Thompson abandons bid for presidency

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WASHINGTON -- Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday with a three-sentence announcement to supporters.The decision was inevitable after his distant third-place finish in Saturday's South Carolina primary, which he had deemed a must-win contest.Speculation that he would drop out started as soon as the polls closed Saturday night. Thompson went to Tennessee after the disappointing finish to visit his mother, who had just been released from the hospital.Thompson, 65, a lawyer-lobbyist and television and movie actor, had hoped to use his ease before the camera and his down-home Southern charm to woo voters who weren't attracted to the front-runners, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and one-time Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.But former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the all-important Iowa caucuses, McCain won the New Hampshire primary and Romney won Michigan, leaving the South's first contest a make-or-break event. Thompson got just 16 percent of the South Carolina vote."Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States," his statement said. "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. (Wife) Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who abandoned her earlier endorsement of Romney when Thompson entered the race, said in a statement: "He would have made a fine president and I regret that he is unable to continue his campaign. America has been enriched by his service and would have benefited from his leadership. I am certain that his life in public service is not at an end."Dr. George Flinn, a Memphis, Tenn., supporter and a Shelby County commissioner, said he, too, was disappointed."He was a great candidate for the Republican Party," Flinn said. "I'm sure there will be a lot of jockeying around to figure out where his supporters will go."Flinn speculated that some would go to McCain and some to Huckabee.Others recalled that Thompson was one of a handful of big-name Republicans who backed McCain in 2000 when the safer bet would have been then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.Thompson graduated from then-Memphis State University -- now the University of Memphis -- in 1964 and went on to Vanderbilt law school. Returning to Lawrence County, Tenn., where he'd grown up, he founded the first Young Republicans group in the county and worked in Bill Brock's successful effort to unseat incumbent Sen. Albert Gore Sr., a Democrat. Two years later, Thompson played an active role in Sen. Howard Baker's re-election effort.Baker brought Thompson to Washington as general counsel to the minority Republicans on the Senate Watergate committee. Thompson has been a Washington insider ever since, despite efforts to portray himself as a pickup-driving man of the people in election years.In 1977, a fired Tennessee state employee who had been working undercover with the FBI in an investigation of the illegal sale of state inmate pardons under the administration of then-Gov. Ray Blanton needed a good Republican lawyer to sue the state to get her job back. Marie Ragghianti, who had been chairman of the parole board, hired Thompson and eventually won her case. Blanton went to prison.The story of her battle became a popular book, "Marie: A True Story," by Peter Maas, and an even more popular 1985 movie, "Marie," in which Ragghianti was played by Sissy Spacek. Thompson got his first movie role in "Marie," playing himself.He has since acted in "No Way Out" in 1987, with Kevin Costner; "Days of Thunder" in 1990, with Tom Cruise; "The Hunt for Red October," also in 1990, with Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin; "In the Line of Fire" in 1993, with Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo; and "Baby's Day Out" in 1994. He also played District Attorney Arthur Branch on television's "Law & Order."Thompson won the 1994 special election for the Senate seat that Al Gore gave up when he became vice president. He was re-elected in 1996. He decided not to seek another term in 2002.(Bartholomew Sullivan writes for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. E-mail him at sullivanb(at)shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)