RUSH: Last night on Charlie Rose’s show on PBS, former Senator Fred Thompson is the guest. Charlie Rose says, ‘You constantly say in this campaign that you’re a conservative. What does that mean today?’
THOMPSON: It means things that are consistent with God’s design for man. It’s consistent with human nature. It’s consistent with the lessons of history and the lessons of the ages. They found form in the Constitution, I think, and what our Founding Fathers believed. They understand that man can do great and wonderful things, but man is prone to err and times do terrible things, that too much power in too few hands is a dangerous thing. That power is a corrupting thing.
ROSE: In all of that you didn’t mention abortion, gay rights, all the things that have been part of recent presidential elections.
THOMPSON: Well, you’re talking about different things there. Those are issues that are before us which derive from principles.
RUSH: Now, this is just fabulous to me, this is just great. Here Charlie Rose asks Fred Thompson, ‘Well, what is a conservative today anyway?’ So Fred gives his definition of a conservative, and Charlie says, ‘Well, wait a minute. I didn’t hear anything about abortion, or gay rights, all the things that have been part of recent presidential elections.’ Here’s how Fred answered that, because Charlie Rose came back and said, ‘Principles? What do you mean principles?’
THOMPSON: Principles are what guides you in coming to positions with regard to issues. You know, the Declaration of Independence said that basic rights come from God and not from man. The Founders talked about, you know, life and liberty and the importance of that, and that everything is based on those basic principles. And I take those principles and, you know, for example, I come to the pro-life conclusion there. And when we had issues, you know, for eight years when I was in the United States Senate about whether or not the federal government should be funding, for example, abortion-related activities and things of that nature, you know? The application of those principles in that instance told me the answer was no, properly.
RUSH: I guarantee you, Charlie Rose is clueless here. None of this… He’s listening to, you know, Mongolese as Fred Thompson is going through all this. (laughter) Sometimes you have to laugh at these poor, clichéd liberals who just live in the most closeted, cocooned world, while thinking they are the most worldly and erudite among us.