The Actual Fatasy News: Fred comes in 1st Place in Iowa.

TheSitRep on December 31, 2007 at 2:30 PM

Fred has no money and limited organization, he hasn’t a prayer of 1st place.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

The Good News: Fred’s Goal of 3rd Place in Iowa is in Reach.

The Bad News: Fred’s Goal in Iowa is 3rd Place.

amerpundit on December 28, 2007 at 1:22 PM

The Actual News: Fred comes in 1st Place in Iowa.

President Fred Dalton Thompson has an ooh so nice ring to it.
Does it not?

TheSitRep on December 30, 2007 at 10:06 PM

It does indeed.

President Fred Dalton Thompson has an ooh so nice ring to it.
Does it not?
By the way,
the last Fred thread got 547 posts.

STRONG AGENDA SET FOR GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

Washington, DC–At a meeting today to help organize the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee’s agenda in the 105th Congress, Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN) made it clear that the Committee would undertake a sweeping set of initiatives which would focus on federal oversight, reform of the regulation-writing process and making government more efficient and effective.

“The American people deserve and demand a government,” Thompson said, “which effectively and efficiently serves them, and does not add cost without adding value. They have every right to a common sense approach to the business of government.”

The Governmental Affairs Committee will build on the reform agenda of the 104th Congress and will strengthen its historic role of overseeing the structure and operations of the Executive Branch.

One of the first priorities of the Committee, Thompson said, will be to “bring more common sense into the regulatory process.” Right now the Code of Federal Regulations is about 130,000 pages long, and takes up more than 21 feet of shelf space. The regulations which are enumerated in these 200 volumes cost the average American family about $6,500 every year.

“Even well-intentioned laws can produce unsatisfactory results,” Thompson said. “I will encourage the Members of the Committee from both sides of the aisle to work together to improve the quality of scientific and technical information on which regulations are based. Better scientific and economic analysis will help agencies to find more sensible solutions under current laws. We need a clean environment, safe products and safe medications. But if we regulate smarter, we can have them and still make our government more effective, more efficient and more accountable than ever.”

Other areas where the Committee will provide leadership on regulatory reform will include the Congressional Review Act, which sets up expedited procedures for Congress to review most new final regulations, and regulatory accounting to help ensure that OMB provides a fair and objective report on the costs and benefits of regulation.

Return to the Press Release Directory

[Committee Members] [Subcommittees][Special Investigation]
[Jurisdiction] [Hearings] [Press Releases] [Sites of Interest]

THOMPSON ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

Washington, DC–United States Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) was elected Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on January 7 by his colleagues on the Committee. The Republican Conference and the full Senate are expected to confirm his election later this week.

Thompson said that he wants the Committee to continue to build on the reform agenda begun in the 104th Congress and he will focus first on the enactment of Regulatory Reform legislation. The Committee also will seek to strengthen its historic role of overseeing the structure and operations of the Executive Branch. It will examine the implementation of recent reforms aimed at strengthening those operations, including the Government Performance and Results Act, the Chief Financial Officers Act and the Information Technology Management Reform Act.

“I intend to work closely with Committee members of both political parties,” Thompson said, “on a number of important bipartisan initiatives. Following on the work of the Committee in the last Congress, we will prioritize the passage of regulatory reform. And we will again take up the creation of a commission to identify and eliminate unjustified subsidies for profit-making entities.

“The Committee in 1997 also will continue to work to make government more accountable and efficient. As government grows smaller it is even more important that it work effectively so that people who depend on it will be better served.”

In addition, the Governmental Affairs Committee will undertake an investigation into alleged improper or illegal activities growing out of the 1996 presidential campaign and related matters.

Members of the committee include Senators William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE); Ted Stevens (R-AK); Susan Collins (R-ME); Sam Brownback (R-KS); Pete Domenici (R-NM); Thad Cochran (R-MS); Don Nickles (R-OK); and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Democratic Members of the committee include John Glenn (D-OH), Ranking; Carl Levin (D-MI); Joseph Lieberman (D-CT); Daniel Akaka (D-HI); Max Cleland (D-GA); Richard Durbin (D-IL); and Robert Toricelli (D-NJ).

Subcommittee chairs and membership will be announced within a few weeks.

Hannah Sistare was named Staff Director and Counsel by Thompson. She served as Thompson’s Legislative Director during the 104th Congress. She was Chief Minority Counsel and Staff Director to the Governmental Affairs Committee in 1980, and then Chief of Staff to former Senator Charles H. Percy (R-IL). She served as Special Counsel to the Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Reagan Administration. Earlier in her career she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA). Ms. Sistare also is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

The committee’s Chief Counsel will be Fred Ansell. Ansell was Chief Counsel to the Judiciary Subcommittee on Youth Violence under Thompson in 1995-96. He first came to the United States Senate in 1991 as Minority Counsel to Senator Charles Grassley on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Administrative Practice.

Senior Counsel to the Committee is Richard A. Hertling. Since 1995 Hertling has been Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information for Senator Arlen Specter, and has been with the Judiciary Committee since 1990.

Paul Noe will be a Counsel on the Committee, and will focus on regulatory reform, administrative law and federalism issues. He has served on the Governmental Affairs Committee staff since 1995.

Ellen B. Brown will be Counsel on the Committee. She served as Procurement Counsel for the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight since 1993 under former Chairman William F. Clinger, Jr. (R-PA). She will help oversee the implementation of the new procurement and information technology management laws.

William C. Greenwalt will be a Professional Staff Member for the Committee. He has served as Chief Investigator for the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management under former chairman William S. Cohen (R-ME). He will focus on oversight of the Government Performance and Results Act, and the implementation of other financial and management initiatives.

Curtis M. Silvers will become a Professional Staff Member. During the 104th Congress he served as Senator Thompson’s foreign affairs, trade and defense legislative assistant. He has served previously as a staff assistant to the Foreign Relations Committee under Senator Richard Lugar. He will focus on national security and international affairs issues.

Susanne T. Marshall will remain a Professional Staff Member of the committee on which she has served since 1985, and will continue to have a broad range of administrative and issue priorities. Michal Sue (Mickey) Prosser will stay Chief Clerk to the Committee, a position she has held since 1987. Chris Lamond will be head of the committee’s information technology and computer services department. And Paul Clark, previously Communications Director for Senator Thompson, will become the Communications Director for the Committee. He previously served as Communications Director for the Office of Personnel Management (1989-93).

Return to the Press Release Directory

[Committee Members] [Subcommittees][Special Investigation]
[Jurisdiction] [Hearings] [Press Releases] [Sites of Interest]

This home page was created and is maintained by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
Questions or comments can be sent to: webmaster@govt-aff.senate.gov

Vital Lockerbie evidence ‘was tampered with’

Nearly two decades after Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Scotland on 21 December, 1988, allegations of international political intrigue and shoddy investigative work are being levelled at the British government, the FBI and the Scottish police as one of the crucial witnesses, Swiss engineer Ulrich Lumpert, has apparently confessed that he lied about the origins of a crucial ‘timer’ – evidence that helped tie the man convicted of the bombing to the crime.

And it looks like they are getting an appeal:

At a trial in the Netherlands in 2001, former Libyan agent Abdulbaset al-Megrahi was jailed for life.
He is currently serving his sentence in Greenock prison, but later this month the Scottish Court of Appeal is expected to hear Megrahi’s case, after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled in June that there was enough evidence to suggest a miscarriage of justice. Lumpert’s confession, which was given to police in his home city of Zurich last week, will strengthen Megrahi’s appeal.

Noone has ever brought up the notion that they were innocent. Trust me, Im no terrorist sympathizer but read the rest of the article from September.

Here it is

My argument is with the amount of billable time. 3.3 hours is simply not enough time to accomplish anything that you now try to say that Fred accomplished by himself — the obfuscation and evasion of eleven years by the Libyan terrorists. I’m sorry, but nobody’s that good in 3.3 hours.

Tennman on December 30, 2007 at 6:55 PM

The number of hours to me is irrelevant. The fact that he billed his time indicates that he voluntarily contributed to the effort in what ever his firm was doing for the terrorists. The published reports indicate that Arent Fox was retained to fight extradition. So, Fred voluntarily allowed himself to become a part of that effort — a small part, but a part nonetheless. As I pointed out before, a number of attorneys in DC refused this work and some ended their association with their law firm rather than be associated with a firm doing this work. From that, you can tell that the effort asserted by these firms was different ethically than just defending an unpopular client.

My argument is with the amount of billable time. 3.3 hours is simply not enough time to accomplish anything that you now try to say that Fred accomplished by himself — the obfuscation and evasion of eleven years by the Libyan terrorists. I’m sorry, but nobody’s that good in 3.3 hours.

In an aside, thank God for attorneys who fulfill the role of public defender. They, not the ACLU, are truly the first line of defense of the Constitution. No one would argue that a public defender shouldn’t zealously represent his/her client. And nobody tries to hang the actions of a public defender client onto the public defender.

That is the best I could do in support of Fred’s conduct, but then I must still question his ethics. Is it within the bounds of ethics to try to keep this trial in a corrupt justice system like Libya, particularly when Libya itself was implicated in the bombing? In my mind it is not consistent with good ethics. Defend the terrorist in court if you must, but it is not ethical to work to keep the terrorists out of a legitimate system of justice.

csdeven, you nasty little shrew, this is your last warning.

That is all.

Bryan on December 28, 2007 at 6:00 PM

There are no words to tell you how happy I am that I missed this thread.

Good night Professor, and I hope you’re asleep already, and that you dream of beautiful Jessicas, floating scantily clad on balloons :) You’re a good one. Stick around for long,

Entelechy on December 30, 2007 at 12:12 AM

I like your dreams much better than mine.

I surmise the reason my you can’t get a rebuttal is because the eventual result is pretty obvious and they don’t want to go down that road. I’m sure, as an attorney yourself, you could make a counter-argument for Fred. Fred’s counter is simply that those actions were part of his “personal” life and therefore should not matter. WOW! That is the kind of justification that puts attorneys in a bad light. I could make a argument for Fred also, but I’d like to hear his supporters argument, just to see if they can/will attempt one.

tommylotto on December 30, 2007 at 6:42 AM

Ha hah hah No tommyboy, what you did is prove that it is people like you, not Fred Thompson who are dragging down the reputation of your profession and the profession of the likes of Darrow and Lincoln.

Good political explication and stable repartee with Chris Wallace, Fox.

Vote Thompson ‘08

tommylotto on December 30, 2007 at 6:42 AM

Your explanations don’t suffice. Just because you say it’s so isn’t a good defense of your position in light of your own Code of Professional Responsibility. So I guess I don’t have anything new. When you’re right, you don’t have to rely on all things speculated.

TTFN

Why is that so funny? Because there are guys like Fred == dragging down the reputation of my profession and the profession of the likes of Darrow and Lincoln.

tommylotto on December 30, 2007 at 6:56 AM

Blaming a lawyer for having to work on a dirty case is analogous to blaming a Plumber for have sh*t on his sleeve.
If you are a Lawyer or a Plumber long enough you’ll eventually get some on ya..

Ten reasons not to vote for Fred Thompson

sonnyspats1 on December 30, 2007 at 2:26 AM

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the guys over at FredState forgot to address Fred’s career as a lobbyist (for the likes of murderous dictators, against workers injured by asbestos and for a pro-abortion group), his stealth pro-choice position on abortion, his willingness to sell his services to terrorists in an effort to avoid justice, his funneling of campaign contributions to his son for “consulting” that never took place, his total lack of executive experience, his undistinguished and short career in the Senate, his undistinguished career as a US Attorney in Tennessee when all he did was chase down toothless banjo playing moonshiners, etc.

Keep setting up those silly straw men and keep your head firmly planted in the sand, sonny.

Tennman on December 29, 2007 at 7:34 PM

I explained why it does not matter whether or not he was “of counsel” here.

I addressed the “everyone is entitled to a defense” argument here.

I explain why we can conclude what the general nature of the legal advice was here.

I certainly do not want to repeat myself. Do you have any new purported justifications for Fred’s unjustifiable behavior in assisting terrorists to avoid justice for money?

Hillary can say that whatever her failings are, she never gave legal advice to terrorists nor did she lobby for a dictator.

csdeven on December 28, 2007 at 11:37 PM

Prove those claims. They have been around for years and nothing has come of it. Compared to her deniability and Fred’s admission, Fred loses.csdeven on December 29, 2007 at 12:36 AM

cs taking a SECOND LOOK AT HILLARY?!

OK, that’s my one & done.