Free Republic

Kenneth Khachigian, who has returned to Santa Barbara to work with a law firm, has come aboard as a senior adviser for undeclared presidential hopeful Fred Thompson. Khachigian said the former Republican senator from Tennessee, who is officially testing the waters, will declare candidacy soon, but not before vital campaign infrastructure is in place. “It’ll be a few more weeks,” said Khachigian, who wrote speeches for presidents Nixon and Reagan and in June joined the Santa Barbara law firm Hatch & Parent. “It’s like launching an aircraft carrier. Every thing has to be ready or you won’t float.” Asked whether...

George W. Bush's 2004 campaign fund-raisers and contributors are being bombarded with appeals for money by Sen. John McCain's heavy-spending, money-short 2008 campaign. McCain is concentrating heavily on the rich target of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington, D.C. They have been invited to multiple McCain fund-raising events held in the nation's capital, currently a $1,000-a-ticket reception June 26 at the Capitol Hill Club with a potential "event co-chair" asked to raise $50,000. A large percentage of the Bush fund-raising team remains uncommitted, a signal that the Republican establishment is not satisfied with the present field seeking the party's nomination. McCain's...

So it's official: the "Arthur Branch for District Attorney" campaign has become the "Fred Thompson for President" campaign. We hear that Ken Khachigian -- known as the "lion" of California GOP politics -- has been hired as a national adviser and strategist to the presidential campaign of the former senator from Tennessee. Khachigian is an attorney who served as a senior political adviser and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan, for whom he crafted some of the late GOP president's most memorable phrases.