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Thompson timing 'about right'
By: Administrative Account | Source: The Washington Times
October 10, 2007 10:39AM EST
October 10, 2007
By Stephen Dinan - DEARBORN, Mich. — Fred Thompson delivered a gaffe-free performance at his first Republican presidential primary debate yesterday as he, Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani all scrambled to assert themselves as the leader that Republican voters are looking for.
Mr. Thompson lived up to moderator Chris Matthews' surprise challenge to identify Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stuck to basic conservative principles and finished up his first performance by saying the timing of his entry into the race last month "seems about right to me."
"I've got to admit, it was getting a little boring without me, but I'm glad to be here now," he said during the debate, aired live on CNBC and rebroadcast last night on MSNBC.
The debate, which was designed to focus on economic issues, produced the first fireworks when Mr. Giuliani said he was the better tax and spending cutter and Mr. Romney said the former New York City mayor forfeited that title by suing to block a federal line-item veto.
On foreign policy, Mr. Romney drew a rebuke from fellow candidates when he said he would check with lawyers before deciding whether he could attack a nuclear-capable Iran without Congress' permission.
"You sit down with your attorneys and [they] tell you what you have to do, but obviously, the president of the United States has to do what's in the best interest of the United States to protect us against a potential threat," Mr. Romney said, adding that's the same path Mr. Bush followed in going to war in Iraq.
"This idea of going and talking to attorneys totally baffles me," retorted Rep. Ron Paul, who opposes the current war in Iraq and said the other candidates continue to risk American prestige and have forsaken the Constitution in considering an attack.
Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney scrapped over their own records as chief executives, with the former New York mayor claiming 23 tax cuts during his eight years in office, which he said totaled $9 billion.
"I cut, I think, as many taxes as you possibly could in that period of time," he said.
But Mr. Romney said the mayor single-handedly tied the hands of the president to cut taxes at the federal level by blocking spending cuts, which he did when he successfully sued to stop the line-item veto that would have let President Clinton take $250 million from New York City.
"The best tool that a governor has and the best tool the president has had is a line-item veto," Mr. Romney said. "Mayor Giuliani took the line-item that the president had all the way to the Supreme Court and took it away from the president of the United States."
Mr. Giuliani, though, said the Supreme Court agreed with him that the line-item veto was unconstitutional and said he cut New York's spending while Mr. Romney raised Massachusetts' spending during his single term as governor.
Mr. Giuliani at times appeared to be on a grander stage than his opponents, at least five times going beyond the Republican field to attack Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and even her husband, trumpeting his line-item veto court victory.
"I don't think it's a bad idea to have a Republican presidential candidate who actually has beat President Clinton at something," Mr. Giuliani said.
For his part, Mr. Thompson stuck to basics, expressing optimism about the economy and saying he would hope to have congressional approval for a strike in Iran because it builds support for action.
The former Tennessee senator and star of "Law & Order" took a ribbing from his fellow candidates for his late entry into the race, with Mr. Romney delivering a planned line comparing the TV show to the extensive number of debates: "It has a huge cast, the series seems to go on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end," he said.
And at one point, Mr. Matthews said Mr. Thompson had dragged on too long when co-moderator Maria Bartiromo kept demanding to know why he wouldn't have the government intervene to stop a worker walkout at Chrysler.
"He said no; he should've stopped there," Mr. Matthews said, to which Mr. Thompson retorted, "Well, then that's your opinion, Christopher."
Among the other candidates:
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he didn't think President Bush followed "the right way" in vetoing the children's health insurance program bill last week, arguing that if elected, he would have headed off a showdown by trying to compromise earlier.
• Sen. John McCain of Arizona called for an organization modeled on the World War II Office of Strategic Services to go after Osama bin Laden.
• Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas said there are places to start cutting government spending, and he named the Advanced Technology Program, which he said went toward "high-end spending, corporate welfare programs."
• Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado said he regretted voting to give Mr. Bush expanded trade authority, calling it "probably the worst vote I ever passed" — one of a number of candidates who are edging away from unfettered free trade and toward demanding a fairer playing field with other countries.
Along those lines, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California repeatedly called out his fellow candidates and said a Dubai company shouldn't be allowed to purchase 20 percent of the Nasdaq because Dubai tried to thwart American interests in transferring nuclear technology through the A.Q. Khan network.
"I don't trust them," Mr. Hunter said.
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