I am fortunate enough to work in the same office with Mike Deaver, who most will remember as President Reagan’s Deputy Chief of Staff and longtime communications guru. A couple of months ago, Mike recorded a short video for our European colleagues providing some analysis of the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. Yesterday, using that video as its chief source, the Daily Telegraph of London reported that Mike had endorsed Fred Thompson. The Drudge Report picked up the story this morning, and by this evening, the stampede was on — Reagan folks getting on board with Thompson.

Unfortunately, it never happened. Krempasky has the story at RedState, but bottom line, Mike told us, is that “Fred Thompson is a great guy, but I haven’t endorsed anyone in the Republican primary, and don’t intend to.”

The funny part is that I had intended to blog about Mike’s video last week, and just never got to it. Needless to say, given Mike’s experience and insight, the video and analysis are outstanding, and well worth watching.

In a separate post at RedState, Mark Kilmer points out this quote from the non-candidate in question, Senator Thompson.

“Ronald Reagan believed in something. How much we need that today. He showed what can be done if you have the will to push for tough choices, and the ability to ask the people to accept them.”

It seems to me that a candidate who believes in something in the way that President Reagan did is an ingredient sorely missing from the current Republican field.

UPDATE: The Politico breaks the news that Thompson is eyeing a summer announcement.

Back in March, I wrote about the myserious disappearance of bees across the country.

Today, the Los Angeles Times reports that scientists may have found the cause.

A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, UC San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.

[snip]

The current loss appears unprecedented. Beekeepers in 28 states, Canada and Britain have reported large losses. About a quarter of the estimated 2.4 million commercial colonies across the United States have been lost since fall, said Jerry Hayes of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in Gainesville.

But later, the good news.

If [a virus] N. ceranae does play a role in Colony Collapse Disorder, there may be some hope for beekeepers. A closely related parasite called Nosema apis, which also affects bees, can be controlled by the antibiotic fumagillin, and there is some evidence that it will work on N. ceranae as well.

No one knows for sure, yet. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction.

We need those bees.

Jim Gilmore formally announced his candidacy for President today.

I was a big fan of Governor Gilmore while he was Attorney General and during his days as Virginia’s chief executive. It was in small no part due to his leadership that I got involved in politics. I will always respect and admire him for all that he’s done and accomplished. But this seems like the wrong move and the wrong time, and I’m sorry to see him make it.

HT: Jim

• Shortly after you are seated, the waiter hands you his “cheat sheet” on which he has scrawled the evening specials so that you can review it while he gets your water.
• Later, the waiter asks your dining companion, “How would you like your chicken cooked?” Without missing a beat, your companion responds, “All the way, please.”
• As your table orders a second round of drinks, the waiter looks at one of your female companions and intones sincerely, “I’m so glad someone at this table is drinking beer.”

Jules Crittenden has an outstanding post on his site reminding us, “April 25 is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, marking the landings at Gallipoli in 1915 and the disastrous campaign there. Churchill’s idea for a second front went badly wrong, and he ended up resigning as First Lord of the Admiralty.”

I’ve been to the Anzac Memorial in Sydney, and it’s quite a site — an appropriate honor to the men who proved their metal and demonstrated their courage in one of the bloodiest battles in history.

Over the last hundred years, Australia has arguably been our best ally. And Crittenden recounts how they’ve stood up to do the hard work when almost no one else would.

Today, this small nation of 20 million on the other side of the world, with total air, land and sea forces of about 50,000, puts many nations to shame with its willingness to engage. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again. Timor and the Marshalls. As Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it several years ago, Australia is not subject to the popular multinationalism of the lowest common denominator, but has stepped up to play its role.

Crittenden then presents a number of first person account of the battle that are well worth reading.

Read the whole thing here.

More from the Moderate Voice.

In Blacksburg, Virginia Tech students went back to class yesterday. Which is great. Class equals normalcy, and normalcy — or something approaching it — is good for the soul at times like these.

But my favorite step in the right direction came Sunday, when the Virginia Tech student government asked the media to leave campus.

Yeah! Great news for the national zoo and its panda lovers.

Shempu: What about the whales?! The zoo needs some whales. And some baby whales. In fact, I think they ought to just turn the whole zoo into a big pool for lots and lots and lots of whales! Wheeeeeeee!

UPDATE: It’s official. Here’s the updated story.

I’m in 10A, headed west on an A320, when I peer briefly out of of tiny window into the sky beyond. Much to my surprise, I see a fresh contrail, seemingly only feet away, paralleling our course.

I know about highways in the sky and all of that. I also know that contrails can sometimes last for hours. But how close is that plane at the head of the whoa-too-close contrail? And, more importantly, are we gaining on it?

During the summer of 2005, I had the honor of being a Capitol Hill hanger-on during now-Chief Justice John Roberts’ Senate confirmation hearings.

With a group of experience communications professionals, I watched in amazement as Roberts gave his opening statement and then answered hours of questions without a single note or, indeed, piece of paper on the table before him. His testimony instantly became a legendary example of intellectual and rhetorical brilliance, and his confirmation swiftly became a foregone conclusion.

A few months later, I watched from a greater distance but with similar interest as now-Justice Alito managed nearly to match Roberts’ brilliance in both style and substance.

But in between, those of us who followed the judicial confirmation battles closely knew that there was a very real possibility that President Bush would nominate his Attorney General and long-time friend, Alberto Gonzales, to the Supreme Court seat that Alito eventually filled.

Both the Roberts and Alito hearings took place in the same large hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building – the same room, in fact where Attorney General Gonzales appeared yesterday to testify about his “decision” to dismiss eight United States Attorneys from various corners of the country.

Gonzales’ appearance demonstrated many things. But among the most interesting is the extent to which it revealed how totally unsuited and ill-equipped Gonzales would be for the spotlight of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. From both an intellectual and stylistic standpoint, Gonzales gets an “F”. And comparing him to Roberts or Alito just isn’t fair.

Indeed, along with many other things, Gonzales testimony yesterday illustrated just how laughable the notion of his nomination to the Supreme Court really was. It also revealed how thoroughly ill-prepared Gonzales would have been for the intellectual rigour of the Court.

Thank goodness Gonzales never had the chance to demonstrate his shortcomings in a Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Jim: Yeah, Alberto Gonzales represents one of the most depressing moments for those of us who wanted to see this administration succeed. He just seems in over his head; the “I didn’t figure out why I was firing these guys until after I fired them” defense sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Another somewhat disturbing aspect of all this - a few weeks ago I was speaking before a group of Republicans in South Carolina; the National Review editorial calling for Gonzales to step down was mentioned, and I said I agreed; it would be best for the Department of Justice and the country if AGAG moved on to something else in his life. The conversation grew a bit more heated, as several members of the audience adamantly insisted that the president has the right to fire any U.S. Attorney he wants for whatever reason he wants and has no obligation to disclose the reason to the public at large. I disagreed, and said that while I don’t have to like the reason, the president ought to at least give a reason for a firing. Several audience members concluded I was behaving as a media elite; I said they ought to think of me as a member of the public - and the president ought to give at least the most rudamentory reasons for personnel changes among public servants.

Another member of the audience insisted that this was nothing wrong, “it was the usual political patronage.” Am I nuts for thinking I don’t want too much political patronage in the positions of U.S. Attorneys? I’m sure the replacements were fine folks, but I tend to be a small-c conservative in this sense, that if somebody’s doing a good job in a position - particularly one as important as prosecutions and law enforcement - then don’t change things.

And one more observation - most of these changes occurred after the 2006 elections. If the White House staff didn’t realize that the Democratic Congress was going to be hunting for scalps, and that every move had to be scrutinized carefully to see how it could be used as a political weapon by the other side… then they don’t deserve to be running the White House.

I’ve been trying all week to come up with something profound to say about the murders at Virginia Tech. I haven’t.

I spent the first couple of days wondering how and why anyone could do such a horrible thing. But during a conversation with a friend, it struck me that trying to apply rational thinking to this unspeakable act was simply impossible. Such a crime defies rationality. It can only be the productive of a disturbed and wicked soul, detached from rational thought.

And then NBC put his tapes and photos on the air. I’m going to withhold my diatribe about news judgment, good taste and decency for now. Others are well down that path ahead of me.

Instead, on contrast to the videos, I want to highlight one of the most heartening images that I have seen all week.

Courtesy of Jonathan Martin, who also explains the context:

It may not be the same as, say, Auburn-Alabama, but the UVa-Virginia Tech rivalry runs deep in the commonwealth. The two schools, to put it mildly, don’t think too highly of one another.

Which is why the below picture is so powerful.

It’s from the “Beta Bridge” along Charlottesville’s Rugby Road, an oft-spray painted structure along UVa’s main fraternity/sorority corridor.

Usually it features nonsense about somebody’s 21st birthday or some such. But not today…

My father attended law school at the University of Virginia, so I grew up viewing Virginia Tech through the prism of the great rivalry between the two schools. I spent a significant number of formative Saturdays in Charlottesville learning the Good Ole Song and listening to one-liners about Hokies.

In constrast to Cho’s madness and NBC’s stupidity, this image manages to be both refreshing and appropriate.