CARLSON: Senator Thompson, let me ask you the sad question first. Why are you leaving us?
CARLSON: And you didn't even -- you didn't even run on term limits, and you just went into the sunset.
CARLSON: What's the tipping point in a Washington scandal?
CARLSON: Many of us in the press and many of your colleagues thought you would run for president. Your good friend, John McCain, did. You never did. Why not? And will you ever?
CARLSON: Friendship's never stopped any ambitions in Washington.
CARLSON: You were too tall...
CARLSON: Now, who are you going to miss in the Senate?
CARLSON: You can have a club.
CARLSON: Any Democrats?
CARLSON: I hold the record for watching "Law and Order," reruns in particular!
CARLSON: So I know that...
CARLSON: I've been -- I've caught a few of the ones that you're now in. Are the writers accommodating a loquacious ex-senator?
CARLSON: And you would filibuster anyway.
CARLSON: Well, now that you're in that life, you're kind of a Hollywood actor, maybe your foreign policy views will be taken seriously.
Are you and Sean Penn -- are you going to join...
CARLSON: Oh. Are you going to join Sean Penn in Baghdad?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHIELDS: Margaret, you ought to apologize. That was as brutal and hard-hitting an interview as I've ever seen. But considering Fred Thompson's reputation, his presence and his obvious charm, which I think comes through, were his eight years in the Senate just a little disappointing?
CARLSON: Well, Senator Thompson is the kind of senator we don't have much of anymore -- moderate, even though he'd probably call himself a conservative, reasonable, the go-to guy for Democrats. I think he was a creature of his time, when, you know, somebody like Senator John McCain used up all the oxygen for the independent-minded legislature. The press can only have one maverick at a time.
SHIELDS: One maverick at a time. Al Hunt?
Your liberal media.