You can tell they're worried about Fred

The DNC must really be concerned about the advent of Fred Thompson into the political campaign. They're already circulating their opposition research on Fred attacking him for having been a lobbyist, for supporting Scooter Libby, and for having sparse accomplishments from his time in the Senate. And, as John Hinderaker points out, the Associated Press has chimed in with their own article on Thompson's past as a lobbyist.

It's rather odd for the DNC to be so active in attacking an undeclared candidate so early in the race. Usually a party leaves that sort of negativity to the other primary candidates, but, apparently, they feel the need of doing Giuliani's and Romney's work for them. They must be truly concerned that his folksy charm will show up well in the general election if he should win the GOP nomination. Fred, on the other hand, has to get better on how he answers such attacks. Apparently, he is still weak on finding a positive way to talk about his time in the Senate. If he can find a good way of answering these criticisms, he'll emerge even stronger in the primary fights.

It would help GOP primary voters out a lot if the DNC would continue to show us what they've got on the lead candidates. Voters could then decide how much they think such attacks chip away at each candidate's electability. And face it, electability is a prime consideration for a lot of GOP primary voters in a year that is supposed to be one with a Democratic breeze blowing their candidates safely to the finish line.

Attacking Thompson for having little to show for his time in the Senate isn't a killer criticism in a race that would feature Senators Clinton, Obama, or Edwards as the Democratic candidate. What are the tremendous accomplishments that any of those have to show as their personal achievements? If what the American people wanted was a senator who had done a lot in his time in the Senate, Senator Kennedy and Senator McCain would be in the lead for their parties' nomination.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey checks out Thompson's record from his Senate years of which bills he authored or co-sponsored. Quite a few compared to the meager batch that John Kerry was responsible for.