Fred Thompson

Fred Dalton Thompson
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office December 2, 1994–January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Harlan Matthews
Succeeded by	Lamar Alexander
Personal details
Nationality	american
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey (Knestrick), 1959-1985; div. (2) Jeri Kehn, 2002-
Profession	lawyer, lobbyist, registered foreign agent, character actor, public speaker

For the silent movie actor, see Fred Thomson.

Fred Dalton Thompson (born August 19, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, character actor and former Republican Senator from Tennessee (now a resident of McLean, Virginia), who has announced that he is considering a bid in the 2008 Presidential Election.

In addition to acting, Thompson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. China Economic & Security Review Commission and a Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, researching national security and intelligence. Thompson is also signed as a public speaker with the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Also a special program host and senior analyst for ABC News Radio, Thompson sometimes fills in for Paul Harvey.

Early life

Thompson was born in Sheffield, Alabama, USA, to Ruth Bradley and Fletcher Thompson, a used-car dealer. He grew up attending the public schools in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. In 1959, Thompson married his first wife Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey when he was 17 and the couple lived for the next year in public housing.

Thompson first attended Florence State College and then Memphis State University where he earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and political science in 1964. At this time, Fred and Sarah Thompson "...both worked to put Thompson through Vanderbilt and support three kids" and Thompson later received his J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1967.

Attorney

Thompson was admitted to the Tennessee Bar Association in 1967 and commenced the practice of law, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1969–1972. He was the campaign manager for moderate Republican and U.S. Senator Howard Baker's successful re-election campaign in 1972, which led to a close personal friendship with Baker, and he served as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in its investigation of the Watergate scandal, (1973–1974). He was responsible for Baker's asking one of the questions that is said to have led directly to the downfall of President Richard Nixon—"What did the President know, and when did he know it?" Also, Thompson's voice has become immortalized in recordings of the Watergate proceedings, asking the key question, "Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President?"

In 1977, Thompson took on a Tennessee Parole Board case that ultimately toppled Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton from power on charges of selling pardons.

Washington, D.C., lobbyist

In 1975, Thompson began his eighteen year engagement as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., eventually representing clients including Westinghouse, General Electric (the current corporate owner of the NBC Universal-NBC television network), and the Tennessee Savings and Loan League.

By 1982, Thompson worked the U.S. Congress membership as a lobbyist for passage of the Savings and Loan deregulation legislation desired by the Tennessee Savings and Loan League --- in this case, federal deregulation legislation allowing for additional government support of ailing S&Ls; giving U.S. thrifts the freedom to invest in potentially more profitable, but riskier, ventures; and eliminating interest-rate ceilings on new accounts to increase S&Ls' competitiveness. Enacted into law in September 1982, the Senate bill pushed by Thompson was incorporated into the Garn - St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982. The Garn - St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 is widely credited with having laid the groundwork for the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s.

In 1991, Thompson began working with the Washington, D.C., firm Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn as a registered foreign agent representing overseas business entities.

Character actor

The 1977 Ray Blanton-Tennessee Parole Board scandal later became the subject of a book and a movie titled Marie (1985) in which Thompson played himself, supposedly because the producers were unable to find a professional actor who could play him plausibly. While his film role in Marie launched his acting career, Thompson was divorced from his first wife of twenty-five years, Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey, during this same year.

Thompson would go on to appear as racist demagogue "Dr. Knox Pooley" in a five episode story arc of the TV series Wiseguy (1988), and has also been in subsequent feature films, including No Way Out (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Cape Fear (1991), and In the Line of Fire (1993). A 1994 New York Times profile described his authoritarian character roles as such:

The glowering, hulking Mr. Thompson has played a White House chief of staff, a director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a highly placed F.B.I. agent, a rear admiral, even a senator. When Hollywood directors need someone who can personify governmental power, they often turn to him.

In the final months of his U.S. Senate term in 2002, Thompson joined the cast of the long-running NBC television series Law & Order, playing the character Arthur Branch.

In the spring of 2005 Thompson concurrently played the role on both the original series and short-lived sister series Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Thompson has also made occasional appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and appeared in the pilot episode of Conviction. He is one of very few actors who plays the same regular character on two different series simultaneously.

Filmography

• Marie (1985)
• No Way Out (1987)
• Feds (1988)
• Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
• The Hunt for Red October (1990)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
• Flight of the Intruder (1991) (uncredited)
• Class Action (1991)
• Necessary Roughness (1991)
• Curly Sue (1991)
• Cape Fear (1991)
• Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992)
• Thunderheart (1992)
• White Sands (1992) (uncredited)
• Born Yesterday (1993)
• In the Line of Fire (1993)
• Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
• Baby's Day Out (1994)
• Celsius 41.11 (2004)
• Racing Stripes (2005, voice)
• Last Best Chance (2005)
• Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)

Candidate and United States Senator

In 1994, Thompson was elected by the people of Tennessee to finish the remaining two years of Al Gore's unexpired Senate term. Thompson was easily re-elected in 1996 (for the term ending January 3 2003) over Democratic attorney Houston Gordon of Covington, Tennessee, by an even larger margin than that by which he had defeated Cooper two years earlier. During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election primary campaign Thompson served as the national campaign chairman for his friend, U.S. Senator John McCain.

While in the Senate, he served as the chairman of the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1997 to 2001, which conducted investigations into allegations that China attempted to influence American politics prior to the 1996 elections (See: campaign finance scandal) and January 20 to June 6 2001. During 1997, Thompson was "...largely stymied" during his 1997 U.S. Senate investigations of both Clinton-Gore and GOP campaign fund-raising activities, more particularly with witnesses for the Thompson investigations declining to testify, claiming the right not to incriminate themselves or simply leaving the United States' jurisdiction.

On February 12 1999, after days of consideration of the Clinton impeachment, the Senate voted on the articles of impeachment. Fred Thompson voted not to convict then President Clinton on article 1: the perjury article, but voted guilty on article 2: the obstruction of justice article. The Senate failed to convict Clinton on the Obstruction article by a vote of 50-50. Impeachment requires 67 senators to vote to convict the President before the president could be removed from office.

In the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, Thompson initially backed former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander. When Alexander dropped out of the race, Thompson endorsed Senator John McCain's bid and became his national co-chairman.

When the reorganization of the Senate prompted by the resignation of James Jeffords of Vermont from the Republican Party changed the control of the Senate. Thompson then became the ranking minority member.

After the Senate

Thompson was not a candidate for re-election in 2002. He had never planned to make a lifetime career of the Senate, and had often publicly stated as much. Although he announced in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks his intention to seek re-election, upon further reflection, which seems to have been prompted in large part by the sudden death of his daughter (Elizabeth "Betsy" Thompson Panici) on January 30, 2002 from complications related to a heart attack, he decided not to pursue this course.

Thompson married Jeri Kehn in Naperville, Illinois, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ on June 29, 2002. Kehn (born January, 1967) is an attorney and a political media consultant at the Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, and McPherson law firm in Washington, D.C., and she once worked for the Senate Republican Conference and the Republican National Committee. According to a July 1, 2002, Washington Post article "Senator Thompson marries", Thompson first met the then 29 year old Jeri Kehn on July 4, 1996.

In October 2003, Fred and Jeri Thompson had their first child, Hayden Victoria Thompson, and another child was born during November 2006 . Fred Thompson also has three grown children from a previous marriage, one of whom is deceased, and five grandchildren

Thompson did voice-over work at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

After the retirement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2005, he was appointed to an informal position by President George W. Bush to help guide the nomination of John Roberts through United States Senate confirmation. He also is the chair of the International Security Advisory Board, a bipartisan advisory panel that reports to the Secretary of State and focuses on emerging strategic threats.

In 2006, Thompson signed on with ABC News Radio to serve as senior analyst and vacation replacement for Paul Harvey.

Though he had never met I. Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Jr prior to 2006, Thompson lent moral and financial support to Libby while on trial for his role in the Plame affair, serving on the advisory board of Libby's defense fund that had taken in 3.5 million USD as of February 9, 2007.

2008 presidential bid?

There recently has been a grass-roots draft movement started by a former Thompson political aide in Knoxville, Tennessee to encourage Thompson to run an election campaign for U.S. President in 2008. While Thompson has not yet formally announced his intentions, he has said he will "leave the door open."

A March 23 2007, Rasmussen Reports poll had him ahead of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton with 44 percent to Clinton's 43 percent (a statistical tie, given margin of error), however a later Fox News poll had Clinton leading 51-34.

On March 27, a USA Today/Gallup poll of both Republicans and Republican-leaning Independent placed Thompson in third place (12%) and behind both Rudy Giuliani (31%) and John McCain (22%) among fourteen Republican candidates. According to Gallup, "Giuliani's shrinking lead in the latest poll has to do with both the inclusion of Fred Thompson in the trial heat as well as a more general drop in support."

On March 28, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson commented on a possible Thompson presidential run, saying he thought the former senator was not a Christian. Dobson said in a phone call to Dan Gilgoff, senior editor at U.S. News & World Report. "[But] I don’t think he's a Christian. At least that’s my impression.” Thompson's spokesman later said that Thompson is a Christian, and was "baptized into the Church of Christ." A Dobson spokesman then clarified Dobson meant he thought Thompson was not a "committed" or "evangelical" Christian.

An April 3, Gallup Poll reveals "...that two-thirds of Americans say that nothing at all comes to mind when they think about 'Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.'"

A poll released on April 10, by Vision America reveals that 37.6% of self-identified 'values voters' support Fred Thompson.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Wednesday, April 11, indicates Thompson, who has yet to announce his candidacy, has risen to #2, ahead of Arizona Senator John McCain. Among republicans polled, 29 percent prefer former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, 15 percent favor Thompson, while only 12 percent prefer McCain, who once led the pack.

Cancer

In an April 2007 interview on Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News, Thompson declared that he has lymphoma, an incurable form of cancer, but said the illness is treatable. "I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future — and with no debilitating side effects," Thompson said.

Electoral history

• 1996 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Fred Thompson (R) (inc.), 61%
  • Houston Gordon (D), 37%

• 1994 Race for U.S. Senate (Special Election)
  • Fred Thompson (R), 60%
  • Jim Cooper (D), 39%

External links

• United States Congress. "Fred Thompson (id: T000457)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Fred Dalton Thompson at IMDb
• United States Senator Fred Dalton Thompson Congressional Website (From Internet Archive retrieved 03 January 2007)
• Hometown Biography- Fred Thompson Hometown Biography
• On the Issues - Fred Thompson issue positions and quotes
• Center for Responsive Politics (aka OpenSecrets.org) campaign contributions
  • 2002 (Senator) 2000 (Senator) (Senator) 1996 (Senator) 1994 (Member of Congress)
• Washington Post "Congress Votes Database: Fred Thompson" (voting record)
• Sun-Times "Thompson's White House Talk is No Act". Robert Novak.
• Draft Fred Thompson - The Draft Fred Thompson movement