Fred Thompson Quotes

Freddie Dalton Thompson was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor and radio personality. Thompson, a Republican, served in the United States Senate representing Tennessee from 1994 to 2003, and was a Republican presidential candidate in 2008.

Thompson served as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board at the United States Department of State, was a member of the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in national security and intelligence.As an actor, Thompson appeared in a number of movies and television shows including The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard 2, In the Line of Fire, and Cape Fear, as well as in commercials. He frequently portrayed governmental authority figures and military men. In the final months of his U.S. Senate term in 2002, Thompson joined the cast of the NBC television series Law & Order, playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch. Wikipedia  

✵ 19. August 1942 – 22. November 2015
Fred Thompson photo
Fred Thompson: 22   quotes 1   like

Famous Fred Thompson Quotes

“Minor surgery is surgery that someone else is having”

Teaching the Pig to Dance

“After sleeping late on Sunday, I was back at my desk that afternoon. I had two prime considerations. First, I wanted to be certain that the tapes were not a trap for the committee or that there was a significant bit of missing information that we lacked; experience taught me that matters of this importance do not usually fall into your lap without more complications that are immediately apparent. Second, if our information was legitimate, I wanted to be sure the White House was fully aware of what was to be disclosed so that it could take appropriate action. Legalisms aside, it was inconceivable to me that the White House could withhold the tapes once their existence was made known. I believed it would be in everyone’s interest if the White House realized, before making any public statements, the probable position of both the majority and the minority of the Watergate committee. Even though I had no authority to act for the committee, I decided to call Fred Buzhardt at home. Buzhardt was the only White House staff member with whom I had had any substantial contact. He had been unassuming and straightforward in his dealings with me. He never tried to enlist me in any White House strategy, to suggest that I relay confidential information, or to so any of the things that were probably assumed by many of the so-called sophisticates in Washington.”

page 86
At That Point in Time, Warning the White House about the Watergate tapes

“I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time.”

(full quote in context) Asked why he had not done more debates, Thompson replied "Standing up here 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for somebody to throw you the next fish, is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people. I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time."
[Ryan Sager, The New York Sun, http://www.nysun.com/article/62678?page_no=3, Mr. Sunshine State, September 14, 2007, 2007-09-21]

Fred Thompson Quotes about time

“We can't forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program.”

Des Moines Register http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071001/NEWS/71001030/1001/hawkeye_insider|, October 1, 2007

Fred Thompson Quotes

“We are always just one successful terrorist attack away from a nuclear disaster”

[Iowa Campaign Speech "Hands Down", Thompson, Fred, 2007-12-18, Days Inn - Manchester, Iowa]

“This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America.”

[Charles Hurt, New York Post, http://www.nypost.com/seven/08182007/news/nationalnews/not_yet_running_thompson_stumps_in_iowa_nationalnews_charles_hurt__washington_bureau_chief.htm, NOT-YET-RUNNING THOMPSON STUMPS IN IOWA, August 18, 2007, 2007-09-21, https://archive.is/5KYSw, 2013-06-30]

“Where I stand doesn't depend on where I'm standing.”

Comparing himself to Mitt Romney. [Associated Press, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22681318/, Candidates' attention shifts to south and west, MSNBC, January 16, 2008, 2008-01-16]

“I often say after eight years in Washington, I longed for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.”

[Associated Press, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/1401AP_Fred_Thompson_Leno.html, Fred Thompson wants nation's top job, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 12, 2007, 2007-06-13]

“The average 20-year-old serving us in Iraq knows more about their country's national security than the average 20-year political veteran serving in the Congress today.”

[Marc Caputo, Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/236981.html, GOP's Thompson shows his conservatism, September 14, 2007, 2007-09-21, http://web.archive.org/web/20070811065546/http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/236981.html, 2007-08-11]

“Some of our folks went to Washington to drain the swamp and made partnership with the alligators instead.”

[Stephen Rodrick, New York, http://nymag.com/news/features/34992/, The Actor, 2007, 2007-09-22]

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