Followup: A Second Helping of Fred

Stephen F. Hayes follows up with more from his interview of Fred Thompson. Good Stuff; as he says under they byline " We may well just have something here."

AS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL candidates gather tonight in Simi Valley, California, for the first of several debates, one potential candidate will be missing: Fred Thompson. The former senator from Tennessee, still mulling a run, will instead appear alone tomorrow at the Lincoln Day dinner of the Orange County Republicans.

Those familiar with his speech, which Thompson wrote himself, characterize it as optimistic but tough-minded about the serious challenges facing the country. He will touch on several of the big issues that will be at the center of any Thompson for president campaign, if he decides to run.

[The Rest of the Story]

Among many other things, we discussed the surge (he's for it, but thinks it was late and should have been bigger); cutting spending (he faults both the Bush administration and congressional Republicans for their failures); the Democrats' attempt to cut funding for the Iraq War ("tragic"); why he chose not to run for president in 2000 (he didn't want to be a "caretaker president"); his reading habits in college (Russel Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, National Review and, to understand the other side, the New Republic,); his frustrations in the Scooter Libby prosecution with the CIA ("they set this whole thing up") and the Justice Department (the case was brought because of "a breakdown" at DOJ); and which longtime Democrat he contributed to in 2006.

Courtesy of Stephen F. Hayes at the Daily Standard

Great amplification of the original article, and a lot more stuff there.