It sure was nice to open up the Sunday morning Washington Post and see an article about Fred - this one by Liz Garrigan:

Like voters everywhere, we Tennesseans want our politicians to be part professor, part John Wayne. But the top-tier candidates in the GOP field so far — John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney — somehow lack that magic merger of smarts and swagger, which is probably why nearly half of Republican voters say they’re still waiting for the right candidate. Well, their John Wayne is standing just outside the corral.

He is Fred Dalton Thompson, and while he’s no admiral, he has played one in the movies. The former senator is also the third man from our humble horizontal Southern state to be touted as presidential material in the past year, after former Senate majority leader Bill Frist and former vice president Al Gore. Thompson has yet to raise a nickel — or a presidential posse — but grass-roots Republicans from the East Coast to the West already see the man with the low drawl and the towering stature as their political savior.

Read the rest of the article here.

Fred’s scheduled to be the featured speaker this weekend at the National Restaurant Association’s 2007 Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago.  The title of his talk is ”Traveling in Strange Circles - From Watergate to Hollywood to the United States Senate to Law & Order”.

“We are honored to have Mr. Thompson at the 2007 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and look forward to sharing his insight into politics, Hollywood, foreign relations and life,” said William C. Anton, FMP, convention chairman for the 2007 Show, and chairman and founder of Anton Airfood, Inc. “Mr. Thompson continues the long Show tradition of offering opportunities to listen to some of our nation’s most influential elected and opinion leaders, to provide them with the insights they need to grow their businesses.”

Read more about it here.

Fred continues to reel off the podcasts in The Fred Thompson Report on ABC Radio online.  Catch up on all of Fred’s latest podcasts here. 

Fred’s latest entry is on the immigration bill in Congress:

Most Americans know that we have an illegal immigration problem in this country, with perhaps as many as 20 million people residing here unlawfully. And I think most Americans have a pretty good idea about how to at least start solving the problem – secure our nation’s borders.   

But there’s an old saying in Washington that, in dealing with any tough issue, half the politicians hope that citizens don’t understand it while the other half fear that people actually do. This kind of thinking was apparent with the “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that the U.S. Senate and the White House negotiated yesterday.

I’d tell you what was in the legislation, but 24 hours after the politicians agreed the bill looked good, the Senate lawyers were still writing what may turn out to be a one thousand page document. In fact, a final version of the bill most likely will not be made available to the public until after the legislation is passed. That may come five days from now. That’s like trying to digest an eight-course meal on a fifteen-minute lunch break.

Read the rest of Fred’s article on the immigration bill here. 

Good opinion piece in Wall Street Journal about Fred’s successful, not-yet-official campaign:

Having watched the second Republican debate the other night, it’s clear to me the subject today is Fred Thompson, the man who wasn’t there. While the other candidates bang away earnestly in a frozen format, Thompson continues to sneak up from the creek and steal their underwear–boxers, briefs and temple garments.

He is running a great campaign. It’s just not a declared campaign. It’s a guerrilla campaign whose informality is meant to obscure his intent. It has been going on for months and is aimed at the major pleasure zones of the Republican brain. In a series of pointed columns, commentaries and podcasts, Mr. Thompson has been talking about things conservatives actually talk about.

Read the rest of Peggy Noonan’s opinion piece here.

Over 500,000 have viewed Fred’s video response to Michael Moore.  Read about it in this Washington DC Examiner article:

If you’re Fred Thompson, you’ve got to be encouraged about jumping into the race. In the wake of Tuesday’s debate among Republican presidential candidates, it was the former Tennessee senator who topped the field in YouTube views — and he wasn’t even participating.

Online intelligence firm New Media Strategies measured which candidate got the biggest YouTube bump from the May 15 debate in South Carolina. It also counted the number of viewers of Thompson’s video responding to Michael Moore, which was viewed online concurrently with the GOP debate.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Thompson’s video, in which he suggests that Moore might look into a mental institution, drew 598,600 viewers on Vimeo, YouTube and Google Video.

That dwarfs the most views from any moment during the debate. Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani’s exchange over Sept. 11 was tops from the actual event, with 16,904 views from online postings.

Mitt Romney drew 4,394 views from online postings; Paul alone got 3,273 views; John McCain, Giuliani and Romney on terrorism and torture drew 2,621 viewers. Even Mike Huckabee’s well-received joke about John Edwards’ hair only drew 365 viewers.

As you may have seen, Michael Moore – the documentary filmmaker (do you still call them documentaries when they’re based on lies?) – recently got upset about one of Fred’s articles.  After Moore challenged him, Fred responded by video. 

Check out Fred’s video response.

Fred’s moved up to 2nd place in a recent Harris Poll….

As primary season nears, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains atop the ranks of Republican presidential hopefuls. But an as-yet-undeclared candidate, actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, has elbowed his way into the top tier of potential nominees and now rivals Arizona Sen. John McCain in popularity, the latest survey from Harris Interactive shows.

Among those who said they expect to vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses, 38% said they would be most likely to vote for Mr. Giuliani. His closest rivals, according to the poll, were Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mr. Thompson, each drawing the support of 18% of the respondents. 

Mr. Thompson’s popularity comes despite the fact that he has not indicated whether he will actually seek the presidency….

Read the rest of the article here.

Everyone’s reporting today that Fred will no longer be on the hit TV show Law and Order.  While we would certainly miss watching Fred as district attorney Arthur Branch, we’d much prefer a role as President Thompson!

NBC’s top entertainment executive said Monday that he doesn’t expect actor and potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson back on “Law & Order” next season.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly claimed no insider knowledge of Thompson’s political plans, but his statement indicated the seriousness of Thompson’s presidential musings. The former Tennessee senator has been making speaking appearances and blogging on issues in recent weeks as he considers a candidacy.

Read the rest of the article here.

Fred’s ABC News online commentary is now found in audio podcast format.  Click here to listen to Fred himself! 

Good article in today’s Washington Times about the support for Fred by Christian Conservatives:

Several leading Christian conservatives say they will rally to former Sen. Fred Thompson, who they expect to announce “in a matter of weeks” that he will seek the Republican nomination for president next year. 

“It’s not ‘if’ but ‘when,’ he will announce,” one Protestant evangelical leader says of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering for position in the 2008 race. 

A prominent Roman Catholic social conservative says the three Republicans who have raised the most money and have led the polls — former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — fall short of social conservatives’ expectations, but Mr. Thompson doesn’t. “He’s right on the issues … He’s better than all of the above.”  

Read the full article here.