Thompson steps up rhetoric, visibility in Iowa

By BILL THEOBALD, Gannett News Service

OSKALOOSA, Iowa - Fred Thompson has shied from directly criticizing his Republican rivals seeking the presidential nomination. He's also not been part of the daily lineup of television ads jamming Iowa's airwaves.

Both changed Friday.

Thompson called on Mike Huckabee to explain why he wants the United States to apologize for Thursday's killing of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The former Tennessee senator said he was concerned what people around the world "will think when they see a presidential candidate was apologizing" for the assassination. "That's hard to understand," he said.

Huckabee on Thursday offered "our sincere concern and apologies for what has happened in Pakistan."

The former Arkansas governor's campaign said he meant to say "sympathies" instead of "apologies." Huckabee's campaign was again put on the defensive when he misstated that Afghanistan was on Pakistan's eastern border. Thompson's campaign also announced Friday that it had launched his final Iowa television ad before the Jan. 3 caucuses. The ad, titled "Substance," focuses on compliments from commentators on Thompson's plans for reforming the tax system and rebuilding the military. He is the "true conservative" in the field, it claims.

Thompson campaign officials declined to say how often and where the ad will run. They had been conducting a fundraising campaign on his Web site, telling supporters the candidate needed $248,846 by Friday evening in order to run the ad.

Despite being about $100,000 short by mid-morning, the campaign announced the ad would begin airing and Thompson made an online plea for the remaining dollars. The fundraising goal is the price of one week of "heavy" television advertising in Iowa, spokesman Darrell Ng said. Bhutto's assassination has, to some degree, shifted the GOP race in Iowa to a contest about foreign affairs and who is most qualified to lead a country under the constant threat of attack. For the past two days, Thompson has been touting his membership on the U.S. Senate's intelligence committee.

He also reminds voters he was floor manager in the Senate for the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And after he left the Senate, he was chairman of an advisory board on international affairs created by the State Department.

Thompson also took a general jab at most of his opposition, saying candidates emphasize their good judgment when they don't have any experience in foreign affairs.

While journalists were asking candidates about Pakistan, Iowans were more concerned with issues closer to home, such as how to unite a divided country and what makes Thompson unique from the other candidates.

Janine Dorenkamp, 33, asked the latter question at a radio town hall meeting at the Smokey Row Coffee House and Soda Fountain in Pella, Iowa. She liked Thompson's recitation of his varied background in politics, the law, and as an actor. Dorenkamp said she was leaning toward Thompson but she and her husband were still considering Huckabee. Her top issue? "Whether you are pro-life or not," said the mother of three boys age 7 and younger. "If you have that value everything else falls into place."