard.  I was his S-3 operations officer, when our brigade went to Korea a few times for war games in 2001. 

While I was out, the first of the earned media has come online from Sen. Fred Thompson’s big rally today in Laguna Woods.  Reporter Richard Chang of the Orange County Register wrote a piece entitled, “Thompson appeals to his base in Laguna Woods” (see: http://www.ocregister.com/news/thompson-presidential-woods-1933239-know-rally). 

Excerpts from the piece:

Lynn Schott of Irvine walked into a Laguna Woods clubhouse Saturday morning not really sure who she'd vote for in the February presidential primary.

She walked out confident about her pick: Fred Thompson.

"I was really on the fence before," said the 45-year-old home school educator. "I came here to get more information. The combination of listening to the debate the other night and coming here to the rally and seeing him up close… really put me over into his camp."

…Thompson talked about maintaining national security, fighting against radical Islam, securing U.S. borders, lowering taxes and eliminating the estate or "death tax."

Laguna Woods residents Perry King and his wife Nancy were impressed.

"I'm a conservative," said Perry King, 69. "I stand for the things he's saying."

"I like him because he hasn't been a career politician," said his wife, 64, a college professor. "He's very charismatic. That's the thing I didn't anticipate."

Other speakers at the rally included State Sen. Tom McClintock, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, former State Sen. Dick Mountjoy and former KFI radio talk show host John Ziegler.

In this short piece the reporter really encapsulated two of the main points I thought worth noting.

First, that people came away impressed by Sen. Thompson, who used his 30 minutes in front of the microphone to detail conservative positions on a number of important issues, including federalism and a respect for the Tenth Amendment – often considered the forgotten amendment in the Bill of Rights (this Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”). 

Second, that, as Ms. King said quoted in the above article, "He's very charismatic. That's the thing I didn't anticipate."

A couple of hours after the rally, I attended a packed fundraising event for Sen. Thompson in a beautiful home overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Newport Coast.  Sen. Tom McClintock introduced Sen. Thompson at this event as well, which, I estimate, took in between $50,000 to $100,000. 

During the fundraiser Thompson expressed his frustration that the debate format so far combined the sound bite nature of today’s politics lends itself to “vacuous” “talking point” 30 second responses while America’s problems are more complex than that and deserving of serious discussion.  Still, he said he was confident that the American people will respond to substance and “serious adult leadership” over game show host style. 

Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist (and a 2004 Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellow colleague of mine) Michael Ramirez was there.  Ramirez is the co-editor of the Investors Business Daily’s editorial page, in addition to creating most of their editorial cartoons.  Ramirez asked Thompson two questions: one about his tax reform proposals (why there were two-tiers in his flax tax proposal, one of 10 percent and the other of 25 percent) and the other about tort reform. 

Thompson gave a detailed response to both questions, replying that his tax reform proposal was a start, a beginning, and that having two tiers was a nod to political reality (that a single rate flat tax would be hard to enact), but that the ultimate goal would be more tax code simplification and more tax cuts.

As for tort reform, Thompson reminded the audience that he was on the losing end of a fair number of 99 to 1 votes in the U.S. Senate, especially on issues where the federal legislators were voting to take away power from state lawmakers in the 50 states.  Tort reform was one of those issues (remember the Tenth Amendment mention above). Why, Thompson asked, should Congress make a law that details how a legal action arising from a traffic accident in his little home town in Tennessee be handled, rather, shouldn’t the people of Tennessee, and every other state, do this themselves – each state updating and reforming their own tort laws?  This is, in fact, what happened, after the push to nationalize tort law failed in Congress, Thompson observed.  On the other hand, Thompson said, legal reform dealing with securities law and interstate commerce is completely appropriate for Congress to take up, so he supported these sorts of laws. 

As a state lawmaker, I greatly appreciate Sen. Thompson’s acknowledgement that my colleagues and I in Sacramento have a role in lawmaking that ought not be superceded by the federal government.  (Perhaps that’s why Sen. Thompson has more Republican state legislators supporting him in California than any other candidate.)  Thompson closed out this line of discussion by saying that the federal government has quite enough on its plate, such as al Qaeda, Social Security, and the like, without also trying to craft laws properly left to the states to handle. 

Now that I’ve seen Sen. Thompson in person three times, and have heard his thoughts on the issues facing America and our future, I am more certain than ever that I am backing the best person to be the Republican nominee for President in 2008.  

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
California State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com
www.Fred08.com

P.S. The second picture (to the right) was of a Scholastic reporter interviewing me before the rally.  She did a wonderful job.

Comments

[Andy Favor]

I have good news for the Fred Thompson supporters. I see Fred came in second in the Virgian state straw poll! Well ahead of Mike Huckabee.

Ron Paul ..... 182 votes ..... 38 percent
Fred Thompson .... 112 votes .... 23 percent
Mike Huckabee .... 51 votes .... 10 percent
Mitt Romney .... 45 votes .... 9 percent
Rudy Giuliani .... 43 votes ... 9 percent
John McCain .... 23 votes .... 5 percent
Duncan Hunter .... 19 votes ... 4 percent
Tom Tancredo ..... 4 votes .... .08 percent
Hugh Cort .... 0 votes
John Cox ..... 0 votes

[Chuck DeVore]

So Andy, are you going to reregister as a Republican from Libertarian so you can vote for Cong. Ron Paul? Or, are you going to remain a member of the Libertarian Party so you can carry their banner again next year in a race for the legislature? Just curious, because if you reregister to vote for Paul, you won’t be eligible to run for office as a Libertarian!

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com
www.Fred08.com

[Andy Favor]

Chuck,

I will be running again so I will not be able to vote for Ron. But my wife will be joining the Grand Old Party in January.

It is amazing to see Democrats and independents running to the Republican Party.

[Suzie]

Assemblyman DeVore:

I have always thought of you to be a champion for traditional family values, but watching you wrap yourself around Thompsn gives me concern and doubts of your true beliefs.

Having held Thompson so high on a pedalstal and his campaign you must also share simliar beliefs about when life begins and what steps if any should be taken to protect it.

Undoubtedly you have seen or heard Thompson discuss his views on this topic, if not go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFatndBJTG0

It appears he's putting the conservative position of federalism over the conservative position of protecting human life.

Under that argument, we shouldn't have banned chattel slavery but allowed states' rights to the point where some states could have slaves if they passed legislation authorizing it.

To me, the goal of the US Constitution is -- among other things -- to secure the fundamental rights of the citizens. Life, liberty, etc. The Bill of Rights was added to expand and clarify what was intended to be protected.

Federalism and states' rights are sacred items in the conservative world, but a state that legalizes, say, murder would be in violation of the U.S. Constitution, in my mind, and basic human rights as secured by the federal constitution would override state sovereignty in that regard. If life begins at conception, as most pro-lifers believe, then taking that life may reasonably be considered murder.

It takes something REALLY big and fundamental like that to justify (to most who call themselves conservatives) trampling on states' rights.

Do you allign yourself with Thompson in this regard? Do you feel that Thompson is right on all the other issue that you give him a pass on this "minor" one to go ahead and support/endorse or co-chair his election?

Perhaps that is why his numbers are not as high as we all had hoped early on--we got to learn more about him. I think it's going to be open season on him and those who stand so strong by his side by Huckabee, Hunter, etc and anyone else who is a real pro-lifer.

[Newagegop]

Dear Suzie,

I'm with you on principle, but while you're waiting on a HLA more abortions are performed. More babies will be saved by Fred's federalism than by the HLA because overturning Roe is way easier than getting the HLA done. Consider that Fred would be 1 vote away in the Supreme Court from overturning Roe. Fred was the one who got Roberts through so you KNOW (unlike others) that he would be supporting a Justice that would overturn Roe.

I know California may not band abortion outright, but giving states the right to choose would save a lot of babies. Everywhere in the south babies would be saved. Let South Carolina go their way and let New York go theirs I say. We'll get rid of abortion much faster at the local and state level than we will at the Feds.

[Chuck DeVore]

Suzie,

And yet Sen. Fred Thompson has been endorsed by the most important national right-to-life group while amassing a 100 percent pro-life record in the U.S. Senate. Politics is about the possible.

Gov. Huckabee may be good on life, but on everything else, he is a big government Republican of the same ilk that largely lead to our crushing defeat in the 2006 elections. Republican voters will soon see this and I predict his candidacy will not last too long beyond Iowa.

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com

[jaime]

The true defeat for Republican is when we ignore the basic bibilical principles in which this nation was found upon. Many short term victories may be valuable but it will fail to ignite the real passion and the drive from the visionery Republicans. We must vote from our hearts and in this case, we have Mike Huckabee.

Newagegop:

Thank you for the rational you provided. I believe that life begins at conception. To achieve the goal of protecting those newborn lives we must look at several dynamics that continually interplay with each other.

The first line of business is to Roe v Wade. To do this you need to have conservative, pro life judges who can make through the confirmation process. Senator Thompson has not only demonstrated his values as evident in the NRTL endorsement but he also knows how to get a Supreme Court judge nominated such as Judge Roberts.

We should look hard at the other candidates and see their track record on these issues. I don't want to chance the lives of unborn on converts or those who say they will do it different in the future.

Secondly, let’s look at a realistic possibility of banning abortions on a federal level. The requirement to amend the Constitution in order to protect the unborn is almost certainly beyond attaining at this point in time.

However, we have a great opportunity to start letting states change for the better.

The next President will face increasing threats from afar. They will need to be experienced and skilled at international relations, understand the threats we face, and have the strength to face them.

Finally, Senator Thompson believes in less federal government. If you look at his voting record he has shown himself to promote growth but not at the expense of the American people through taxation.

Senator Thompson is the best and only choice when considering all what we are facing and want to accomplish. He is the consistent conservative - his beliefs 8 years ago are the same they will be 8 years from now.

[Jaime]

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, I admire your support for Senator Thompson. Can you tell us little about his religion? After reading your well articulated reasoning I can agree with you that he does have important qualities as future president of our great country.

[Chuck DeVore]

Jaime, as to your question about Sen. Thompson's religion, I am old school on this, meaning that I look to Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which reads: "...no religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office..."

Still, if you want to learn more, Wikipedia says this about Fred Thompson's religious affiliation:

Thompson is a member of the Churches of Christ, a non-denominational group of Christian churches. According to Thompson, his values come from "sitting around the kitchen table" with his parents, and from the Church of Christ. While talking to reporters in South Carolina, Thompson said, "I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm [living] in McLean right now. I don't attend regularly when I'm up there."[97] He does not plan to speak about his religion during his campaign saying, "Me getting up and talking about what a wonderful person I am and that sort of thing, I'm not comfortable with that, and I don't think it does me any good."[97]

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com

[Jaime]

Thank you Assemblyman Chuck DeVore for your reply on re. Sen. Thompson. I am glad you are supporting the right candidate! Please keep working hard to promote strong republican leaders equipped with positive vision for our youth. I hope Sen. Thompson do well in coming days.... Good job Assemblyman. Now I can see why you are so popular among my close cra friends... and you have earned my respect. May God bless.