Fred Gets One Right

“Local matters, generally speaking, should be left to the locals,” Thompson said Thursday in what seemed to be a gentle way of suggesting that Congress had overstepped its bounds. “I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with.”

Thompson also made sure not to impugn the motives of any of the religious conservatives whose support he now needs for his presidential campaign. “I know that good people were doing what they thought was best,” he said.  ~ABC News

He is referring to Congress’ intervention in the Schiavo case.  Fred is actually taking what always seemed to me to be the right view.  Above all, this was not a matter for any part of the federal government, and it wasn’t properly a matter for the Florida legislature or the governor.  All those opponents of judicial activism who want judges to “follow the law” have to accept when judges “follow” laws of which they disapprove or which they would like to see changed. 

However, the symbolism of this statement will be bad for Fred with a lot of activists who made the Schiavo case into a litmus test of how truly pro-life someone was.  It’s not as if Fred can afford to alienate a lot of pro-life voters, but he has already made some moves this year that could be interpreted as slights to pro-lifers.  Instead of showing up at the NRLC meeting this year, he jaunted off to London to meet Baroness Thatcher and deliver a bad speech on foreign policy.  Now he says this about the Schiavo case, which I think will go over poorly with any really ardent pro-lifers who might have been inclined to support him.  On the other hand, it will probably only help him with those Republican voters who watched the hysteria over the Schiavo case with something akin to dread and horror.