Fred '08: Because Cheney's Not Available

Marc Ambinder reports that a central figure in the U.S. Attorneys scandal has found a new perch:

J. Timothy Griffin, the former RNC research whiz and Army JAG prosecutor who served, briefly, as a U.S. Attorney in the second district in Arkansas.

Griffin, you'll no doubt recall, was selected with White House input to replace prosecutor Bud Cummins in AR when Griffin returned from serving a tour of duty in Iraq.

Griffin is advising Thompson on communications and message and will probably be a consultant to Thompson's presidential campaign.

When you add to this Thompson's membership in the Libby Legal Defense Trust, you've got a theme: Thompson is the Third Bush Term candidate. Like reason pointed out in our candidate scouting report, Thompson basically agrees with the big ideas of the Bush term and eloquently defends the stupid ideas. He's polling around 15 points, which is pretty good already, but based on the conversations I've had with Republican voters I think the ceiling is much, much higher. Dozens of them said they still had faith in Bush but wished he was a "stronger leader." McCain's the candidate who represents a break from Bushism (it gets less simple when you talk about Iraq) and, no surprise, he's slipping to third in the polls.