Chris Kelly at the Huffington Post delivers an antidote to Fred-Thompson-mania. I hereby link to it for the sake of the appearance of balance and magnanimity, and because it has a few funny lines.

Obviously I’m missing something when it comes to the awesome charisma of Fred Thompson. Some of it is personal; I already have a father, so I didn’t need Ronald Reagan. Some of it is professional; I once worked on a talk show that booked too many third-rate guests, and I had to write their padded introductions, so every time I hear Thompson described as “the star” of The Hunt for Red October, my joints cinch.

(Sean Connery is a star. Fred Thompson was in The Hunt for Red October. The way Jacob Javits was a United States Senator, while Fred Thompson was in the Senate.)

(Fred Thompson was fifteenth billed on The Hunt For Red October. So he may be the dream candidate now, but if Tim Curry or Joss Ackland get in, he’s toast.)

[...]

Back on May 14th, Fred Thompson was both speaking and communicating to the Council for National Policy, and he said:

“I’m reminded of something my Daddy used to say: A man who walks around smiling all the time can’t possibly know what’s going on.”

(Yes, he’s a 64-year-old man who still calls his father “Daddy.” It’s a Southern thing. Like killing JonBenet Ramsey. You wouldn’t understand. Just let it go.)

If the folk wisdom itself feels familiar, it’s because you may have seen it written like this:

“Der Lachende hat die furchtbare Nachricht nur noch nicht empfangen.”

So, see? There actually is more to Fred Thompson than meets the eye.

His father was Bertolt Brecht.

Brecht’s line, for anglophones, was, “He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.”

Perhaps it is a line that the liberals laughing over Fred Thompson would do well to remember.

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