Dr. Reagan and Mr. Cheney

After rehearsing with Jay Leno last night, Fred Thompson is ready for his Fourth of July closeup, Mr. DeMille.

As an actor Thompson has always played himself, a folksy politician in a rumpled suit. Now he is taking on a reverse Jekyll-Hyde role in the ’08 picture to persuade Republican fire-breathers in the primaries before he gives his Reagan impersonation for the White House Oscar in November.

The supporting cast and props are in place starting with the Bush I reliables: the aging ingénue Mary Matalin, economic sage Lawrence Lindsey and Robert Novak, the devoted old media manservant, among the familiar faces for 20th century flashbacks.

But as the cast grows, the important players are coming from the Bush-Cheney troupe, the latest three certified as “hawkish” by the Weekly Standard: Mark Esper, an aerospace executive who was Bill Frist’s foreign policy guru; Joel Shin, who coordinated advisers for Bush’s 2000 campaign; and Dick Cheney’s older daughter, Liz, a Middle East expert with credentials that suggest an apple falling not far from the tree.

Thompson’s role as a Scooter Libby advocate and his mumblings about taking on Iran round out the picture of an Administration that would not offer a sharp break with the world view of the one we have now.

But none of that will be the focus of Thompson’s campaign. Instead there will be the image of (believe it or not) a Washington outsider who never wanted to be President but feels duty-bound to save us from the mess he clearly is getting ready to perpetuate.

Is this a great country or what?