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March 19, 2007
Fred Thompson is Running
He says he hasn't decided, but who is he kidding? The guy's been in showbiz long enough to know the value of anticipation, and he's letting it build.
Mr. Thompson says that while a senator he was long concerned with U.S. intelligence failures. "The CIA has better politicians than it has spies," he says, referring to the internecine turf wars that have been a feature of the Bush administration.I'm beginning to really like what I'm hearing.A key problem, Mr. Thompson notes, is a general lack of accountability in government, where no one pays any price for failure. When asked about President Bush's awarding the Medal of Freedom to outgoing CIA Director George Tenet after U.S. intelligence failures in Iraq became apparent, he shakes his head: "I just didn't understand that."
The next president, according to Mr. Thompson, needs to exercise strong leadership "and get down in the weeds and fix a civil-service system that makes it too hard to hire good employees and too hard to fire bad ones." He doesn't offer specifics on what to do, but notes the "insanity" of the new Congress pushing for the unionization of homeland security employees only five years after it rejected the notion in the wake of 9/11. "Should we tie ourselves up in bureaucratic knots with the challenges we may have to face?" he asks in wonderment.
The challenges, he says, are numerous. On Iraq, he admits "we are left with nothing but bad choices." However, he says the "worst choice" would be to have Osama bin Laden proven right when he predicted America wouldn't have the stomach for a tough fight. The costs of Iraq have been high, but they could be even higher "if we have another stain on America like that infamous scene from Saigon 1975 in which our helicopters took off leaving those who supported us grabbing at the landing skids."
Posted by slublog at March 19, 2007 08:38 AM
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Comments
I'm beginning to really like what I'm hearing.
That's right, big boy!
I knew you'd come around.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 19, 2007 07:41 PM
Heh. He's not in the race yet, but he sounds good.
Posted by: Slublog at March 19, 2007 07:45 PM
Sorry, above was me.
Posted by: rickinstl at March 19, 2007 08:16 PM
Thompson has that feeling of inevitability.
The rest of the field (rep & dem) is so bad, a guy like him will feel right to the majority.
And America is a lucky nation. Over the years, when we've really needed a good one, we've found one.
We're going to need a good one.
Posted by: rickinstl at March 19, 2007 08:21 PM