Fred Thompson Played a Racist!

RUSH: I want to go back to the Los Angeles Times, a story that was from May the 4th: ‘Will Fred Thompson’s Racist Role Have Political Repercussions?’ Did you people know that Fred Thompson is a racist? I didn’t know that Fred Thompson is a racist. In fact, I don’t think Fred Thompson is. Well, what is this headline? Will Fred Thompson’s racist role have political repercussions? Well, let’s read this drivel. ‘Ronald Reagan became president even though he worked with chimps in B movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger played a murderous robot, and that didn’t keep him from becoming governor. So can ‘Law & Order’ actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) become the first presidential candidate with this credit? Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ on a television drama 19 years ago. His colleagues say that he was just an actor putting everything he had into playing the role of a charismatic racist, named Knox Pooley, in three episodes of CBS’ hit show ‘Wiseguy’ in 1988. ‘Do you call Tom Cruise a killer because he played one in a movie?’ asked show creator and writer Stephen J. Cannell. … If Thompson’s old TV roles do play a part in his presidential campaign, then the long relationship between Hollywood and politics will have entered a new era — an actor’s dream and a candidate’s nightmare — a world where nothing you ever said is forgotten.’

This has to be not only the stupidest thing in a major newspaper I have seen in a week, but perhaps one of the most defamatory. He’s an actor! He was playing a role. Do we start with all of the horrible characters liberal Democrat actors have played and start asking are — ‘Well, they’re not seeking political office, Rush.’ You tell me that there is not racism in the Drive-By Media? And, by the way, where are the usual Hollywood people coming out to defend this? Where’s the Hollywood crowd defending its craft? Where’s the Hollywood crowd defending its art? One of their own, Fred Thompson, is being labeled a racist here because he played such a role 19 years ago. What will become of our country, ladies and gentlemen, if all the actors are confused with the characters they play? Well, I guess we’d have to start looking at Anthony Hopkins as a cannibal, Meryl Streep as a schizophrenic boss, or frantic boss. Barbra Streisand to be a needy whiner with identity problems — well, that may be true, without the roles that she plays. Los Angeles Times, May 4, will Fred Thompson’s racist role — so it’s time to take him out. People are getting too worried about Fred Thompson. The Democrats and the Drive-Bys gotta take him out now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Bob in Somersworth, New Hampshire, hello, nice to have you on the EIB Network.

CALLER: Yes, Mr. Limbaugh, honor to speak with you, sir.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I heard about this Fred Thompson thing from you, of course, and at first I was shocked, then I said no, it’s just typical Democrat liberal. They’re talking about somebody who played a role for a TV show 19 years ago as a communist racist, whatever, and yet they have in their own party a man who was actually in the Ku Klux Klan, and that’s okay.

RUSH: (Laughing.) I forgot that, that’s a great point. You’re talking about Sheets Byrd.

CALLER: Yes, Sheets Byrd. And the thing is, these attacks, they started the other night at the debate, you know, the left-wing site that sponsored it, the left wing questions asked by the left wing —

RUSH: That wasn’t a debate. That was a 90-minute commercial for Chris Matthews and Hardball.

CALLER: The host was a proctologist for the Democratic Party, and was a joke, and then they attacked Giuliani, and now PBS, the TV wing of the Democratic Party, is running a show called The Mormons, based on an incident that happened 200 years ago.

RUSH: Yeah, talked about that last week. It’s designed to make Mormons look like a bunch of murderous thugs here. And, of course, it has nothing to do with Mitt Romney. No, no, no, the timing is just purely coincidental here. Same thing with Fred Thompson — plays some racist creep 19 years ago, but they ignore Sheets Byrd. (Laughing). I have an idea to fix these debates. It’ll never happen. We never once see a panelist’s or moderator’s face. The camera is always on the candidates, we see the back of their heads, they look like Q-Tips. Just take these moderators off TV, because that debate was just 90 minutes of promotion for MSNBC and Hardball.