I would love it if Fred Thompson ran for President in 2008.

I wouldn't vote for him or anything, I'd just love it if he ran on the Republican ticket in 2008. For anything really: senator, representative, Vice President, dogcatcher.

Why?

I love Law and Order. I like Law and Order: SVU, but not Criminal Intent so much. (One reason - Vincent D'Onofrio played the bad alien in Men in Black, and I keep expecting cockroaches.) CI is a good show, I just can't get into it too much.

Back to the regular Law and Order, I don't know when I started watching, it's a television institution, like SNL or the Simpsons, at least for me. It's always been there.

I love the detectives - the 'law' - and I love the prosecutors and ADAs - the 'order'.

I saw somewhere that it was originally set up so it could air as two separate 30 minute episodes, and you still see that cut today.

TNT airs reruns all the time, and even with their hideous commercial breaks that clearly don't match the old ones (do they do that to the Closer, their own series? I wonder), I love to watch them.

And I've seen other actors and actresses in Fred Thompson's role, the District Attorney. Directly before him, another old man. And in even older episodes - Lennie Briscoe and Benjamin Bratt (don't know the character's name) were the detectives - the DA was a woman.

I want Fred Thompson to run for office, any office, because he will have to leave the show.

And I do. not. like. him. At all. It has nothing to do with his politics (disagree with him) or his acting skills.

I just cannot stand the man. It's visceral, there's no logic to it. My mom backs me up. We think he looks like a bulldog or a bullfrog, we can't decide, and we hate hate hate his voice. Maybe it's the southern-but-not-southern part, I don't know.

I just can't stand him, and I'd love it if another elderly actor stepped in after DA Arthur Branch lost in the next local election (or retired, like Briscoe), giving Fred Thompson a chance to run for office again and get off one of my favorite shows.

His voice is patronizing, that's it. It's that patronizing Southern Authority voice that knows best.

Nothing against the man, this is all on appearances and sounds only, I know nothing of him politically except he was a Republican Tennessee Senator during Watergate.

According to Wikipedia, he went to Memphis State University, which is now the University of Memphis, which is where I'm going. Huh.

He later went on to Vanderbilt in Nashville for his law degree.

No, he was not a senator during Watergate. He was on the Senate Watergate Committee, working for Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee. Before that, he was an assistant US attorney until 1972, when he became Baker's campaign manager.

He got his acting start in 1985 in the movie Marie, which was about him working to get corrupt Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton out of office in 1977. (Blanton sold pardons - not just to turkeys.)

He became a Senator in 1994 in the race to fill Al Gore's spot. He beat the Democratic candidate by a large majority - 61%. He ran again in 1997 and won, beating a guy from Covington, which is a lot closer to me than Lawrenceburg, where Thompson grew up. (Southern border county of middle Tennessee - may explain the accent.)

In the 2000 presidential race, he backed Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander until he dropped out, and then Senator McCain until he dropped out. He was also considered for Bush's VP slot, but didn't have the family ties, money, and lack of ethics. (He was part of a committee that questioned Nixon, the President of the United States. Treason, sez I!)

After Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords became an Independent, he became the ranking minority leader.

He didn't want to run again when his term was up in 2002, which is when he joined Law and Order. Well he did, after the September eleventh attacks, making announcements, but changed his mind when his daughter died.

So he joined Law and Order.

But he didn't stop with the politics.

He did voice-over work for the 2004 Republican National Convention, probably because he'd been on a popular show for two years, so his voice was familiar to almost everyone, not just political junkies. And in 2005, Bush gave him an informal position to help John Roberts through the confirmations.

Ew, in 2006, his name was bandied about to run for Governor of Tennessee, but didn't. I wish he had. He would have lost to Bredesen (he's very popular for a Democrat in the south, must be the cutting TennCare thing), but he would have had to take a break from Law and Order!

And on March 19th, he won a poll on Hannity.com, beating Guiliani, McCain, Gingrich, and Romney by more than 50%. But he won't say yes or no yet, he's just"leav[ing] the door open".

According to another poll a few days later, by Rasmussen polls, he was ahead of Hillary Clinton by 1% - 44% to 43% with a margin of error of whatever.


Thank you, Wikipedia. By copying the information, or at least restating it, I gained more information and maybe educated you. I still couldn't find anything on his views, but I heard them somewhere and I know I disagree with most of them.


(Why did I pursue this information? Why didn't I just leave it at I hate the man on screen, he makes my skin crawl when I see him, he makes me want to barf when he opens his mouth? Why did I have to go beyond the shallow, the visceral? Because I was curious, because I want to learn all I can, even about somebody I can't stand the sight and sound of. I'm going to do well in school, this is even more evidence - the push for more and more knowledge. I'm hoarding it. My sister took the artistic talent and height, so I'm taking the curvy body and knowledge. For everything new I learn, she forgets something. Or so I like to think at 2:30 in the morning. God, I'm crazy.)



So, with all that in mind, I beg him to run for office, even though he didn't want to be a career politician. Maybe he could get a job with the next Republican governor of Tennessee, or work as a state Attorney or work in another Republican White House. (Please no.)

All right, I don't want him in office in Tennessee or Washington, because he's a Republican, and we need them out, out, OH-YOU-TEE, out of the top office.

The latest thing over firing 8 attorneys (that Bush appointed) should bring his office down. It's a small thing, compared to the many other malfeasances he and his office have done, but whatever works.

The main thing that stands out, that should get Americans angry is not the firing of the attorneys, but Bush's reaction to Congressional questions.

His aides will not testify under oath and there will be no transcript.

Why?

If his advisors knew they'd be questioned under oath about everything they said to him, they wouldn't properly advise him.

That's BULLSHIT.

The only reason he'd say that is if they've discussed illegal things.

Like the rationale for wiretapping everyone - why should it matter if you've done nothing wrong?

(Because it's a violation of our right to privacy, but that's not the point right now.)

Why can't they testify under oath, with a transcript, out in the open?

Because they have discussed firing people for not wearing a Bush pin every day in 2004 until the election, because they have done things that are illegal.

Not that I want Bush out of office prematurely, that could lead to President Cheney. I just hope this stains the Republican party long enough to get us a Democratic president - a real one, with backbone. I don't know who that is yet, but I hope they make it.

And I hope Fred Thompson takes a break from Law and Order to help the Republicans lose.