Fred Thompson will assume a leadership position in a John McCain administration in the process of selecting judicial appointments, according to a post at Human Events. The former Senator and crusading Tennessee attorney won the attention of conservatives as a rival to McCain in the primaries, but faded quickly after his long-delayed entry into the race. His friendship with McCain makes this credible — and could help assure conservatives that he will stick to his promises on the courts:
In a McCain administration, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson would play a dominant role in selecting Supreme Court nominees and other judicial appointments, sources close to the McCain campaign and to Thompson tell us.
McCain already has Ted Olson on his advisory staff, who joined McCain shortly after Rudy Giuliani pulled out of the race. Olson has tremendous support among conservatives who keep tabs on this issue, but hasn’t factored into the campaign. Olson has always been a behind-the-scenes player in electoral politics, and has not made many appearances to help McCain reinforce his pledges to nominate judges that will refrain from activism — like, say, Anthony Kennedy in Boumediene.
Thompson makes a much better choice for the public face of McCain’s direction on the courts. He may not have a taste for campaigning, but he does well in public appearances. He fronted a press conference call earlier this week to talk about Boumediene as well as national security, and the enthusiastic reception from conservatives may have prompted Team McCain to realize that they had left an asset on the shelf for a little too long.
If McCain names Thompson as the chair of his judicial-nominations committee, will that help reassure Hot Air readers that McCain will stick with conservatives?
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