Friendly Fred Flickers

On June 6, 1973 President Richard Nixon was discussing possible Supreme Court appointments (Abuse of Power, Stanley I. Kutler, p. 585)....

Nixon attorney Fred BUZHARDT: We've got pretty good rapport with Fred Thompson.

PRESIDENT NIXON: He isn't -- he isn't very smart, is he?

BUZHARDT: He squeezed Gurney. Not extremely so, but --

PRESIDENT NIXON: But he's friendly.

BUZHARDT: But he's friendly.

PRESIDENT NIXON: Good.

There it is, Friendly Fred.

As Yogi would say, this is "deja vu all over again".... a dim friendly.... Boy George's taller twin.

Is it possible GOP primary voters can be that gullible? Will they fall for another thin-resume good-ol'-boy "compassionate conservative."

As Ruth Marcus points out in "Still Waiting for Thompson," .... "Go to a Fred Thompson rally and for $5 you can buy an 'I'm a Fred-Head' button. But you might not be able, at any price, to learn what exactly is in Fred's head." Oh Ruth.... you're still assuming what many others seem to be assuming, that there is something in Fred's head.

When conservative cheerleader Sean Hannity asked Thompson about the other GOP candidates and how Fred's positions differed from theirs, Friendly Fred opined.... "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the details of their positions."

George F. Will today takes dead aim at Friendly Fred in "A Rocky Rollout For Thompson." Calling Fred's plunge into the presidential pool more a belly-flop than a swan dive. And he notes, not only is Fred unfamiliar with the positions of others, "he also is unfamiliar with the details of his own positions."

And, in case his.... uhhh.... diminished wattage and lack of intellectual curiosity doesn't provoke four-alarm Boy George similarities, how about Fred's ethics.

Here's his comment about why the government shouldn't tell individuals how much they can give political candidates.... "Why should the government... tell a loan officer that he cannot accept money from someone trying to get a loan from him... and then go ahead and give that person a loan?... I mean, it's bribery in the real world."

Ah yes, Republican presidential candidate Friendly Fred and his world view. Is the GOP really this desperate?

Gonzo's Just the Messenger

The GOP loudly derided then President Clinton's testimony surrounding his Monicagate sexcapade when he famously parsed.... "It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is."

What was at stake with this crafty argument?.... no laws had been broken, no rights had been impinged, no monies or lives had been squandered. He was trying to avoid an inflamed GOP impeachment posse trying to run down a president they hated.... because he was a straying husband.

Let's compare that voyeuristic clash with the current, to be kind, "parsing" of Attorney General Gonzales in testimony revolving around the Bush administration's invasion of our basic rights under the Constitution.

According to Ruth Marcus in "Short of Perjury," Gonzo in Senate testimony "dissembled," and "misled" with "linguistic evasion" about a Justice Department and White House dispute over the DOJ's denial for the continuation of a surveillance program.

But she doesn't think he actually "lied."

Quoting from the New York Times regarding Gonzo's testimony in February 2006 about his nighttime visit to Ashcroft, in pain and on medication, compared to his testimony of last week.... "If the dispute chiefly involved data mining, rather than eavesdropping, Mr. Gonzales' defenders may maintain that his narrowly crafted answers, while legalistic, were technically correct."

Actually, it all boils down to a Clintonian "what "program" the program is."

The Democratic-led Congress, rather than gathering their own posse to run Gonzo to ground over this parsing, should perhaps "concentrate on determining what the administration did - and under what claimed legal authority - that produced the hospital room showdown."

Marcus makes a good point.... Gonzo is just the decoy, the lawbreaking gang leaders hang out in the White House.