Someone is looking for dirt on Thompson

Do you think it was the Clintons? It fits their modus operandi:

Former Tennessee U.S. Senator Fred Thompson is drawing nationwide attention for his ongoing flirtation with running for president. He is also drawing a little unwanted attention here in Nashville of a very different kind.

Nashville law circles were abuzz last week about professional snoops – either private investigators or opposition research political types - combing public records in Metro buildings looking for potential dirt on Thompson. Property records seemed to be at the top of their list.

The word trickled up to Republican Party sources, who insist it is Thompson’s potential GOP primary opponents looking for ammo to use should the television star make the race.

Whoever it is, it's a good sign because someone thinks he's viable enough to make an effort to smear him.

NY Times takes a look at Thompson's pre-campaign campaigning:

When 10 of the declared Republican presidential candidates gather for their first debate on Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California, Fred D. Thompson, the actor and politician, will not be among them. But he will not be far offstage.

Mr. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and current presidential question mark, is speaking the next night at the annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, an influential conservative group. The scheduling illustrates the political place Mr. Thompson occupies: he is of the presidential campaign, but not in it. Yet.

[...]

The informal Thompson team has kicked around names of potential top campaign aides, lawyers and pollsters who might still be available given that so much of the Republican talent pool has already been scooped up. The team has discussed securing office space for a headquarters in Tennessee.

Making speeches at carefully chosen appearances, doing an occasional interview and fielding questions from Republican congressmen, Mr. Thompson, 64, is running something of a guerrilla exploratory effort. He even weighed in recently on a conservative blog to offer a detailed defense of his ideas on federalism.

This quote from the piece is laughable given the fact that he's run successful campaigns before:

A top aide for one contender said he thought Mr. Thompson would be stunned by the level of scrutiny he receive in a campaign not only from the news media, but also from the competition. He described Mr. Thompson as the potential Wesley Clark of the 2008 race: a popular figure whose political image and skills have not been tested.

Clark never ran for office before.

Politico looks at the type of campaign Thompson would run:

Thompson, his wife and advisers in Washington and Tennessee also are drawing up plans for a new style of campaign that would rely heavily on technology and his celebrity status to avoid some of the slogging through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire that is normally required of White House hopefuls.

The advisers say Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order," is researching ways to use technology -- including the Web, videoconferences and teleconferences -- to harness the enthusiasm for his candidacy among grass-roots bloggers and activists. The campaign also would rely on large events, such as those that have in part supplanted country-store campaigning for some in the Democratic field.

[...]

So just how practical is a low-impact presidential campaign? Thompson's floundering campaign for Senate in Tennessee took off after he got his red pickup truck, and now he wants to bring a similar dash of showmanship to the '08 race. "Because of his name ID, he doesn't have to go diner to diner and church to church," said one adviser.

On the day Thompson revealed he has cancer, he hinted at an unorthodox blueprint when he said that he thinks it's possible to join the field without abandoning his family.

"Going on the road for months at a time, and for all practical purposes, just checking [in] every once in a while, I wouldn't do that," he told Fox's Neil Cavuto. "I don't think it has to be done that way. I know people will expect that of everyone -- to run frenetically around for years. And I don't do frenetic very well."

And as you have probably heard by now, Reagan's men have come out for Thompson:

Ronald Reagan's closest allies are throwing their weight behind the bid by the late president's fellow actor, Fred Thompson, for the White House.

The film star and former Republican senator from Tennessee will this week use a speech in the heart of Reagan country, in southern California, to woo party bigwigs in what insiders say is the next step in his coming out as a candidate.

A key figure in the Reagan inner circle has now given his seal of approval to Thompson, best known as a star of the television crime drama Law and Order. As deputy chief of staff, Michael Deaver was a key member of the "troika" of aides who kept the Reagan White House on track.

With the then chief of staff James Baker and special assistant Ed Meese, he was the master of image and presentation. Deaver sees the same raw material in Thompson as was perceived in Ronald Reagan, describing him as someone "that could really make a difference."

He added: "He is very popular in his party. He could change this whole thing and turn this primary system upside down. As Ronald Reagan used to say, after he stole a line from Al Jolson: `Stay tuned, you ain't seen nothing yet."'

[...]
Deaver's intervention is significant. He is very close to Reagan's widow, Nancy, and is seen as the keeper of the Reagan flame. Clark Judge, a White House speechwriter for Reagan, said: "Fred Thompson, like Ronald Reagan, is a man of tremendous substance. There is a sense in the party that none of the candidates is quite `it."'

I wasn't too impressed by the turnout of the rally or by the video of Wamp's speech. I will be happy when Thompson can attend these things himself and give his own speech. I agree with this take:

Wamp discusses the notion of radical Islam being "sheltered" by moderate Islam and references the Muslim birthrate versus the birthrate in the West to give the impression that the Middle East is a breeding ground for future terrorists, making a "war of civilizations," as ACK calls it, all but inevitable. Is this what Fred Thompson believes?

At this point, it's almost as if every conservative who hasn't picked a horse in the '08 race is projecting whatever views they have that aren't being addressed by the top tier candidates onto Thompson. I'm as excited as anyone about the prospect of Thompson getting in the race, but the reality is, he must speak for himself on these issues. If he's going to run, it's time to get in the race and join the debate.

And finally, Thompson takes a look at America's critics:

President Vladimir Putin, though, shows no sign that he feels defensive about his remarkable string of luck. He knows who’s really to blame for “meddling” in Russian “internal affairs.” It’s the United States.

He’s lambasting us for yielding too much power. One example of this excessive power is the missile defense radar system we want to install in Poland and the Czech Republic — to give the free world early warning of a missile attack by terrorists or a rogue nation like Iran. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that the Russians have been supplying Iran with both nuclear and missile technology while using their U.N. veto to block sanctions that would force Tehran to back down. Regardless, we’re clearly at fault, he says, for putting a defense system close to Mother Russia.

So I wouldn’t worry too much about the criticisms we receive. We make mistakes and at times the “carping” may even be on target, but it seems to me that we ought to look at a lot of the complaints as a badge of honor.

This looks like a knock against the Democrats like Clinton who say that want to improve America's standing in the world by sending out her husband to be a good will ambassador.

Update: Redstate contacted Mike Deaver to find out if he endorsed Thompson and he said that he didn't endorse any of the candidates:

“Fred Thompson is a great guy, but I haven’t endorsed anyone in the Republican primary, and don’t intend to.”