Legal News

Fred Thompson (Vandy Law ?67) Quits 2008 Race

By Peter Lattman

Let there be five candidates with law degrees left in the presidential race. The guy on the bottom right, former senator Fred Thompson, dropped out. “I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort,” he said in a statement. The trial lawyer, former prosecutor and former counsel to the Senate committee on Watergate not only has serious experience as a lawyer, he also plays one on TV — fictional Manhattan DA on Law & Order (our second favorite Law & Order series after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Since the ‘04 election we’ve been a big fan of bye-kus, the Japanese poetry created by James Taranto, the WSJ editorial board member who writes the wildly popular Best of the Web column, each time a candidate drops out.

Here’s a sampling. There was the joint bye-ku for Chris Dodd (Lousville Law) and Joe Biden (Syracuse Law):

Yes, they’ve really spent
68 years in Congress
It just seems longer

And then the one written for Tommy Thompson (Wisco Law)

“I’m too sexy for
This poll,” said Tommy? Oh, right
Said Fred, not Tommy

O Law Blog readers, anyone looking to kill some time on a Tuesday afternoon and come up with a Bye-Ku for Thompson?

Update: Thanks for all the fantabulous submissions. Here’s Thompson’s bye-ku from James Taranto’s Best of the Web:

They called him “tortoise”
But now the man with no hair
Has got out of ours

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 22, 2008 (boomark / email).