Fred Thompson Bombs On Campaign Trail

The Skinny: GOP Presidential Hopeful Described As Subdued, Laconic, Unfamiliar With Issues

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

---

Yes, he's an actor. But that doesn't mean he can perform.

The New York Times presents a searing portrait of Fred Thompson's lackluster performance on the campaign trail, with the worst damage done within the quotes attributed to the candidate.

"Can I have a round of applause?" Thompson is forced to ask a silent Iowan audience at the end of his 24 minutes of remarks. After a rustle of clapping and some laughter, he grumbles, "Well, I had to drag that out of you."

Drag seems to be the operative word here. Iowans saw a "subdued, laconic candidate who spoke in a soft monotone, threw few elbows and displayed little drive to distinguish himself from opponents," the Times reported. After he spoke recently, "stillness engulfed the room."

It may be that Thompson doesn't talk loud because he's not too sure of what he's talking about. In an interview with Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa on Monday, he referred to the "Soviet Union and China." At the end of her blog post on the exchange, Henderson wrote, "No, I did not mistype. Thompson said Soviet Union rather than Russia."

None Dare Call It Torture

The New York Times stops just short of using the "T word," preferring to call it "severe interrogations." But let's not beat around the bush: Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department secretly approved torture -- even as it told the rest of the world it didn't, and as Congress was passing laws to ban torture

In a long investigative piece, the Times digs up two classified opinions issued by the department under Gonzales' reign to prove it.

The first, issued soon after Gonzales' arrival as attorney general in 2005, for the first time provided "explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including headslapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures."

(That "simulated drowning," by the way, is the technique known as waterboarding: "pouring water over a bound prisoner's cloth-covered face to induce fear of suffocation.")

Meanwhile, the department's official stand to the public was the one it issued in 2004, calling torture "abhorrent."

Later in 2005, as Congress moved toward outlawing "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion declaring that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

If they didn't violate that standard, they at least produced some of the tainted results torture often yields: confessions to crimes the confessor probably didn't commit.

When the C.I.A. caught Khaid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, interrogators were "haunted by uncertainty." They used a variety of "tough interrogation tactics" about 100 times over two weeks on the man known as K.S.M., and got all kinds of confessions. The problem is, intelligence officers say that "many of Mr. Mohammed's statements proved exaggerated or false."

Reacting to the Times story, a White House spokeswoman said: "Our intelligence agencies legally obtain information. This country does not torture."

Republicans Backing Away From Free Trade

What the heck is happening to the Republican Party? Right on the heels of news that business leaders are abandoning the GOP comes another discomforting poll from the Wall Street Journal: By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy.

Six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad fo the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations on foreign imports. That represents a substantial shift from eight years ago, the Journal reports.

But no one gave the Republican presidential candidates the memo. They're all still campaigning on the party's traditional anti-protectionist platform.

Well, all except one. Ron Paul of Texas, who opposes the Iraq war and calls free-trade deals "a threat to our independence as a nation," announced yesterday that he raised $5 million in third-quarter donations. That nearly matches what one-time front-runner John McCain is expected to report.

The GOP's departure from its traditional stance is a bit puzzling to some, but a big clue to what's behind it can be found in this sentence: "In questions about a series of candidate stances, the only one drawing strong agreement from a majority of Republicans was opposition to abortion rights."


A NOTE TO READERS: The Skinny is available via e-mail. Click here and follow the directions to register to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

[santafeopera]

"There was this black man, a woman and an actor running for U.S president.... "
Posted by SkyFive at 01:49 PM : Oct 06, 2007

OK - still wiping tears away... LOL, LOL, LOL... sez it all.

[titancowboy3]

The left keeps attacking Fred Thompson. No one can do anything right except for Hillary. CBS has absolutely zero credibility. No one watches because they are so biased and misinformed. They can''t stand it that Fred Thompson represents a large part of this great country. They can''t stand it that he doesn''t stand up and lie and make promises he never intends to keep. The harder CBS pushes to try and sreer me away from Fred, the more determined I am to help him get elected.

[ioweign]

So what. Hairy Reid has 3 sons who are ALL Washington lobbyists. I''''m SURE your intellectual honesty finds that equally as repulsive, right?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by SignOf4 at 02:15 PM : Oct 04, 2007



Speaking of Honesty ---

Neil Bush was a member of the board of directors of Denver-based Silverado Savings and Loan during the 1980s'' larger Savings and Loan crisis. As his father was Vice President of the United States, Neil''s role in Silverado''s failure was a focal point of publicity. According to a piece in Salon Magazine, Silverado''s collapse cost taxpayers $1 billion.

The US Office of Thrift Supervision investigated the failure of Silverado and determined that Bush had engaged in numerous "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." Although Bush was not indicted on criminal charges, a civil action was brought against him and the other Silverado directors by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; it was eventually settled out of court, with Bush paying $50,000 as part of the settlement, as reported in the Style section of the Washington Post.

[kansas1946]

The New York Times stops just short of using the "T word," preferring to call it "severe interrogations." But let''s not beat around the bush: Alberto Gonzales'' Justice Department secretly approved torture -- even as it told the rest of the world it didn''t, and as Congress was passing laws to ban torture
*************************

Gosh, what a surprise. The Bush administration and his evil minions lying about something. Shock. Shock.

[kansas1946]

Gosh, I guess the Republican''s "Great White Hope" is losing in the first rounds. I really feel sorry for the Republicans. They just can''t find a candidate, and meanwhile, the Democrats just keep dragging in the money.

[clestes-2009]

Hey, I have a great idea!

Let''s subject Gonzo to the same truth getting practices he authorized to find out the truth about the firings of US prosecutors. AND what secrets he knew when WH attorney to shrub. AND what he knew about the secret wiretappings!!

I''ll bet all the murky workings of his devious and illegal activities will come right out!!

Blindfold him, ties his hands behind his back, strip him naked, and lead him into a room where there is a steady sound of running water. The force him on his back and you know what??? He will babbling like a baby in 2 seconds!!!

[dodaz-2009]

The Skinny: GOP Presidential Hopeful Described As Subdued, Laconic, Unfamiliar With Issues...

Duh !!.. Don''t we have one of those guys in the White House Already !!??..lol

[ghosttownsky]

So, if the interrogations did not include torture I assume anyone in the Administration would not object to the same techniques being used on them to get the whole truth on any issue on record.

[gunownerdan]

Fred who?

Go Ron Paul go!!

ronpaul2008.com

[missingamerica]

Posted by MyIDonCBS at 02:02 PM : Oct 04, 2007

Duke''s endorsement of Paul doesn''t bother me one way or another. For starters, Duke''s sly enough to endorse the one candidate he absolutely doesn''t want elected in order to harvest votes such as yours that can be influenced by an understandable abhorrence of what Duke stands for.

Secondly, it is also possible that Duke does have pro-America feelings underneath all of that layered bigotry and racism. Stranger things have co-existed in the same person; I believe John Wayne Gacy used to like to entertain children dressed as a clown.

By the way, I am mostly neutral on Paul''s suitability at this point, and perhaps I even lean against him. I''d hate for somebody to get in office who immediately cut all Federal government lifelines under the "sink or swim" theory.

A lot of Americans would drown.