• Now that Fred’s announced, does it matter that his “testing the waters” phase skirted FEC campaign rules? “Thompson accomplished his voter involvement activities online without ever explicitly stating that he is running for president or asking for votes. He didn’t have to. Instead, the site lets his online supporters do the …

McCain had the best line about Fred Thompson’s absence from the GOP debate on Fox last night — “maybe it’s past his bedtime.” McCain also happened to have the best debate. But how did Fred do? His Leno appearance went well enough, with Leno getting in a joke about Thompson’s manliness at Larry Craig’s expense (the Leno clip is here — …

Loose nukes!

9:00 PM “Tossing fish” seems like a great metaphor for some kind of political activity. Perhaps involving Larry Craig.

9:01 PM Full disclosure: SwampHusband and I warmed up for this by watching “The Hills.” A burning question: Is Spencer more like Mitt or Rudy? Is Brody Fred? Talk amongst yourselves.

9:02 PM Can Brownback look both …

I had been choosing to believe that the Politico’s Andrew Glass’s defense of Broderism was some kind of elaborate practical joke. They’re both in the Gridiron Club, after all, and those guys are, like, always hazing each other and stuff (“Tell Balz to ask if W has Prince Albert in a can!” “Somebody made Novak drink non-virgin blood!”). …

This, from Slate, provides an interesting postscript to President Bush’s failed effort to add private accounts to Social Security.

As you probably recall, one argument the President made then was that 401(k)s had prepared Americans to become an “ownership society,” and to assume some risk in managing their own retirement savings. Or as …

• Obama-Oprah raises the question: “Can Winfrey do for a political candidate what she did for books?” Only if people can buy candidates without having to actually read them. [WP]

• More reasons we love Karen: “Tumulty says she was stunned at seeing Gore’s remark being turned into a ‘window onto his soul’ in the pages of The New York …

The idea that it was Arlen Specter who has supposedly raised Craig’s, uh, hopes really gives whole new meaning to the “magic bullet theory.”

(See, Craig’s toe went through both the stall and Connally’s wrist…)

I have a piece on Time.com raising the curtain on Fred Thompson’s announcement tonight that he is, offocially and finally, a candidate in the GOP presidential primary. Yes, he’s appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno rather than in Manchester at the GOP presidential primary debate hosted by Fox News’ Chris Wallace. And yes, for good …

Ana, here’s what I want to know. Roll Call reports:

Sen. Larry Craig (R) opened the possibility of reversing his stated intention to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30 in a voice mail message obtained by Roll Call that the Idaho conservative inadvertently left at a wrong number.

So Craig dials a wrong number, and then this

…

Larry Craig’s is-he-or-isn’t-he resignation supposedly has GOP operatives fuming. It’ll distract from the policy debates they want to have, it reminds voters of their hypocrisy, it confuses poor would be gay-bashers like Tucker Carlson. But… and there’s always a but…here’s my conspiracy of the morning: could the Patreaus report be so …