Fred Thompson: 'Prone to Go on to the Next Venture'

Fred Thompson says he owes his varied accomplishments in life to experiences in his youth and being “always prone to go on to the next venture.”

The former Tennessee senator, staff lawyer for Republican members of the congressional Watergate committee and actor discussed and signed his new book, “Teaching the Pig to Dance” at the Club on June 14.

The book is a memoir of growing up in the rural community of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., and how his family and associations there helped shape his future and his character.

But in his remarks and answers to questions, he ranged over a lot more territory. For example, how a young man named Lamar Alexander asked if he would be willing to serve as manager for the re-election campaign Sen. Howard Baker.

“How much does it pay?” Thompson asked. “Nothing” was the answer. “I’ll take it, “ Thompson replied.

Baker later had him appointed counsel for the Republican minority on the Senate Watergate committee. Thompson opened the interrogation that led to disclosure of the taping system in the Oval Office, which in turn eventually produced President Nixon’s resignation.

Later, he agreed to serve as attorney for a former chairwoman of the Tennessee parole board in her suit against a governor who had fired her for refusing to release felons who paid the governor’s office for clemency. This revealed a widespread scandal of selling pardons and paroles out of the governor’s office. The story became a movie in which Thompson played himself and led to 18 roles in feature films and numerous TV roles, including a long-running one as the district attorney in “Law and Order.”

“In the first movie, I had a bigger part than Morgan Freeman,” Thompson recalled with a laugh. “And later in a film called ‘No Way Out’ I played opposite a young actor named Kevin Costner. So I gave a lot of stars their first break.”

He ran for the Senate in 1994 for the seat Al Gore had vacated when he became vice president.

“Any candidate must ask themselves: Do I fit this office? I thought I fit it, and I did.”

He was re-elected in 1996 and retired from the Senate in 2003.

In 2008, he sought the GOP nomination for president.

“I thought I could beat the system, coming into the race later and without much money. It turned out that they call it the system for good reasons,” he said.

Thompson said plans to write more books and act in more movies. Jan King introduced him for the Book and Author Committee event.