Between running around the Iowa State Fair in Gucci loafers and defending his time as a Washington lobbyist, Fred Thompson had a rough Iowa debut as a still unannounced candidate this weekend. But his low point may have come during an interview he gave John King of CNN in which he appeared to betray his one and only principle, per his website ImWithFred: federalism.

The federalist construct of strong states and limited federal government put in place by our Founders was intended to give states the freedom to experiment and innovate. It envisions states as laboratories in competition with each other to develop ideas and programs to benefit their people, to see what works and what does not.

He goes on to define what role he does expect the federal government to take in our lives:

When you hold firm to the principles of federalism, there's another advantage: our federal government can better carry out its own defining responsibilities - above all else, the security of our nation and the safety of our citizens.

Which apparently, according to his CNN interview, includes protecting its citizens from the gays.

I think with regard to gay marriage you have a [ inaudible ] issue. I don't think one state ought to be able to pass a law requiring gay marriage or allowing gay marriage and have another state be required to follow along under full faith and credit. There's some exceptions, exemptions for that. Hasn't happened yet, but I think a federal court very well likely will go in that direction. And the constitutional amendment would cure that.

Predictably, the Thompson campaign issued a statement of clarification, something I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of from Grandpa Fred in the coming weeks (h/t Marc Ambinder):

In an interview with CNN today, former Senator Fred Thompson's position on constitutional amendments concerning gay marriage was unclear.

Thompson believes that states should be able to adopt their own laws on marriage consistent with the views of their citizens.

He does not believe that one state should be able to impose its marriage laws on other states, or that activist judges should construe the constitution to require that.

If necessary, he would support a constitutional amendment prohibiting states from imposing their laws on marriage on other states.

Fred Thompson does not support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Now that that's cleared up...

In that same interview, Thompson reiterated his desire to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling it bad law and bad medicine. The more this guy talks, the more of a disaster he seems. But at least he's got his record and his looks.

Update [2007-8-20 19:2:43 by Todd Beeton]: Grandpa Fred's week didn't start off too hot either. Blogger Lane Hudson who brought down Congressman Mark Foley last year, has filed an FEC complaint against Thompson alleging his violation of the "testing the waters" provision of election law.

Fred Thompson is breaking the law and it's time somebody did something about it. So, this morning, I filed an FEC Complaint against him. For far too long, he has been ignoring the letter and spirit of Federal Election Law for his own political benefit. It reeks of the same disregard for the law that we have seen from the Bush Administration, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, Tom Delay, and Mark Foley. [...]

It is my contention that he has violated the 'testing the waters' exemption of election law. He has been presenting himself as a candidate for President, he has been raising large sums of money beyond what would be required to explore a possible candidacy, and he has signed a long term lease on a headquarters for his campaign. He has even spent advertising dollars, which are specifically prohibited by the law.

See the full text of Lane's complaint at his blog, News For The Left.