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The Washington Post reports:

If Fred Thompson, the one-time Tennessee senator better known to most Americans as district attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order," runs for president, some of his fans may be in for a letdown. Television stations are expected to drop reruns of the show temporarily if he makes a real-life bid for the White House.

Federal campaign law requires broadcasters to give all candidates equal time on the airwaves. That rule applies to entertainment programs like "Law & Order," meaning stations which run the show would be required to give other GOP candidates a like amount of prime time television exposure.

Reason 101 why Steve Forbes could prove to be a huge "get" for Rudy Giuliani.  This is from 1999:

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The Union Leader newspaper endorsed Steve Forbes in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying he may not be charismatic, but he's no phony.

In an editorial to be published Friday, Publisher Joseph McQuaid said Forbes is the only candidate who displays "steady, intelligent, conservative leadership" who is "God-fearing, respectful of innocent life, and determined to restore a sense of decency to the White House."

"Steve Forbes is not charismatic. (Some would say he looks like a geek.) But he's also not a phony," the editorial said. "Ask him a question, you'll get a thoughtful answer, not a soundbite. He is one tough, smart customer who can be the strong, principled leader America needs."

By contrast, the paper said Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain "seem much more interested in what the news media say about them than in their own messages." ...

In 2000, Forbes was also endorsed by movement conservative giants like Phyllis Schlafly, Morton Blackwell, and Paul Weyrich. Townhall contributing editor Ken Blackwell also served as his National Chairman.

These are the same conservative leaders who (with the exception McCain's having endorsed Ken Blackwell's gubernatorial race -- in the primary), have tended to have a rocky relationship with John McCain (As I recently noted, McCain is seeking to bypass the filter of conservative leaders).

By securing Forbes' endorsement, could Rudy be similtaneously making a move in New Hampshire -- and making a play for the support of conservative leaders?

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UPDATE: 5:30 PM

So why is Steve Forbes endorsing Rudy?  According to National Journal's On Call blog:  "Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney was not a lover of Steve Forbes's flat tax, and, as a "concerned citizen," took out ads in Boston, New Hampshire and Iowa in 1996 to send the publisher that message."

John McCain just launched a petition regarding the actions of the U.S. Senate last night.  Here's what it says:

· The supplemental appropriations bill that passed the Senate on March 27, calling for a date certain withdrawal from Iraq, is nothing more than a guaranteed date of surrender.

· It is a refusal to acknowledge the dire consequences of failure, in terms of the stability in the Middle East and the resulting impact on the security of all Americans, whether home or abroad.

· Democrats have chosen the politically expedient position of failure rather than putting aside the small politics of the day in the interest of our nation and the values upon which this nation rests.

· We the undersigned remain steadfast in our support for the war against terrorism and mindful of the consequences of failure in Iraq, even if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid refuse to acknowledge those consequences.

· We support our troops and the new strategy and believe it should be given the opportunity to succeed. American national security interests are directly at stake. Success or failure in Iraq is the transcendent issue for our foreign policy and our national security. People say they want to defeat the terrorists, but if we withdraw from Iraq prematurely, it will be the terrorists' greatest triumph.

· If we leave Iraq based on an artificial timetable, al Qaeda will be free to plan, train for and conduct operations from Iraq just as they did in Afghanistan before 9/11.

Signed, [YOUR NAME]

Several of our commenters are on the Duncan Hunter bandwagon.  Here's what I know about him:  He's a Congressman, a Veteran, and a candidate for president.  He's solid on the Life issue -- and Iraq, but he seems to be a bit protectionist.   He also has a pretty decent website. 

Here's your chance: Why should we support Duncan Hunter?

Upset by the $1.2 billion for dairy producers? 

As we continue to learn about all the pork the Democrats included in the recently-passed House bill, I wanted to remind you of Green Eyeshade Blog.

The blog, of course, is written by Rep. John Campbell, who chairs the RSC's Budget and Spending Taskforce.  He's also a CPA.

If you're interested in hearing the "insider" details on this bloated spending bill -- read Green Eyeshade Blog today!

Ryan Sager reports that Steve Forbes had endorced Rudy Giuliani.  As Sager writes, this is very big news, because:

... Steve Forbes is a figure quite popular with the economic conservative wing of the Republican Party. He's famous, as conservatives all know, for championing a flat tax in his 1996 presidential campaign. (Is this the direction Rudy's moving in?)

Second, Mr. Forbes, when he ran again in 2000, underwent a transformation to try to make himself into the "family values" candidate in that race. Much less economics, much more home economics. (Work with me here, folks.)

This morning, Sen. John McCain continued his outreach to the conservative blogosphere, by holding a conference call with bloggers.

Bloggers who asked questions, included: Erik Erickson of RedState, Rob Bluey of Heritage, Philip Klein and Jim Antle from The American Spectator, Kim Priestap of Wizbang, Ryan Sager of The New York Sun, Chris Stewart of Green Mountain Politics, James Joyner of Outside the Beltway, and Skip Murphy and Doug Lambert of GraniteGrok.

K-Lo and Soren Dayton also wrote about the call -- and David All "live blogged" it.

McCain spoke at length about the Democrats surrender strategy in Iraq. Among other interesting comments, he said:

- “Tom Coburn is the best thing that’s happened in the United States Senate in years."

- He does not think any restrictions should be placed on the blogosphere or the internet.

- He is happy with his campaign, but noted: “I’m unhappy with my performance with fundraising – which is my fault – because I hate to ask people for money.”

Oh the drama of the blogosphere ... Here's the latest spat:

Soren Dayton (who was on the bus with me in New Hampshire) has a post up in which he accuses MyManMitt of intentionally misquoting John McCain.

The quote in question comes from a video in which John McCain clearly says: "... I’d also like to point out that the courts have said that money is not free speech. Money is property."

(MyManMitt quotes McCain as having said: "Money is not free speech. Money is property.")

In my view, Soren is being too hard on MyManMitt. Yes, technically McCain was misquoted -- but not misrepresented.  It is clear that McCain agrees with the courts -- that's why he is quoting them. In my view, this is a matter of semantics (and not worth flaming somebody over). 

But that's not the end of it.  Soren goes on to add:

Just dishonest. Shameful. And this is not the first time. This is the way the Romney campaign — which MyManMitt (and Evangelicals for Mitt, also liars) is a talking mouth for — behaves.

Among other complaints, Soren also adds that Romney's team "lied about Sam Brownback."

But, as far as I can tell, Romney's team was correct about Brownback when they wrote: "When Brownback was elected to office that is when he also had a conversion and voted with the pro-life movement."

In fact, back in January, I wrote a piece detailing how Sam Brownback was once pro-Choice. My piece is well-sourced, and includes quotes from the former GOP Chairman, as well as the former director of development for Kansans for Life.

According to conventional wisdom, Rudy Giuliani leads most national polls (for the GOP nomination) precisely because Americans view him as the best candidate to keep us safe and secure.  But his campaign continues to do things that could ultimately undermine his terrific image and positioning:

Back in January, a 140-page document outlining Giuliani's presidential campaign strategy was either lost or pilfered.

And today, the AP reported that Rudy's website had, "... a dangerous design flaw that could have allowed hackers to expose personal information submitted by volunteers." (In a related story, John McCain's MySpace page was also hacked -- although it apparently did not pose any security concerns for users).

So why is this important?  Isn't this petty? 

If the way one conducts a political campaign can be seen as a microcosm for how one might govern, Rudy's inability to secure information (both physically and electronically), should be concerning.

It is hard to imagine a more important task for a president than the ability to keep secret plans secret.

Special thanks to Kevin McCullough for having me on his show this afternoon to talk about the trip to NH. 

Here's what Kevin has to say about the videos:

As Matt points out McCain's body language seems to bristle at the fact that he STILL has to talk about this. I don't know why - he has EARNED our scorn on the matter - and we have long memories.

For "McCain/Feingold", for "Gang of 14", and for voting against marriage not once but twice - he simply can NOT be forgiven from this humble voter..."

NZ Bear got his hands on the Senate version of the Democrats' emergency supplemental bill, and posted it here.

He also alerts us to this news: The Senate version of the bill has an even worse provision regarding mandatory withdrawal than the House one:

"The President shall commence the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, with the goal of redeploying, by March 31, 2008, all United States combat forces from Iraq."

…Read it here.

Yesterday, John McCain went on Bill Bennett's show.

Today, he is scheduled to be on Michael Medved's show.

And here he is on Laura Ingraham's show ...

Yesterday, when I posted that first humorous McCain video from the bus trip, a few commenters wondered if we were ever going to get to anything substantive.  I hope that the videos we posted today (in honor of the 5 year anniversary of President Bush's signing BCRA), answer that question.  Clearly, McCain was willing to answer tough questions -- and we were more than happy to ask them.

I do have a few thoughts about what this all means ... about what I learned about McCain and the process.

1.  I think we've got to give McCain credit for being accessible to the press.  What is more, I think he deserves credit for treating bloggers the same way he would treat George Will or David Broder.  He truly gets the new media (McCain's blog-outreach guru -- Patrick Hynes -- deserves tremendous credit for this). 

2.  Clearly, John McCain has a strategy of focusing on conservative voters -- not conservative leaders.  The Politico's Jonathan Martin summed it up perfectly on March 12, when he wrote:

What is fascinating, though, about McCain's decision to go his own way on these events is that in some ways it recalls the Bush administration's approach to the media. The principle is the same: Why go through a filter that may put its own spin on things when one can now (almost) go straight to the consumer/voter? McCain's camp knows that, regardless of the senator's lifetime ACU score, they'll not get a fair shake from those "professional conservatives" who loathe both McCain the man and McCain the campaign finance reformer.

So they are taking their candidate straight to the beyond-the-beltway marketplace, banking that his more-consistent record on social issues and ardent support for the President's war policy and re-election will trump conservative suspicisons. It's their conviction -- and I've often said that the entire nomination could rest on this question -- that the disdain for McCain among conservative leaders doesn't trickle down to the grassroots.

3. Yesterday when I wrote that Granite Staters don't care about Campaign Finance Reform (at least the ones who attend town hall meetings, who are presumably the ones who vote in primaries), I was stating an observable fact. (Some commenters took this to mean that I don't think campaign finance reform is important  -- it is).  My real point was that no political analyst can honestly say that: "McCain can't win New Hampshire because of McCain/Feingold."

Yes -- the issue is vitally important, and No -- it won't hurt him in New Hampshire.  It should also be noted that it was President Bush -- not John McCain -- who signed Campaign Finance Reform into law.