Do you blame him? With Steele pushing hard and insiders like Katon Dawson and Saul Anuzis in his way, he probably figured it was a long enough shot as not to be worth gambling his cachet on. Besides, apart from The One himself, who’ll have a drearier task day to day over the next two years than the guy responsible for bailing water from the deck of the GOP? “Hannity & Colmes” will still be there the next time he has something to say; let he who would turn down a six-figure paycheck for a 10-minute cameo on “Law & Order” cast the first stone.

That said, it speaks volumes that even in an atmosphere as Fred-friendly as the HA comments section, people were joking in Headlines last night that he would have run if he thought the “chair” in question was a La-Z-Boy. My favorite bit from the story:

“He called me yesterday and said it’s not in the cards,” said Nashville businessman B.C. “Scooter” Clippard, a close Thompson associate who headed fundraising for Thompson’s presidential campaign. Clippard said Thompson chose to remain in the private sector, working to resume his television acting career.

“He said he had spent the last two years of his life trying to be president and helping John McCain be president and during that time, he didn’t have much income. He has a family” and needs to earn an income, Clippard said.

The guy’s worth $8 million, or was circa 2006. If the market collapse and real estate downturn since then have been so bad that even Fred’s worried about paying his kids’ tuition, we’re in worse shape than I realized. Incidentally, the most recent numbers I can find for the RNC chair’s salary are from 2002, listing it a cool $150K. If that’s not enough, how was he planning to survive on $400K a year had he went and gotten himself elected president?