STICKING TO THE SCRIPT

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS

Fred Thompson was the minority staff lawyer for the Senate Watergate Committee - he revealed to the White House that the committee knew about the secret Nixon tapes - and, yes, he served eight years in the U.S. Senate.

But it seems as if at least some of his support comes from voters whose opinions of Thompson are shaped by the characters he's played on TV and in movies, and by all those drawly, tough-guy lines he read as a district attorney, CIA director and the whole bevy of other alpha dog roles he played in his decades as an actor.

Thompson makes his first Las Vegas appearance at 9 a.m. today at a fundraiser at Stony's Rockin' Country, a country bar.

Below, Fred Thompson the man vs. Fred Thompson the actor.

THE POLITICIAN AND CANDIDATE

"After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood."

"Is it really in our country's best interest to signal to the enemy that they probably only have to wait us out a little longer because congressional determination to defeat them is crumbling? Doesn't such a resolution further diminish our chances for success at the very time our soldiers are preparing to go into battle? And finally, regardless of our politics , is this the time to announce to the world that our president is 'on his own'?"

"Every foreign policy of every major nation involves reason, common sense, carrots and sticks. You can't have all carrots and no sticks."

"Hopefully, we can build bridges, but we also have to draw lines."

"I don't think anybody confused John Adams' loyalties when he represented the redcoats after the Boston Massacre."

THE ACTOR

As White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent in "In the Line of Fire"

"By God, if you call me Harry once more, you'll be busting counterfeiters in Alaska!"

Big John in "Days of Thunder"

"You trade paint one more time, you so much as touch, I'm gonna black flag the two of you, and tear apart your race cars for 300 laps. Then, if you pass inspection and you put your cars back together, I might let you back into the race. Now, just to show there's no hard feelings , we're all gonna go to dinner together."

Adm. Painter in "Hunt for Red October" talking to Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan

"Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan."

"Law and Order" District Attorney Arthur Branch ("CHUNG-CHUNG!")

"With all the money we spend on the so-called war on drugs, we could buy all the poppy fields in the world and burn them to a crisp. But do we do it? No. And why? Because without a war on something, people in Washington wouldn't get elected."

As FBI Agent Dale Grissom in "Baby's Day Out." (O K, this one doesn't make him sound so tough.)

"Turn around and call for back up. We're going back to the tick-tock, to get the boo-boo!"