Wednesday, October 03, 2007

FRED THOMPSON

In 1996, A Thompson Spokesman Said It Was "Inaccurate' To Say He Voted the Newt Gingrich Line

One of Fred Thompson's rivals must have an active opposition research effort, because this news nugget from the past was dropped in my lap:

“[Houston Gordon, Thompson’s 1996 Senate Opponent]…said Thompson has voted like House Speaker Newt Gingrich …. ‘He voted the New Gingrich line. He’s a Newt Gingrich Republican. I don’t care how many pickup trucks he drives or how many times he travels across the state spitting tobacco. That’s his vote. I’m not making that up.” … Alex Pratt, spokesman for the Thompson campaign, said Gordon was resorting to a Democratic strategy being used in campaigns around the country: to tie every Republican candidate to Gingrich. “It’s old, it’s tiresome and it’s inaccurate,” she said of Gordon’s effort to link Thompson to Gingrich.”

That story comes from September 11, 1996 edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, in an article by Nate Hobbs entitled "Democratic Opponent Tries to Link Thompson, Gingrich."

I guess this could be turned around by the Thompson campaign, to address charges their man was one of the less effective members of the Republican class of 1994. Maybe they'll ask Houston Gordon to travel around with Fred Thompson and at every stop to say "he voted the New Gingrich line. He’s a Newt Gingrich Republican" to GOP audiences.

10/03 02:04 PMShare