By JOHN PODHORETZ
March 13, 2007 -- SO now we have a Republican boomlet in the race for president, in the person of lawyer-actor and ex-Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and "Law and Order." He's considering a run, he said on Sunday.
He'd make for a thrilling candidate, in part because he would be the first person in history to run for president after playing a president in a film about a terrorist attack (2005's "Last Best Chance"). Thompson has also appeared on film as a White House chief of staff, the director of both the CIA and the FBI, and has been the fictional representative of very nearly every service of the U.S. military.
Now, it would be foolish for anyone to dismiss the Thompson candidacy because of his career as a performer. He was and is one of the most intelligent and interesting people in American politics. His journey to the screen was the equivalent of a freak meteorological event. "When people ask me how to get into the movies," he once told me, "I tell them, 'Stand around until you get hit by lightning. That's how it happened to me.' "
Thompson became famous before he turned 30, as the counsel to the Republicans on the Watergate committee. He was the person who asked Nixon White House official Alexander Butterfield the question that changed American history: Was there a secret taping system inside the White House? Butterfield answered "yes" - and the rapid downward slide toward the Nixon resignation commenced in earnest.
After his tenure in D.C., Thompson went back to his native Tennessee and hung out a legal shingle. A few years later, he represented a remarkable woman named Marie Ragghianti - who had discovered that the state's governor was actually selling pardons to imprisoned crooks.
When Hollywood descended on Nashville to make a movie about her story, Thompson sat in on the casting sessions for the actor to play him. After a few days, the movie's casting director, Lynn Stalmaster, said, "Fred, do you want to give it a try?"
Thompson took a walk around the block, went over the script a few times, came back in and read the scene. He got the part.
Thompson was 42 at the time. He dominated the last 30 minutes of the film and stole it from star Sissy Spacek.
At the same time that his film career was taking off, he continued to practice law and was part of a team of trustees appointed to clean up and administer the enormous (and enormously corrupt) Teamsters' pension fund.
In 1994, he ran for the Senate in Tennessee and won in a walk. He served for eight years before returning to private life.
What's interesting about Thompson's bid is that he is clearly thinking of entering the race to play a part he has yet to fill on screen: as the tribune of the Right.
Two unconventional Republicans, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, are far ahead of the pack, and there's a sense abroad in the land that there's no authentic conservative in the race who has a chance of winning.
In his appearance on Sunday, Thompson specifically declared himself pro-life and an opponent of gun control - two areas in which Rudy Giuliani takes an apostate's view, as far as the Republican base is concerned.
There's something a tiny bit off about Thompson playing the right-wing card. He is a political disciple of Howard Baker, the former Tennessee senator who was one of the defining figures of moderate Republicanism in the second half of the 20th century. And as a career trial lawyer himself, Thompson stoutly opposed efforts in the mid-1990s to impose tort reform - a key issue for the Right.
It would be a terrific thing if Fred Thompson entered the race, because he's a big personality with a remarkable command of the issues and the kind of eloquence that we're only seeing right now from Barack Obama.
A Republican primary with Giuliani, McCain and Thompson duking it out would be a battle of titans - generating interest and enthusiasm that might provide a welcome contrast to the awkward conflicts among the Democrats.
The GOP doesn't have a strong hand to play in 2008, but a fascinating primary season will do wonders to bring the party's candidate into serious contention. Thompson can help that along, one way or another.
jpodhoretz@gmail.com
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