Was he mayor when the Soviet Union attacked America?

I don't know whether Fred Thompson's trying to get more coverage by repeating his gaffe, or whether he's just insane. Earlier this month, Thompson embarrassed himself by referring to the "Soviet Union and China", instead of Russia. And yesterday, when asked about his position on civil unions... well, just read:

Edward Paul, an employee of the Delta Dental Plans Association, asked the question Monday, but had trouble being understood.

"I'm proud to say that in January 2008 New Hampshire has passed a law facilitating civil unions here. ... What is your belief for federal civil unions to be passed?" Paul asked.

"Soviet Union?" Thompson responded.

"No, civil unions," Paul said.

"Oh. No, I would not be in support of that," Thompson said.

Ignoring, for now, that Thompson isn't even in support of civil unions--dismissing the entire issue as a "judge-made controversy"--what is up with that? Is this going to be his version of Giuliani's 9/11 Tourette's? Will he find a way to misidentify any word or phrase into "Soviet Union"?

Or is he just a senile old duffer?

Anyways, returning to Thompson's ignorance on gay marriage:

"Basically so far, it is a judge-made controversy," Thompson said. "No state or governor has signed off on such legislation on the state level that has endorsed marriage between the same sexes. There may have been a couple of courts that said the Constitution of their states has required that, so it's a judicially made situation as far as I am concerned."

Well, California's legislature has twice passed bills that would have legalized gay marriage in that state, only to have them vetoed by their governor (who, it should be noted again, said that this issue should be left to the courts). And if you recall that the original question was about civil unions, and not gay marriage specifically, then both Connecticut and New Hampshire--the state that Thompson was in at the time--passed laws recognizing civil unions without any prodding by their courts.