DALLAS—Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Thursday shrugged off harsh criticism from James Dobson, saying he has friends who likely know the influential Christian leader and they hold him in high regard.
In a private e-mail obtained by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.
“Isn’t Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won’t talk at all about what he believes, and can’t speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?” Dobson wrote.
“He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent ‘want to.’ And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!”
Questioned about the e-mail during a campaign appearance in Texas, Thompson said: “I really have no comment.’
Thompson, who sounded at times unsure of the e-mail’s authenticity, said he has never had the pleasure of meeting or talking with the Focus on the Family founder.
“If in fact this e-mail … reflects his views, so be it,” Thompson said. “I have a lot of friends who I think are friends of his who have a high regard for me, and I’m very proud of that.”
The founder and chairman of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, Dobson draws a radio audience in the millions, many of whom who first came to trust the child psychologist for his conservative Christian advice on child-rearing.
Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, confirmed that Dobson wrote the e-mail. Schneeberger declined to comment further, saying it would be inappropriate because Dobson’s comments about presidential candidates are made as an individual and not as a representative of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization restricted from partisan politics.
