This piece is mainly about the potential candidacy of Law & Order’s Fred Thompson (he plays the D.A.), a retired United States Senator from Tennessee, for the GOP nomination for President…

And Think of All the Crooks He’s Put Away

How the Republican presidential field might yet be spiced up with new entrants was the gossip at the American Enterprise Institute annual banquet in Washington Wednesday night. Admirers named SEC Chairman Chris Cox and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson among the wild cards they’d like to see in the race.

Indeed, I bumped into former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, who gave Mr. Thompson his first job in Washington as deputy GOP counsel on the Watergate committee some 35 years ago. Mr. Baker wasn’t shy about touting the virtues of his long-ago protigi. "I keep sending up trial balloons telling people they should get him to run," he told me. "So far no one is shooting them down — including Fred." He said he thought Mr. Thompson had a unique skill set that would commend him to GOP primary voters — an image of competence and sobriety combined with high name recognition derived from his starring role on TV’s "Law and Order."

For his part, Mr. Thompson says he’s happy substituting for ABC radio personality Paul Harvey and with his television work. But that won’t stop his friends — such as Senator Baker — from reminding reporters that the GOP did well when it plucked Ronald Reagan from the ranks of after-dinner banquet speakers and ran him for governor of California. Mr. Thompson has already served eight years in the Senate, the same amount of time Mr. Reagan spent as governor before he ran for president.

[Publisher’s note – I added the highlight above for emphasis – Flash]

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.