Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

It's Monday, April 16, the deadline for Americans to file their 2006 federal income tax returns, so today's edition of The Daily Fred starts off with a link to and excerpt from Fred Thompson's excellent op-ed at OpinionJournal.com Saturday, in which Thompson addressed taxes.

Thompson writes:

It's that time again, and I was thinking of the old joke about paying your taxes with a smile. The punch line is that the IRS doesn't accept smiles. They want your money.

So it's not that funny, but there is reason to smile this tax season. The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.

In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.  

I'll keep the rest of today's round-up of Fred Thompson news and blog coverage short - so you can get back to finishing filing your taxes.

...Thompson - who isn't yet officially running for president - is in third place among Republican likely voters at 11 percent, behind Rudy Giuliani (27 percent) and John McCain (24 percent) and ahead of Mitt Romney (10 percent) in the latest poll from CNN.

...Syndicated columnist Michael Reagan, son of the late, great President Ronald Reagan, says Thompson has big walls to climb if he's going to win the presidency.

...The Memphis newspaper notes some key dates on Thompson's calendar:

In Washington on Wednesday, Thompson plans to meet behind closed doors with GOP congressmen. The new capital newspaper The Politico reports that also on Thompson's agenda are a May 3 appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno and a May 4 speech to the Orange County, Calif., Lincoln Club.

And you can catch the actor side of Thompson throughout the month of May. HBO plans to air "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," in which Thompson plays Ulysses S. Grant.

Set the TiVo for that one.

More Daily Fred if you click "continue reading..."

....MSNBC reports that, at the Iowa Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner this weekend, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, making a longshot bid for the GOP presidential nomination, "took a shot at Fred Thompson, not by name, but by profession. He contrasted his law-and-order background (he's an ex-VA AG and prosecutor) with Thompson's Hollywood background."

Perhaps Gilmore doesn't know that Thompson's movie career happened because he was a successful prosecutor and minority counsel during the Senate's hearings on the Watergate scandal. Perhaps Gilmore doesn't know that Thompson's movie career began with a film in which Thompson played himself in a true story about the whistleblower and her attorney who exposed a corrupt governor's pardons scandal.

I like Jim Gilmore, but, c'mon, Jim, Fred's "Hollywood background" isn't even a fourth of the story of his life.

...Dick Morris says Thompson could beat Hillary Clinton in the general election, but says Thompson will first have to "fight an all-out battle with Giuliani for conservative Republicans." (See also Moc's Blog.)

A recent Gallup Poll found that 22% of self-described pro-life Republicans – who constitute 2/3 of the GOP primary turnout – still vote for Rudy despite his widely known pro-choice position. Gallup has Rudy in first place among those pro-life voters, although by less than the 33% he gets from those who are pro-choice.

But Fred Thompson would give Rudy a real run for his money among these social conservatives. Significantly, in the LA Times poll, Thompson received more support from Christian conservatives – 21%- than any of the other candidates. Giuliani followed with 17% and McCain trailed with 10%.

My bet is that Rudy will still prevail because terrorism trumps abortion as an issue for the GOP right, but it could get close.

Morris obviously believes Giuliani is "stronger" on the terrorism issue than Thompson. Other than his handling of New York City in the days after 9/11, I don't see it.

...more to come.