Thompson Still Waiting For Right Moment to Announce

By Politics
Thursday, July 12, 2007; A06

Fred D. Thompson has decided not to formally announce his presidential campaign this month and may wait until September to end the suspense for Republicans, according to several sources in his campaign.

When the former senator from Tennessee first acknowledged his interest in the White House in early June, campaign advisers indicated he was likely to wait until early July to announce, after spending a month raising money and putting together an organization.

But that has proved to be overly optimistic. While Thompson is moving steadily in hiring a staff and building a campaign infrastructure, aides say they do not want to rush an announcement before they are ready. A kickoff will not happen in July, said several aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign has not publicly announced its intentions.

Republican consultant Mary Matalin, who is advising Thompson, said the announcement will be made when the campaign infrastructure is ready to make the most of the surge in interest she believes will follow.

"He has made up his mind," she said. "And one can appreciate that planning the announcement of what's on his mind needs to take place in a deliberative fashion."

Aides brushed aside the idea that the delay in an announcement is the result of disappointment in fundraising. Initially, reports suggested that Thompson's goal was to raise close to $5 million in the first month. Later, campaign staffers said the goal had always been $2 million in the first month, and they said that had been exceeded.

If the announcement comes in September, it will leave Thompson's candidacy in limbo for another seven weeks. But aides noted that Thompson is doing well in national and state polls and receiving relatively good press. He has between 15 and 18 fundraisers scheduled for the next month.

"Why change what's working?" one adviser asked.

-- Michael D. Shear

Biden Going on a Book Tour

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) has not yet broken out of the second tier of Democratic presidential candidates, but he is following in the footsteps of the front-runners: putting out a new book and embarking on a tour to support it.

"Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics," Biden's anecdote-filled treatise on his life in American politics, appears in bookstores July 31.

No stranger to the Sunday talk show circuit, Biden is scheduled to broaden his horizons on the tour -- giving him a chance to talk more about his personal biography and less about substantive policy. Expect to see and hear him on the "Today Show," Diane Rehm's radio program and "The Daily Show," a Random House publicist said.

-- Anne E. Kornblut

Schiavo's Brother Joins Brownback

As Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) campaigns in Iowa this weekend, he is hoping to evoke the memory of Terry Schiavo, whose comatose condition sparked a battle between her husband and her parents over whether she should be allowed to die.

Brownback, who is staunchly antiabortion, will be traveling with Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler, who helped turn his sister's plight into a national cause for conservatives and antiabortion members of Congress. Courts eventually sided with Schiavo's husband and ordered her feeding tube removed.

-- Michael D. Shear

Democrats to Debate GLBT Issues

With three debates under their belts and another dozen or so to go, Democrats have added one more gathering to the crowded presidential primary calendar: a debate sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign on Aug. 9.

The one-hour debate, to be held in Los Angeles, will address "issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community," the HRC statement announcing the event said. It "marks the first time in history the major presidential candidates will address a live GLBT television audience," the statement said, noting that Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have agreed to participate. All of the Democratic contenders, in fact, are expected to attend -- not so the Republican candidates, who were also invited.

-- Anne E. Kornblut