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Thompson Criticizes Giuliani's Credentials

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By PHILIP ELLIOTT, The Associated Press

Published: November 24, 2007

BRISTOL, N.H. - Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said Friday that New York City is not a model for the rest of the country and that Rudy Giuliani should stop basing his stances on his time as that city's mayor.

Thompson, campaigning at a New Hampshire gun store with stuffed moose and deer overhead, said Giuliani too often turns to his time as New York mayor to explain his support for stronger gun restrictions.

"He relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of the rest of the country, I don't think. I think the sentiments of those people in the rest of the country are in support of the Second Amendment - which is where I've always been and I don't think he's ever been," Thompson said.

The former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" actor badly trails Giuliani in New Hampshire polls, in part because Thompson has spent so little time in the state.

Thompson is trying to show differences between himself and Giuliani, who trails former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain in the latest CNN-WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Giuliani polls at 16 percent, far short of Romney's 33 percent support.

Thompson, who fares relatively well in national polls, posted only 4 percent support.

Gun rights is a key issue among libertarian-leaning primary voters in New Hampshire.

A Giuliani spokeswoman said Thompson should be careful with his rhetoric.

"Coming from a man who lives in the Beltway, who is a Washington insider and lobbyist and who played the role Rudy Giuliani actually lived on a television series, I am not sure what to make of the senator's comments, except to say results are results," Katie Levinson said.

"Time and again as U.S. attorney, the third-ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department and as mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani delivered, and no amount of political posturing will change that," she said.

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