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Add to the mix of presidential contenders the looming potential of a true conservative emerging from beyond even the second-tier of the second-guessers.

Former Senator and current well-known actor, Fred Dalton Thompson told FoxNews' Chris Wallace this weekend that he is, as recent whispers have indicated, mulling a 2008 White House run.

Were Thompson to come into the race, conservatives would have quite the champion to distinguish the party from anything the Democrats might become. It is almost a given that Thompson would be the complete antithesis of any candidate coming from the left.

His positions vis-vis the overt candidates make him a perfect candidate for the disaffected right that spent the CPAC weekend grumbling about the insufficient conservatism of the running pack.

Giuliani is pro-choice and pro-gay. Thompson is pro-life and pro-family. And, though Rudy is unique among all politicians in his position as "America's mayor" and his performance on 9/11, Thompson is also a (pun intended) tough "law and order" candidate, with real experience as a lawyer, an assistant US attorney, and a special counsel to the Intelligence Committee. In fact, his legal credentials are better in real life than they are on television.

McCain suffers from a failure to stand with the president on major issues of conservative interest. Not so Thompson. To date, he supports the war and the president, and he is not perceived as a "maverick"something conservatives deeply dislike.

Mitt Romney is a good conservative candidatebut he's apparently new at the game, too, having let his position "evolve" from his previous pro-choice and (reportedly) pro-gay stance of only a few years ago. Thompson's conservatism is in his bones and well-proven. We can be comfortable in expecting no surprises.

Sam Brownback is a wonderful evangelical, but he suffers from an extreme lack of name recognition and an apparent inability to attract attention. Thompson is already known to literally tens of millions of voters for his ubiquity on the last several seasons of Law and Order. Finding out that he's as strong a real politician as he is a fake District Attorney can only be a plus.

Newt Gingrich is a darling of conservatism, but he carries baggage, both from his previous stint in the spotlight and his marital (and extramarital) history. Though forgiven by such leading lights as Dr. Dobson, it would still be nice to have someone with all the pluses and none of the minuses (none that we know of, anyway.) Moreover,

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