"DUMB AS HELL"

ANOTHER FLIP-FLOPPING REPUBLICAN

When Fred Thompson was on Senator Howard Baker’s staff in 1973, President Nixon said the staffer was “dumb as hell.” That may be too harsh, but Thompson does seem, like so many Republicans, to have memory problems. As a senator himself, Thompson told the Concord Coalition that he would back a balanced federal budget, but when it came up for a vote, he evidently forgot his promise and voted against it.

But Thompson is really wishy-washy on the subject of abortion. In 1994 he said, “The ultimate decision on abortion should be left with the woman and not the government.” But as a senator he voted to ban the so-called partial-birth abortion. Recently the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association hired him to lobby the Bush administration to help clinics get federal money for abortion counseling. Never before in history has a politician managed to take so many mutually exclusive positions on one issue.

In contrast to wishy-washy Republicans, Democratic candidate Carl Perrin is steadfast in his political outlook. He has always been a liberal and was always in favor of cheap beer.