If you haven’t been reading Stephen Hayes lately, you’ve been missing the best reporting on the Fred Thompson campaign. This article talks about the genuine groundswell of support that’s propelling his campaign. If this continues, it won’t take long for Fred Thompson to achieve frontrunner status. Here’s what I’m basing that opinion on:

Thompson’s wife Jeri, a savvy Republican strategist with Capitol Hill experience, asked Mark Corallo, an old friend and public relations guru, to see what he might do to raise her husband’s profile in Washington. Thompson had not altogether retired from politics when he left the Senate in January 2003: He was serving as chairman of the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board. He was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a member of the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission, and a commentator for ABC Radio.

Corallo had left his job as spokesman at the Justice Department to open a media consulting firm and agreed to take on the low-intensity work as a favor and without pay. He quietly began to highlight Thompson’s activities, in particular calling attention to Thompson’s radio work. When the provocative radio commentaries were published on National Review’s popular website beginning in January 2007, other conservative websites began to link to them with some regularity, viral marketing, as they say in the online world, and arguably the informal beginning of Thompson’s campaign.

In early March, when Thompson acknowledged on Fox News Sunday that he was seriously considering a presidential run, support for a potential bid exploded. Thompson and his friends were flooded with phone calls from would-be supporters eager to start raising money. Public officials began to endorse Thompson without any promise that he would become a candidate, a risk in the trade-and-barter world of politics.

On April 7, Carl Bearden, the speaker pro tem of the Missouri House of Representatives, sent an email to colleagues expressing his support for Thompson and encouraging them to do the same. In time, 60 of the 92 Republicans in the Missouri House signed a petition backing a Thompson run. The lawmakers did so despite the fact that two of the state’s leading Republicans, Governor Matt Blunt and Missouri House speaker Rod Jetton, had endorsed Mitt Romney. (So confident is Bearden that he offered some good-natured smack-talk to Blunt and Jetton. “I told them to enjoy it while it lasts, because when Fred gets in, it’ll be over.”)

In Texas, Jerry Patterson, the colorful commissioner of the General Land Office (a statewide elected office that is more powerful than it sounds), began to circulate a petition encouraging Thompson to run. By late April, he had gotten the signatures of 58 Texas Republican lawmakers. “No other presidential hopeful from either party is close,” reported the Houston Chronicle. According to Patterson, that number now stands at 67, and includes 59 of the 81 Republicans in the Texas House.

As you can see, legislators are flocking to Thompson without Fred Thompson courting them the way that other presidential candidates have done. That said, the Thompson noncampaign campaign hasn’t been sitting idle either:

Behind the scenes too, the activity was picking up. Thompson’s top advisers gathered more frequently for planning meetings around the banquet-sized dining room table at his home in McLean, Virginia. On Saturday, May 12, as Thompson won the Wisconsin GOP poll, he met there with two men he does not know well but who will nevertheless play a major role in his bid to become president. David McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana, and Lawrence Lindsey, President Bush’s top economic adviser in his first term, came expecting to discuss tax reform, or social issues, or perhaps the long-term stability of Medicare. They would get to that, eventually.

David McIntosh is a very bright man. Him joining the Thompson campaign’s staff is a signal to movement conservatives that Thompson is what might best be described as a closet movement conservative. McIntosh’s presence says “Fred’s one of us” to movement conservatives. If that message gets out, the resulting momentum would be a difficult thing for people like Rudy and Mitt Romney to deal with. Here’s some background on Rep. McIntosh:

McIntosh, who in 1982 helped start the Federalist Society, the well-known national organization for conservative lawyers and students, is widely regarded as a serious conservative thinker and someone who is in touch with the ideas that animate movement conservatives. McIntosh says Thompson is a conservative’s conservative. “When I first talked to Fred, I thought either he’s a better actor than anyone I’ve ever met, or this is really him. Having spent more time, I know he’s a real conservative.”

That’s a vote of confidence with some punch to it. The Federalist Society, you’ll remember, is the organization that Ted Kennedy and other liberals tried tarring John Roberts with. Here’s what the Federalist Society says about themselves:

• Law schools and the legal profession are currently strongly dominated by a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society. While some members of the academic community have dissented from these views, by and large they are taught simultaneously with (and indeed as if they were) the law.
• The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.
• This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law students and professors. In working to achieve these goals, the Society has created a conservative and libertarian intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community.

In other words, the organization that David McIntosh started is dedicated to undoing all of the wrongs that the liberal judiciary has created. That’s one of the central principles at the heart of Reagan’s conservatism. That’s one of the rallying cries of the modern conservative movement.

As impressive as that is, that isn’t all there is to Thompson’s groundswell:

Thompson last week also picked up the endorsement of the third-ranking Republican in the House, Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida. Putnam is the highest-ranking House Republican to endorse a candidate. “I see in him an ability to create an excitement in our grassroots that none of the other candidates have been able to do thus far,” Putnam said in a phone interview.

The 33-year-old Putnam is widely regarded as one of the rising stars among conservatives in the House. He was first elected in 2000, the first cycle he was old enough to run. Six years later, his colleagues chose Putnam as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, making him the fourth-ranking member. He has served as chairman of the House Republican Conference since the beginning of the current session.

In other words, the Thompson campaign is putting together a team of truly conservative supporters that reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the conservative movement. If this trend continues, he’ll have conservatives chomping at the bit to work for him. If that happens, he’ll be almost impossible to beat in the GOP primaries.

As important to the Thompson campaign as Putnam’s congressional chops are his extensive ties among Florida Republicans; he served for four years in the state legislature before being elected to Congress. Putnam says the phone lines in his campaign office have been “flooded” since his endorsement of Thompson was first reported. He has heard from voters as well as lawmakers. “All the worker bees have been calling in to ask what they can do to help,” he says. “And several of my former colleagues have been shooting me emails asking how they can sign up.”

That sounds like a true groundswell of grassroots support, something that every campaign would love to have. Thus far, only one candidate has that going for him.

His name is Fred Thompson.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, David McIntosh, Federalist Society, John Roberts, Ronald Reagan, Conservatism, Adam Putnam, Florida, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

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1. That groundswell will also result in, and be demonstrated by, massive campaign contributions by individual conservative voters. I stopped giving money about 3 years ago. I was too disgusted with what the republicrats had become. I just donated 100 to Fred. I am actually excited, for the first time in many years to work on his campaign. My second vote for Bush was a wartime vote. My 2006 vote was a reluctant anti Pelosi/Reed vote. My Thompson vote will be a pleasurable pro US vote.

   Comment by Rey — June 10, 2007 @ 1:35 am

2. I too am excited about FDT. I have not given money to a candidate in years. But after reading FDT’s commentary and listening to his speeches I am sold. The most important things about this candidate are his 1. Federalist principles and 2. His impressive ability to communicate not only with rhetorical skills but presence.

   FDT for United States President in 2008

   Comment by MT — June 10, 2007 @ 6:43 pm

3. I’m more than a little suprised that given the response from the “little guys”, that none of the candidates have come out with a stronger voice on this. McCain’s position is known, as is Duncan Hunter’s, but the rest of the field has been fairly mute on the subject. Now would be a great time to come out and speak against the bill - and nobody has.

   Comment by suek — June 13, 2007 @ 5:03 pm