Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

The blogger Beldar, a/k/a William J. Dyer, somehow has found himself on the receiving end of frequent email blasts from 1980s GOP direct-mail king Richard Viguerie, and took exception to Viguerie's latest email blast attacking Fred Thompson as insufficiently conservative.

I got the same email and was going to write about it, but Beldar says all that needs to be said about Vigueurie:

The only half-sentence of his new anti-Fred Thompson screed (h/t Ramesh Ponnuru) that you need to read is this one, which comes from somewhere in the middle (when he's actually looking at Thompson's voting record as a senator):

Fred Thompson’s record may appear to be "conservative," but only by comparison with Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, or Mitt Romney ....

One of those four men is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2008. And I'm 98% sure that it won't be John McCain, so we're really only talking about three of them. For those of us conservatives who live in the real world (instead of Viguerie's paranoid fantasy world), we'll almost certainly be choosing among Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson for the Republican nomination. The winner will be pitted against either Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Edwards. If the likes of Viguerie can't get their minds around that — if they can't recognize that this is a multiple-choice test with a limited number of options — then they've guaranteed that they'll never be more than irrelevant annoyances to the GOP and to national (i.e., non-academic, non-think-tank, and non-consultancy) political conservatism generally.

(It's not that I'm against all academic, think-tank, or consultant conservatives either. It's just that I recognize that they make up, oh, something like 0.00003% of American voters, or maybe 0.00006% of American conservatives.)

If you're wondering why I describe Viguerie as living in a paranoid fantasy-world, just note that his website — following the title of his latest book (currently ranked No. 51,059 on Amazon, only slightly above the hot-selling Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute (Paperback)) — is www.conservativesbetrayed.com. If you're wondering how Viguerie became a spammer, recall that his background is actually as a political direct mail advertising salesman. And if you're wondering how Fred Thompson in particular got Viguerie's panties in such a wad, here's a broad hint, taken directly from Viguerie's rant:

Where are the long-time conservative activists today around Fred Thompson? Not campaign consultants who sell themselves to the highest bidder at campaign auctions. No, dedicated and recognized conservative thinkers and activists who will work only for truly conservative politicians.

Go ahead, try and name one. And if conservatives were not part of his inner circle before he started running for the presidency, we cannot expect him to have conservatives in his inner circle if he gets elected. And in politics, personnel is policy.

Translation: Fred hasn't sufficiently flattered, or better yet (from the latter's viewpoint) hired, Richard Viguerie or his "long-time conservative activist" buddies. Therefore, ipso facto, Fred isn't a "real conservative" (as defined by Richard Viguerie and his buddies).

What Beldar understands and what folks like Viguerie need to wrap their minds around is that Barry Goldwater is dead and Ronald Reagan is dead and, therefore, ineligible to run for president, and that means that we have to pick from those who are running. And that means conservatives have to pick from Giuliani, McCain, Romney or Thompson if they want to back a horse who can win the general election.  Sure, you can take a flier on Brownback or Huckabee, or Ron Paul, but none of them likely to win the nomination and nobody outside of their respective campaigns thinks any of them has a snowball's chance in November.

Of the Big Four - and McCain's barely hanging on to his slot in that group - Thompson is the most trustable conservative.