The Fred of July

Fred Thompson has to be encouraged by the response he's getting from conservatives, and by the general lack of appeal of the current crop of GOP candidates. The word from Political Diary is that he's going to be entering the race in July:

It looks as if Fred Thompson will be announcing his presidential candidacy around the Fourth of July weekend. He already has hired Tom Collamore, a former Commerce Department official, as his campaign manager and former Federal Elections Commission chairman Michael Toner as his campaign lawyer.

The announcement has been delayed while Mr. Thompson builds up a credible staff to enable him to hit the campaign trail in an organized fashion. He also had to clear up loose ends on his calendar by fulfilling speaking engagements and allowing original episodes of NBC's "Law and Order," on which he has a regular role, to air before federal equal-time rules kick in that would prevent NBC from airing them.

His rivals say Mr. Thompson's boomlet may soon lose altitude amid the daunting tasks of building a grass-roots organization in early primary states and creating a fundraising network. "He has no structure beyond a kitchen cabinet -- literally," sniffs an aide to a GOP rival.

But Mr. Thompson's advisers say his appeal will make it easy for him to proceed strongly from the starting gate. "Fred has the most spontaneous support I've seen of anyone in the last 40 years," says Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, who ran a strong race for president himself in the 1996 GOP primaries.

Indeed, Mr. Thompson will journey north to New York and Connecticut tomorrow for meetings with potential donors and to give a speech to the Connecticut Republican Party. There are early signs that some previous donors to current candidates in the GOP field are willing to give Mr. Thompson a hearing and possibly shift their allegiance if convinced he can win.

Mitt Romney is finally starting to see some results from his millions in advertising, but all that could go POOF! if Thompson gets in.