Thompson: 18-year lobbyist and Nixon mole...

THIS is the best presidential candidate the GOP has to offer? Must be some real slim pickins. Then again, the neocons do love their Nixon throwbacks. Apparently anything or anyone that was in any way tied to the Nixon administration is to be vaulted into the highest level of power available. All corruption, all the time. And who better than a Nixon insider?

Thompson is a real piece of work. First off, Thompson (along with being a television actor) was a 18 year career lobbyist; protecting clients from asbestos suits from workers who were attempting to collect damages that were owed to them.

Well that's certainly a commendable way to make a living... if you are a neocon, that is.

Now, a new item to add to his illustrious political resume: Nixon administration mole:

"Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong said in an interview. "Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was."

It appears that Mr. Thompson, while serving as Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel, actually leaked information to the Nixon administration, concerning the committee's knowledge of the tapes Nixon had in his possession. One has to wonder if this advanced warning led to that accidental erasure of 18 minutes... oh never mind.

No wonder the neocons live this guy: loyal to party, and disdain for law. That fits their presidential criteria to a T.

It explains why Freddy has been campaigning to 'free poor Scooter' and allow him to walk away from his felony charge without doing any time. Fred is all about the double standard. Mr. 'Law and Order' actor, in reality, isn't terribly concerned about the finer points of real law. Republicans have a different standard. Their job is to win, period. They don't worry about details like law, justice, morality... even reason.

Ah, it seems the more we learn about this guy, seedier he becomes. This is the GOP's 'great white hope' for winning in 2008? If so, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. If they really 'got it', and realized how angry people are across the length and breadth of this nation, they would find - and support - a moral and upstanding member of their party, like Senator Lugar. Instead, they continue down the neocon road, and appear willing to follow it straight off the cliff.

The view of Thompson as a Nixon mole is strikingly at odds with the former Tennessee senator's longtime image as an independent-minded prosecutor who helped bring down the president he admired. Indeed, the website of Thompson's presidential exploratory committee boasts that he "gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office." It is an image that has been solidified by Thompson's portrayal of a tough-talking prosecutor in the television series "Law and Order."

So first we hear that Fred is 'lazy.' We've learned he is a lobbyist. Now a mole. Gotcha. First rate candidate material.

More from the The Boston Globe:

John Dean , Nixon's former White House counsel, who was a central witness at the hearings, said he believed that Baker and Thompson were anything but impartial players. "I knew that Thompson would be Baker's man, trying to protect Nixon," Dean said in an interview.

-- snip --

On July 13, 1973, Armstrong, the Democratic staffer, asked Butterfield a series of questions during a private session that led up to the revelation. He then turned the questioning over to a Republican staffer, Don Sanders, who asked Butterfield the question that led to the mention of the taping system.

To the astonishment of everyone in the room, Butterfield admitted the taping system existed.

When Thompson learned of Butterfield's admission, he leaked the revelation to Nixon's counsel, J. Fred Buzhardt .

"Even though I had no authority to act for the committee, I decided to call Fred Buzhardt at home" to tell him that the committee had learned about the taping system, Thompson wrote. "I wanted to be sure that the White House was fully aware of what was to be disclosed so that it could take appropriate action."

Armstrong said he and other Democratic staffers had long been convinced that Thompson was leaking information about the investigation to the White House. The committee, for example, had obtained a memo written by Buzhardt that Democratic staffers believed was based on information leaked by Thompson.

Armstrong said he thought the leaks would lead to Thompson's firing. "Any prosecutor would be upset if another member of the prosecution team was orchestrating a defense for Nixon," said Armstrong, who later became a Washington Post reporter and currently is executive director of Information Trust, a nonprofit organization specializing in open government issues.

I still contend the Democrats are completely missing the boat when they don't find - and nominate - an actor to 'play the president' in 2008.

I'm only half kidding here: because the media goes ga-ga over actors, completely losing their minds in their starstruck awe of anyone who makes a living pretending to be someone else.

Apparently in our current political system, it is the media that crowns the champions. If neither party is willing to actually 'play' to the people, they should certainly consider 'playing' to the media as a winning campaign strategy.

And how better than by running an actor for high office?

With an actor out front wooing the media and kissing babies, the Democratic Party can slip and honest-to-God real leader into the VP 'power seat' (this has proven quite effective for the neocons, wouldn't you say?) and let the front man do the talking, and the spinning. And believe me, anyone can spin - anyone can talk - better than George Bush.

And who better to spin an image... than an actor? The GOP knows this... when will the Democrats wise up and learn to play the game?

Because it's either play the game, or for God's sake use their majority to CHANGE THE GAME. It' well past time they got the hell off the wishy-washy fence and made their move, one way or another. Clean up this broken process, or play to win. Personally I'd prefer they fix it, but since when do any of them - in either party - listen to us mere American citizens?