There’s a tradition in the U.S. Congress. Senators carve their names into their desks, leaving a record of who came before.
When Lamar Alexander arrived 12 years ago, he knew exactly where he wanted to etch his name — alongside Fred Thompson’s.
“I’m proud it will remain there as long as this desk does. Baker. Thompson. Alexander.”
Thompson will be remembered today with a funeral service in Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium. The former senator came from a passing generation of Tennessee Republicans who valued moderation over partisanship.
Alexander recalled Thompson in a eulogy he delivered earlier this week on the floor of the Senate, where Thompson served eight years beginning in 1995.
The two had once been young lawyers, drawn together as protégés of Howard Baker, the moderate senator who turned the Republican Party into a Tennessee powerhouse. Alexander got his start in politics as an adviser to Baker’s 1966 Senate campaign. Thompson made his name as legal counsel to Baker during the Watergate hearings.
Alexander was impressed enough with Thompson’s work that he brought him back to Tennessee a few years later, to lead the investigation into the Ray Blanton pardons scandal.
“I wanted the celebrated Watergate personality to help restore confidence in Tennessee’s system of justice,” Alexander recalled.
That case would become a Hollywood movie, Marie, with Fred Thompson playing himself. Other roles would follow. Thompson became such a familiar face that elected office seemed inevitable. And in 1994, he ran for the Senate.
Bob Corker, who ran for Tennessee’s other Senate seat that year, says Thompson’s charisma gave him a big advantage.
“He told people, look, the first time I run a television ad, this race will be over,” Corker said. “He did. And it was.”
In 2002, Thompson decided not to run for reelection, returning to acting and broadcasting. He had qualities that inspired people to trust him, says Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.
“His deeply resonant voice was immediately recognizable — to the point, where we would use his voice as the narrator in an ad for another candidate.”
What made Thompson an effective pitchman were the same things that made him a successful politician: A distinguished look. An easy demeanor. An air of confidence.
Mike Curb, a music executive, Republican fundraiser and former lieutenant governor of California, says Thompson reminded him of another actor-turned-politician.
“I saw a lot of Ronald Reagan’s qualities in Fred Thompson,” Curb said. “They both were willing to reach across the aisle. … That’s what we don’t have today.”
Other Republicans, says Curb, should learn from Thompson’s example.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM