Pondering President Thompson

Has Fred Thompson's entry into the presidential race got you wondering what a Thompson administration might look like? From a federal management perspective, it's an interesting question. Thompson would come into the job with a relatively large amount of experience in overseeing government operations, since he chaired the committee formerly known as Senate Governmental Affairs.

In an Aug. 2001 column in Government Executive, Paul Light, now a New York University professor and then a vice president at the Brookings Institution, took a look at Thompson's tenure, taking note of his presidential prospects. At that point, the senator was weighing whether to run for another Senate term (he ultimately decided not to). Thompson, Light wrote, "will have to wait for 2008 to mount his own run for the presidency. Had Gore won the 2000 election, Republicans already would be coalescing around Thompson as a front-runner for 2004. He has all the populist credentials of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., without the temper and quirkiness."

Then actor-turned-legislator, Light also noted, has "done his share to make the federal government work. He has been a tireless watchdog of agency mismanagement, but has avoided the gimmickry that has characterized so much Republican rhetoric on fraud, waste and abuse." His report on federal management, Government at the Brink (Volume 1 and Volume 2), Light wrote, "did more than just inventory the problems .... It also provided an easily accessible analysis of causes and solutions, most notably the projected retirement of between a third and a half of the federal workforce."

So what's Thompson saying today? Here are the bullet points from his campaign Web site on the subject of "Government Effectiveness":

I am committed to:

• Attracting and rewarding the best Americans to serve in government and ensuring they have the authority and resources needed to get the job done.
• Fixing government accounting so tax dollars are properly spent and the American people know exactly what they are being spent on.
• Improving government performance by making agencies accountable for accomplishing their missions on time and within budget.
• Ensuring information technology systems are secure and that they give our government the capacity and effectiveness to get the job done.