No Tennessee Waltz: can Fred Thompson make his race against Jim Cooper a referendum on Clinton Lite? - Tennessee Senate race between Republican Fred Thompson and Democrat Jim Cooper

National Review, June 27, 1994 by Geoffrey Morris

"It's very unpopular among physicians providers," says F. Lee Smith, publisher of The Tennessee Journal, a weekly political newsletter. "But the question for Thompson is: Can he tie Cooper to the Democratic health-care albatross? Clinton's a tremendous liability for candidates in our part of the country. Nevertheless, Cooper has cleverly placed himself against Clinton on health care. Thompson's job is to wipe away that difference." Thompson is clearly trying to do just that. "Both TennCare and Cooper's health plan are radical departures from standard practice," says press secretary Dick Kopper. "TennCare is being tested right now and it has rattled the state with foul-ups. What's going to happen if this sort of thing happens nationally?"

Favorite Son

Defining himself politically has always been Cooper's strength. If you were to drive through Tennessee from southwestern Virginia to northeastern Mississippi, it would take some eight hours through mostly rural back country. And you could do it without ever leaving Cooper's congressional district. Though his elitist educational background would normally gain him a bad reputation in many of these areas, a resident in one small country town said he thought Cooper's Rhodes Scholarship was a great thing: "We need someone to fix our roads." He has traveled the state, listened to gripes, and provided seemingly satisfactory answers. He has never received less than 64 per cent of the vote.

However, he was an early backer of the cable-regulation bill, which resulted in higher rates. He worked hard for the passage of the Clean Water Act, whose burdensome regulations are now taking their toll. In addition to supporting Clinton's tax hikes, Cooper favored raising the gas tax and passing the stimulus package.

Thompson, meanwhile, advocates rolling back Clintonomics, fighting crime with tougher sentencing and the death penalty, reducing welfare rolls, enacting strict term limits, etc. On abortion, both Thompson and Cooper are pro-choice. But Thompson favors parental notification, Cooper voted against it. Cooper accepts money from the tobacco industry (a major Tennessee employer) while leading the anti-smoking crusade. Thompson proudly puffs a pipe.

Cooper will run both as an incumbent (which he's not in the post he's seeking) by ticking off goodies he has brought to the state, and as an outsider by distancing himself from other Democrats on health care. Thompson, of course, is in a position to pin Cooper on taxing, spending, and all the baggage a Democratic representative carries after 12 years in office.

Their dispositions are worlds apart. One can imagine Thompson in two settings: telling stories on a rocking chair, and walking at a slow determined pace across a courtroom floor to turn an opposition witness into mincemeat. Cooper on the other hand is small, well-tailored, programmed. You can imagine him standing in front of Senator Bob Dole's famous health-care chart - and proudly endorsing it.

If health care gets put off until next year, a Fred Thompson victory in November would be a big nail in the coffin of socialized medicine. He needs to play himself brilliantly one more time to pull this show off.