'Law & Order' president? Fred Thompson may run

Fred Thompson (photo courtesy Carl Cox photography)

Is America ready for a "Law & Order" president?

Actor Fred Thompson, star of the NBC crime drama, thinks so, and is seriously considering a run for the White House.

"I'm giving some thought to it. Going to leave the door open," Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, said on "Fox News Sunday." "A lot of people think it's late already. I don't really think it is, although the rules of the game have changed somewhat. ... I think people are somewhat disillusioned. I think a lot of people are cynical out there. I think they're looking for something different."

The 64-year-old Republican who has starred in movies such as "The Hunt for Red October," "Cape Fear," and "In the Line of Fire," said he was thinking about a bid after former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and other Republicans touted his possible GOP candidacy, trumpeting his conservative positions.

"Fred was a great conservative in the Senate and a heck of an actor," said WND reader Bob Morris. "Can we say 'Ronald Reagan'?"

On the issues, Thompson says he:

Opposes gun control. "You check my record. You'll find I'm pretty consistent on that issue."

Opposes same-sex marriage, but would let states decide on civil unions. "Marriage is between a man and a woman, and judges shouldn't be allowed to change that."

Opposes abortion. "I think Roe vs. Wade was bad law and bad medical science. And the way to address that is through good judges. I don't think the court ought to wake up one day and make new social policy for the country. It's contrary to what it's been the past 200 years."

Supports President Bush's troop surge in Iraq. "Wars are full of mistakes. You rectify things. I think we're doing that now."

Supports an immediate pardon for former White House Aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "This is a trial that never would have been brought in any other part of the world. This is a miscarriage of justice. One man and his wife and 14-year-old and 10-year-old children are bearing the brunt of a political maelstrom here that produced something that never should have come about."

Regarding illegal immigration, Thompson said:

We woke up one day after years of neglect and apparently discovered that we have somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens in this country. So it became an impossible situation to deal with. I mean, there's really no good solution. So what do you do? You have to start over. Well, I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million. So that's why enforcement, and enforcement at the border, has to be primary.

I think most people feel disillusioned after 1986 when we had this deal offered to them before, and now we're insisting that, you know, we solve the security problem first, and then we'll talk about what to do with regard to other things – certainly no amnesty or nothing blanket like that.

But figure out some way to make some differentiation between the kind of people that we have here.

You know, if you have the right kind of policies, and you're not encouraging people to come here and encouraging them to stay once they're here, they'll go back, many of them, of their own volition, instead of having to, you know, load up moving vans and rounding people up. That's not going to happen.

Thompson was elected to the Senate in 1994 to fill the unexpired term of Vice President Al Gore. He was chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and left Capitol Hill in 2003 to return to acting.

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