Fred's Headed to Iowa!

Actor-politician Fred Thompson to visit Iowa next week
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson plans to make his first Iowa campaign trip as a presidential prospect next week, a development that is expected to reset the Republican field in the leadoff caucus state in the wake of the GOP straw poll in Ames on this Saturday.

“Then the campaign for the caucuses begins,” said John Maxwell, chief adviser to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia. “There are going to be players leaving the stage after Saturday, and so it is going to be a new lineup.

”Thompson is scheduled to visit the Des Moines area on Aug. 17 and meet with state legislators and social conservative activists before attending the Iowa State Fair, always a “must” on the summertime campaign trail in Iowa. The schedule is a sign that Thompson, one of the Republican Party’s favorites in Iowa and nationally, would compete in Iowa’s 2008 caucuses, state political observers and Republican strategists said.Thompson is expected to officially announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination in September. He is not planning to be in Ames Saturday, when eight of the Republican field’s other candidates and thousands of Iowa GOP stalwarts will be on Iowa State University campus for the non-binding straw poll vote.