The Next Four-Branch Presidency

Since Fred Thompson got into the Presidential race in a big way, I’ve increasingly been getting this creepy feeling. I keep thinking: when was the last time we had a charismatic (if ugly, in this case) candidate who knows nothing about policy and is even less interested in taking a stand on policy, who seems to be hiring the right advisors, but who himself, still seems to be Bush league. Yeah–I’m getting a weird Bush feeling from Thompson.

Add in the fact that he might easily prevent Al Gore from winning the Presidency (again) by ensuring a Tennessee win.

Most importantly, though, I have imagined that Thompson is the GOP’s best chance to replicate the un-American structure of the Bush Presidency, where all the major decisions appear to be made in the margins, by Cheney, all the while Cheney protects himself by invoking his creative theories of being a fourth branch of government. You see, I’m really beginning to believe that Thompson is in so that those committed to continuing the basic policies of the Bush Administration can do so, once again behind the facade of a puppet president.

And then I read this:

Politico‘s Mike Allen told NPR that Fred Thompson has a notable foreign policy advisor: first daughter of the OVP, Liz Cheney.

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  1. kate says:

    Fred may be crowned â€Most Likely to Be Just Like Bush,†but really any vote for a Republican candidate (except Paul, I know) is voting for more â€stay the course.†Nothing, and I mean nothing, will change. It will be Bush Re-dux all over again.

  2. irene says:

    Wow. I actually gasped when I read that last line. Not loudly, but definitely a gasp. Very creepy indeed. Is Fred Thompson the point of convergence among two Republican camps… the camp that wants Reagan v.2 for President and the camp that wants GWBush v.2?

  3. Anonymous says:

    EW: Once again, you dangle a tantalizing idea. Thompson is the only candidate (I have personally heard) GWB â€endorse by saying something nice about him. He is the only candidate, I know of, who wrote a letter in support of Scooter-baby. Yes, it is a frightening idea to think that he will run as Cheney’s beard…and if he wins, we have 4 more years of Cheney and most certainly an even greater threat of nuclear war.

  4. freepatriot says:

    wow, the shit stain like fred

    what a fucking surprise

    our troll, who has NO FUCKING CLUE, likes a candidate who has NO FUCKING CLUE

    funny how that works out, ain’t it ???

    I hear that fred wants to attack Iran, that oughta be a really fucking popular platform plank (oughta get 28% of the voters right there)

    now it looks like fred is willing to be a sock puppet for dead eye dick, that ought to impress another 10% of the voters

    Oh, wait, that second 10% is already counted in the first 28%

    so it looks like fred will gain a solid 28% of the voters

    that would be pretty good for a repuglican in 2008

    so who here is surprised that the shit stain has aligned herself with the solid 28% of the voters who support repuglicans ???

    ROTFLMAO

    thanks for the good laugh, shit stain

  5. Pete says:

    What charisma? I agree though with the central premise that Thompson is another candidate like Bush – high on positioning and low on substance.

    Don’t count out the Bush fatigue among the voters.

  6. John Lopresti says:

    Even with these images of Thompson and his companion, image, her political biography, I would expect Gore and several other Democrats would be stronger at the ballot box. Thompson is outside the mainstream, even though there is some merit to his appetite for a vigorous existence. The most worrisome aspect of his constitution, though, is the likely willingness to provide job security to Rove and the crew that diluted the justice department during Rove’s watch.

  7. freepatriot says:

    I don’t care what the repuglicans pull out of their asses in 2008

    America has seen the repuglicasn party in action and they’re completely revolted

    george bush’s war was recieving a 23% approval rating on friday

    Oh, and did I mention that the disapproval numbers for george’s war ???

    73% of Americans reject george bush’s war

    so thompson, gulianni, mccain, and the rest of the fossilized white guys running for the repuglican party’s nomination, are supported in their war mongering by a solid 23% of the People of the United States

    now can somebody splain how launching another ill-advised, ill-planned, and incompetently executed attack against ANOTHER COUNTRY THAT NEVER ATTACKED US is going to add to that 23% who support our current ill-advised, ill-planned, and incompetently executed attack against A COUNTRY THAT NEVER ATTACKED US ???

    I don’t see how digging a deeper hole helps America, or the repuglican party

    maybe the shit stain could splain it

  8. Kagro X says:

    Wow, Jodi likes Fred. What a shocker.

    He’s on the teevee!

    â€Good governance!†Dun-Dun!

  9. freepatriot says:

    yo, desertwind

    all your trolls are belong to me

    translated in english: I’m the designated shit stain basher around here

    I don’t offer a lot of my opinions here cuz my opinions are mostly reflected in the works of the staff around here (and I mostly just state the obvious anyway)

    I’ve been an emptywheel fan since before this joint existed. I consider the shit stain to be a personal insult to my existence. based on past attacks on EW by the shitstain, I decided that the shit stain needs to be attacked on almost EVERY FUCKING POST, so that newbies could recognize the shit stain for what it is

    the way I see it, the fact that you recognize the symbiotic relationship between myself and the shitstain kinda proves that my method is working. If the shit stain is easily recognized as a joke around here, I’m willing to be seen as a joke too. I don’t care if you take my comments seriously (cuz a lot of others are saying the same thing)

    I ain’t no pacifist, I fight back

    I’m not a bully, but I like beating the shit out of bullies

    the shit stain like being a bully, and I like kicking ass on bullies like the shit stain (it’s probably a psycological disorder, but I’ve survived this long …)

    to make a long story short, if you like to pick on people, I’ll make it my business to pick on you

    the shit stain is so intelectually dishonest and ignorant with her repeated foolish attacks and cowardly inability to answer simple questions that her presence here should come with a warning label

    and I’m the label …

  10. Frank Probst says:

    I know that die-hard Republicans love the guy, and he’s already being anointed by some as Reagan II, but I can’t see him winning many states outside of the South. The folksy Southerner routine is going to remind people too much of Bush, as will the â€He’s lazy, but he’ll hire good people†theme we’re already hearing from DC. Despite his supposed charisma, it’s going to be fairly easy for Democrats to tag him as Bush-with-a-trophy-wife. I think most people in the midwest and mountain states (which are going to decide the election) are going to take one look at him and vote the other way.

  11. orionATL says:

    four-branch presidency?

    so where does this leave the â€unitary executive†theory –

    father, son, holy ghost, and v-p’s office?

  12. itwasntme says:

    Ugh. This post gave me a stomach ache. Yes, he will probably â€win†Tennessee. Whoever the candidate is for the Reich, they will â€winâ€, because the electoral system has probably been corrupted beyond repair.

    We’re hanging around for the next election, but if the Reigh wins, we are looking at Spain or Ireland as a reasonable place to live out our retirement years.

  13. Frank Probst says:

    orionATL: That one’s going to come back to bite them in the ass, I think. If you aren’t in the executive branch, then you can’t have exective privilege, just for starters.

    For that matter, I think a lot of their stunts are going to come back to bite them in the ass, and soon. The biggest one will be Scooter Libby’s Appointments Clause appeal. It’s going to fail, as Pat Fitzgerald was already appointed as an AUSA with the advice and consent of the Senate. However, a lot of defense lawyers out there are going to say, â€Hey, wait a sec. The AUSA in charge of my client’s case was put in by Bush under a PATRIOT Act provision that the Senate has already repealed. And that AUSA is STILL THERE, and they sure as hell didn’t have the advice or consent of the Senate.†All of those defense lawyers are going to be able to cut-and-paste Libby’s appeal into their briefs. It isn’t going to be pretty.

  14. MarkH says:

    A Bush-Rove tactic is to win the Dem candidate’s home state, so as to push that Dem into defending defending defending, rather than going out and winning a bunch of other states.

    Notice they’re trying to find somebody (Giuliani), anybody (Bloomberg) to really fight for New York against Clinton and they’re holding onto the possibility of Fred Thompson to fight for Tennessee if Gore jumps into the race.

    They have a problem with Chicago and North Carolina, having no real candidates to fight for those states should Obama or Edwards win the Dem nomination.

  15. John Lopresti says:

    I wonder what committee in congress is soft pedaling Tova Wang’s desire to testify. It looks like EAC has gagged her, refusing even to reply directly to her attorney’s request for the right to testify. Her research helped launch the US attorney voter suppression expose.

    In NC, Republican vote suppression politics, as usual; but that is a state that sometimes votes Democratic.

  16. Neil says:

    Thompsen can read a script and lobby. He’s a two trick pony. He used to have a serious career in government in the 1970s as counsel during the watergate hearings. That was 35 years ago. Now he baselessly criticizes the Libby prosecution and makes money as a lobbyist. Yes, he resigned from Dun Dun. Has he governed a state? Been elected Senator? Been elected Congressmen? No? nothing?

    But everyone knows his face and his [tv] personality.

    Sheep. You’d think they’d learn.

    Remember the CEO predindet who didn’t believe in nation building. Dun Dun.

  17. radiofreewill says:

    I still say Thompson’s only hope is to replace a resigning Cheney.

    That’s the kind of odds the Bush-legacy hiers would like to have – they’d pimp their boy Thompson into the White House for that.

  18. William Ockham says:

    I have lots to stay about the wonderful posts today, but the first thing I want to say is that Fred Thompson is not the chosen successor. Mitt Romney is the chosen successor.

  19. orionATL says:

    thompson maybe a playboy; he may be a has-been; he may be lazy; he may be an idiot – like the man he seeks to replace,

    and yes, e’wheel,

    he is as ugly as any troll that ever sat under a bridge,

    but

    the danger of thompson is the same as that of reagan,

    once you have acquired long experience looking into the camera,

    in short, in faking it but looking convincing anyway,

    you really do have a tremendous advantage on other presidential candidates.

    i’m much more concerned about bloomberg’s candidacy, if it happens, and much, much more interested in bloomberg’s motivations, which i simply cannot fathom at present.

    but thompson’s teeveee experience,

    much as it pains me to type this,

    puts him in the top echelon of republican candidates.

    as reagan and bush have both demonstrated, you don’t need much of a brain to win an american presidential election,

    just some good p.r., continuous pay-offs to the main stream media, a subtle, winking touch with racism, and the ability to fake concern, conviction, and command.

  20. marksb says:

    Well, I can’t see Mitt as the Chosen One. All that Mormanism screws up the evangelical vote, and what has the GOP got without the evangelicals? Nada.

    Fred, well hell, I just can’t wait to see the lurid stories, with color pix, of his history with well-endowed women. Just imagine the chance to turn the country’s fascination with Clinton’s bimbo problem back on the other side. Not to mention Fred’s little Jewish problem: “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money. You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that,†Thompson told the crowd, according to Haaretz.

    Rudy’s gonna have to do better with the whole 9/11 hero thing, what with the firefighters and other REAL heros coming after him. And that’s just the start of his problems.

    But the media loves, needs, craves a horse race, so all of this shit will be ignored for whomever gets chosen in the back room of the GOP.

  21. William Ockham says:

    [Not sarcasm]
    freepatriot,

    After my last exchange with Jodi on torture, I decided that I must object to your references to Jodi as ’shit stain’. This is really unfair to shit stains. Although they are repulsive, shit stains really can’t help it. Jodi, on the other hand, chooses to revel in the vile and odious. I propose that you replace your epithet with the phrase ’torture lover’.

    However you decide, I do promise never to get into your business again by responding to Jodi (unless she decides to relent on the torture issue, I do believe everybody can be redeemed).

  22. freepatriot says:

    as requested by William Ockham, I apologize to any skidmarks who may have been offended by my comparison to our resident troll

    I don’t think our skidmark can help it either

    some people just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to admit they are wrong. It’s a widespread problem that America is slowly shaking off, but I suspect that the skidmark will resist all cures

    with all due reverence to our â€Keeper of the Razorâ€, the skidmark’s local trangressions widely exceed just the question of torture

    in fact, there is hardly a topic where the skidmark has failed to post her odious talking points, and made a laughingstock of herself

    repentence requires contrition (for the skidmark it would also require a full frontal lobotomy) and I’m not a very forgiving person anyway, so even if the skidmark renounces her detestible stand on torture, I plan to keep torturing the skidmark’s reputation around here for as long as the skidmark continues her laughable appearences here

    we now return you to your regularly scheduled laughfest at repuglican presidental candidates …

  23. katie Jensen says:

    Fred scares me the most as well. His lobbyist days surely give him access and power that we can only guess.

    They are desperate to maintain power. Is it peak oil that drives this need or is it fear that a democratic administration will out them once and for all.

  24. Anonymous says:

    â€the chance to turn the country’s fascination with Clinton’s bimbo problem back on the other side. Not to mention Fred’s little Jewish problem: “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money. You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that,†Thompson told the crowd, according to Haaretz.â€

    That was Tommy Thompson, not Fred Thompson. The Israeli’s are really starting to warm to the guy.

    â€Has he governed a state? Been elected Senator? Been elected Congressmen? No? nothing?â€

    Twice elected Senator of Tennessee in 1994 (to replace Al Gore in a special election), and again in 1996 for a full term. 8 years. Same as Hillary come next year.

    On another note, you guys are playing right into his hands. Haven’t you figured out the golden rule of the 1999 election? The more you talk down about him, the more you lower his expectations. Bush did it to perfection in 1999. He went into the debates, and he didn’t come off quite as dumb as everyone made him out to be, and redstaters were impressed. Yes, Thompson would wipe the floor with any candidate in the south, so the best bet is to play up the Reagan thing in the north so these people will be disappointed in the end.

  25. eyesonthestreet says:

    I just read this blog at WashPo by Bob Woodward and here he was asked about Fred Thompson,
    it is a question and answer thing with the reporter:

    â€Fairfax, Va.: Fred Thompson was on Watergate committee chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin and asked the crucial question about whether Nixon kept tape recordings. What did you think of him back then? What do you think of him now?

    Bob Woodward: First of all, when Fred Thompson (who was the Republican counsel to the Senate Watergate committee) asked Alexander Butterfield the question about possible tape recordings in the White House or Oval Office, Thompson, like a good lawyer, knew the answer — because three days before the public testimony, lawyers and investigators for the committee got Butterfield to reveal the existence of the secret tape-recording system. Though Thompson seems to get public credit for asking this critical question, it was the work of others on the committee staff who dug out Butterfield’s revelation in a lengthy interview on a hot Friday afternoon on July 13, 1973.

    I’ve known Fred Thompson for 35 years in his various roles — he seems to be doing very well as an undeclared candidate, and of course the real test will come if he actually decides to run.â€

    link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..iscussions

    Sam Ervin- all so innocent then.

    (it’s too bad your excellent diary is â€stained†but it is easy enough to â€know†who to skip over now that I have been here for awhile). I love puzzles and love seeing how you put the pieces together, or have hanging shapes not yet fitted – and the surprises when they do.

  26. Anonymous says:

    So I wasn’t alone thinking Fred got the nod from the junta? None of the rest of the field has so far been able to either sucker the public and/or mouth the crap they expect them to say, like this election’s â€compassionate conservatismâ€. Beginning to wonder if Rove’s math actually terrified him enough to get a new candidate; the math in Scott Jennings presentation certainly didn’t look good last winter.

  27. Mimikatz says:

    Thompson played a kind of neo-Nazi leader on several episodes of â€Wiseguy†when he first got into acting.

    Isn’t his wife pals with Barbara Comstock?

    The public is really not anywhere near as conservative as the punditocrisy would have you believe. If one of the Dems can find his/her voice and promise to get us out of Iraq, bring universal health care and reverse Bush policies so as to reduce income inequality (such as preferential treatment of investment income over wage and salary income), they can win.

  28. Mimikatz says:

    And based on some of FThompson’s answers to questions, I believe the show is â€Dum Dumâ€.

    Like the rest of the GOP field, he knows next to nothing about foreign policy or the nuances of the folks we are dealing with in the ME, or most domestic issues. I think the big business part of the GOP is shopping around between Giuliani(unelectable) and the two phonies, FThompson and Romney. The latter has it all over the former in the brains dept even if Thompson ahs the trophy wife and Mitt has his childhood sweetheart.

  29. marksb says:

    Oh lord indeed. Sorry. I read too fast when I’m trying to fit this blog thing into family life. Sigh. Thanks.

    ’Course I could blame Tintin…remember Thompson and Thompson?