Last week I was jealous that I couldn’t hear Fred Thompson’s speech to the National Council for Policy in Virginia. Thompson has released the speech since then, and it’s available here. It’s a very simple speech on a simple theme — focusing on Roberts and Libby as they two intersect in the fight for the rule of law. In my favorite quote Thompson says:

We have always held our federal judiciary in high esteem, even at a time when most of our institutions are under assault. However, if judges continue to act like politicians they will get the respect currently given to politicians. It is already rapidly headed in that direction. The antidote for this, of course, is good judges.

Richard Land had some interesting comments about Mitt Romney’s presidential chances today when talking about the 2008 field with Bill Bennett. (Land is the president of Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the public policy entity of the Southern Baptist Convention.)

Land mentioned Romney with McCain and Brownback as someone who might be able to get the evangelical vote. Contrary to the assumptions of the media elite Land thought Romeny’s mormonism wouldn’t be a problem. According to Land:

I have people tell me well you know a Mormon can’t be elected. Well, I disagree with that. I think that if you look at the polling that says that thirty-seven percent of Americans would not vote for a Mormon, the majority of those are seculars who don’t like religion anyway and look at Mormonism as religion on steroids. Most evangelicals understand that we’re voting for a commander-in-chief and not a theologian-in-chief, and it’s going to depend on where they stand on the issues whether or not they’ll get the support of Evangelicals.

I think Land is right. The issues a candidate stands for matters more than the church they go to to most evangelicals. Just ask Harriet Meiers.

GOP Bloggers has put up their new 2008 GOP Poll.

Redstate has a fascinating podcast with Romney’s stance on different issues. Mitt Romney will possibly be one of the contenders for the Republican nomination and has been trying to burnish his conservative credentials. In the podcast, Romney discusses his relatively recent move into the pro-life camp, his pro-life work as a governor in Massachusetts, and his work to cut government spending.

The last several days there have been a couple straw polls going around on the GOP presidential nomination for 2008. Although it’s still very early in that election season, candidates have been testing the waters for months.

The first poll was in Memphis, during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Frist won only 36% of the vote that vote, even though he was in his home state. However the more curious thing was that Mitt Romney, the governor from Massachusetts who has been making some conservative overtures, came in second at 14%.

Two more straw polls, this time on the internet, strengthened Romney’s place in the field. As of now in the GOP Blogger poll, George Allen is in the lead with 34% net votes, with Rudy at 22% and Mitt Romney in third place with 11.6%. Because the poll is set up to receive negative as well as positive votes Frist and McCain each have the honor of having a net percentage of negative votes.

Town Hall is hosting the third straw poll, and again Allen and Romney are in good places. Allen has 57% and Romney has 38%. Giuliani and McCain are at 1% (Frist has at 0%).

It’s never good to read too much in a couple of straw polls, especially so early in the race. Still, they present a small snapshot of what Republicans (mostly activist Republicans) are thinking, and as such they give us a glimpse into which candidates have inspired the love or hate of the men and women who will be manning the campaigns come election 2008.