Rough transcript of former senator Fred Thompson (a.k.a. the kinda surrogate you want on your team) on John Gibson’s Fox show:

GIBSON: democratic national committee going after president bush’s military record with operation fortunate son — going back to the fogerity song — the credence clearwater soldier who can’t get out of vietnam because he’s not rich. the new question about the national guard memos shown on cbs. we start with the republican perspective from former tennessee senator fred thompson. welcome, good to have you.
SEN.THOMPSON: good to be here.
GIBSON: what do you think of the democratic strategy of going after george bush on the national guard service?
SEN.THOMPSON: terrible strategy?
GIBSON: why?
SEN.THOMPSON: it’s bad for the nation. i think at long last, people would think you would have a good debate about the security of the country and it’s prosperity and so forth. we’re back at that again.
GIBSON: you know what they say — kerry got hit hard by the swiftboat vets this, is only fair.
SEN.THOMPSON: well in the first place the swift boat vets were not republican national committee. what’s happening on the — on the other side is coming directly from the –
GIBSON: from the d.n.c.
SEN. THOMPSON: from the d.n.c. they’re embracing it, adopting it, advertising it as their deal. kerry stepped out and made their vietnam service the centerpiece. not the future of the country, not the 20 years in the senate, but the four years he served in vietnam. got in trouble, got pushed back over that. a lot of controversy back and forth so, forth. instead of stepping away, they doubled up. now they’re coming with the juveniles over at the d.n.c. and coordination with the news media, it looks like, coming up with the new round of bush and the national guard — a story that’s been around every since bush has been in the public eye. it’s terrible political judgment and strategy. it’s not going be what turns independent voters on. it’s a bad thing for the country.
GIBSON: what — how come these questions about kerry’s service coming from the swiftboat vets hurt him, but you think this won’t hurt george bush?
SEN.THOMPSON: well, george bush has been the leader of this country for four years — the leader of the free world for four years. the real issue here that i think the kerry campaign is not really coming to terms with is that — kerry’s leadership. we know what bush’s leadership has been. he inherited a tough economy, he inherited a c.i.a. that — that was in bad shape, then 9/11 happened. you can argue over whether or not he always did the right thing or about his judge. but you know what it is as a proven record. kerry is being newly introduced to the country t. people are wondering what he would do — when he asked what he would do after he criticizes bush on north vietnam or iraq, he says, that’s a hypothetical, i can’t answer that until i’m president. and while his mignons are off, you know, once again, dredging up news stories about something that happened 30 years ago with regard to president bush’s national security service. that might make some sense. but people are not going to be affected one way or the other about that.
GIBSON: what about the document. cbs is standing by it. there are serious, serious questions about this letter who was written by a guy who is now dead — we can’t ask him if he wrote the letter.
SEN.THOMPSON: mm-hmm.
GIBSON: it appears it wasn’t written on a typewriter of the time that he would have written a letter, it’s written by a computer. in other words, a forgery. how much does this affect the attack on bush?
SEN.THOMPSON: well it’s — it certainly is a part of it. i think that the democrats have failed to learn the lesson that the republicans belatedly learn with regard to bill clinton — with president clinton, all of these problems, scandals, and all of these things and we were hot after him for a long time. and the media was hot after him, a new scandal every night. by george, we got him this time, right? and we look tat polls — hadn’t hurt him a bit in the polls. what we didn’t understand was that although they disapproved of the president in part, they disapproved of his adversaries — someone attacking a sitting president just as much, in that case it was us, and certainly they disapprove of the media. now here we had the d.n.c. at the same time that cbs comes out with all of these documents, cbs is stone walling. you ask them a question, the id you talk to the family of this person who supposedly wrote this document before you ran the story. they won’t answer the question. they’re saying the burp is on the other — burden of proof is on the other people saying that they’re false. this is a leading news organization saying this. they get in deeper and deeper and deeper. what an excellent time t d.n.c. thinks, to revive the bush national guard story. i think it’s circular firing squad over there.
GIBSON: do you have an explanation as to why the d.n.c. would ignore the advice of bill clinton and leave this issue alone?
SEN.THOMPSON: i don’t know. it’s a difficult one to answer. i think that probably some insiders over there are so mad and so angry, you know, they are — they are smarter and prettier and have more sophisticated new answer positions on everything and more intellectual. and yet they still can’t quite get the point across. and here bush keeps lucy and the football — they keep missing it and bush keeps scoring. and i think there’s a lot of anger out there. and i think their manhood is at stake with regard to some of them. they’re doing irrational things. and they’re launching out and instead of putting kerry in a position where he could be presidential, and he’s plenty capable of doing it — he’s a smart, articulate guy. he wants the best things for our country, i think, deep down inside the way the rest of us do. and talking about the future and things of that nature, you know, they keep going back. and they’re going be meaner and tougher and uglier, you know, than the — than the swift boat veterans.
GIBSON: senator fred thompson, of course, now, a major television star. good to have him in this television studio for when ever he can appear. senator, thanks.
SEN.THOMPSON: thank you, appreciate it.