Thompson raps Obama on abortion answer

ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Fred Thompson, "Law & Order" actor and former senator, used a Republican National Convention speech to denounce Barack Obama for declining to say when human life begins, although Thompson's own record on abortion is mixed.

"We need a president who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade," Thompson said.

The comment was a clear reference to an answer that Obama gave at a forum at California's Saddleback Church sponsored by the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren. On a question referring to the number of abortions in the country, Warren asked Obama at what point he believed babies had human rights.

"Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade," the Illinois senator replied.

Obama supports abortion rights, while GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain is opposed. Thompson also is opposed, though he faced criticism during his presidential campaign because he lobbied in 1991 for an abortion rights group. He also answered a 1994 newspaper survey by saying, "The ultimate decision on abortion should be left with the woman and not the government."

After Monday's opening session of the convention was abbreviated and toned down in deference to Hurricane Gustav, Thompson signaled that political rhetoric was back.

He called Obama the "most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president."

Best known recently as the gruff district attorney on NBC's "Law & Order," Thompson once was a rival of McCain. But the Tennessean dropped out of the presidential race in January after his much-anticipated campaign failed to gain strong support among conservatives.

Thompson's address included a defense of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose announcement as McCain's running mate has been overshadowed by disclosures that an attorney has been hired to represent Palin in an investigation into an Alaska controversy and that her unmarried daughter is pregnant.

"Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit," Thompson said. "Well, give me a tough Alaskan governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union -- and won -- over the Beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week."

Thompson said he believes McCain and Palin will "take the federal bureaucracy by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shaking."

He also said that McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, has traveled to Iraq eight times since 2003 "seeking truth, not publicity.

"This man, John McCain, is not intimidated by what the polls say or what is politically safe or popular," Thompson said.

Thompson managed to slip in some of the more colorful aspects of McCain's biography -- the high number of demerits he received at the Naval Academy and the fact he dated an exotic dancer nicknamed the Flame of Florida when he was in flight school.

"The reason I'm telling you these things, is that, apparently, this mixture of rebellion and honor helped John McCain survive the next chapter of his life," Thompson said as he recounted McCain's ordeal as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Thompson recounted in brutal detail the torture that McCain endured during his 5ˆ½ years in captivity.

"We hear a lot of talk about hope," Thompson said. "John McCain knows about hope. That's all he had to survive on."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="m/story/?id=232084">Text of former Sen. Fred Thompson's speech <span class="date"> [9/2/08]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://video.ap.org/vws/search/aspx/ap.aspx?t=s1179980883147&p=ENAPus_ENAPus&g=0902dv_rnc_thompson&f=ilarl">AP: Thompson salutes McCain's service</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>