Fredheads can rejoice — the boys at Townhall.com announced today that Fred Thompson, the once (and future?) darling of conservatives, will be using their site as a platform to advance his push for conservatism.

It will be interesting to see how Thompson treats John McCain, the man who topped him in the Republican presidential primary, and about whom Thompson had some rough things to say, including that he had abandoned the Constitution and the Reagan coalition.

In his initial post Thompson doesn't mention McCain, but some readers will certainly imagine Thompson was thinking of McCain when he wrote this line:

"Now isn't the time for conservatives to be looking for a tailored message or a politically expedient route to victory if the end result is going to be the inevitable slide toward the liberalization and secularization of America, and the growth of government and loss of freedom that inevitably ensues."

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Cindy McCain today was forced to sell off $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in Sudan, the Associated Press reported.

She had to scramble to make the sale after the AP brought the holdings to the McCain campaign's attention while looking into Sen. John McCain's call for international sanctions against the nation, which the U.S. government accuses of genocide.

The AP discovered the mutual funds by looking at Mr. McCain's financial disclosures, which he files for his Senate job.

The discovery, and the fact that Mrs. McCain had act in response to press inquiries, makes it more difficult for Mrs. McCain to continue to reject calls to release her tax returns. (link here)

"The fact the McCain family was holding Sudan-related investments even as John McCain was out on the campaign trail calling for sanctions is a reminder of why the American people expect and deserve full disclosure from their elected officials," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera. "Unless John McCain's idea of being a different kind of Republican means disrespecting the voters by denying them the right to examine the links between his political career and financial interests, he should immediately release Cindy McCain's tax returns."

Democrats are claiming victory tonight in the special election to fill a vacant House seat from Mississippi, giving the party its third pick-up in recent months and setting the stage for a very angry House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday.

Since winning control of Congress in November 2006 Democrats have actually expanded their majority, including the three pickups in what had until then been reliably Republican districts. And that's part of what has Republicans worried — Democrats have recruited better candidates in those districts and have given their candidates the resources needed to win.

Democrats took a victory lap tonight, rubbing salt into the wounds of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans.

"The NRCC broke the bank and spent nearly 20 percent of their cash on hand on a ruby red district," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of House Democrats' campaign committee.

House Republicans' leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, told my paper today that these special elections don't mean anything for November. It will be interesting to see if his colleagues agree with him.

If not, the bloodletting could begin — something House Republicans did not do much of after their disastrous showing in the 2006 elections. Eighteen months later, it may be coming.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

For John McCain, global warming is the magic silver bullet, the issue that will unite liberals, moderates and evangelical conservatives into a powerful electoral force that will push him into the White House.

For the liberals and moderates, the McCain campaign has been clear that when the question is how he distinguishes himself from being a third term for President Bush, answers one, two and three all boil down to his stance on climate change (despite the fact that Bush has slowly moved toward McCain on the issue).

This morning the McCain campaign made it clear they also see the issue as their bridge to evangelical conservative voters, with the campaign sending out a statement from an organization named the Evangelical Climate Initiative that praised McCain's speech yesterday.

"Sen. McCain's support of strong policy on emissions is in line with the evangelical community. In a recent Ellison Research poll, 84 percent of evangelicals said they favored federal legislation to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming," the ECI said in its statement, mailed by the McCain campaign to reporters this morning. Curiously, that statement is not yet posted on the "press" section of ECI's Web site.

Still to be seen is whether climate change is enough of a concern for evangelicals to overcome their other concerns over Mr. McCain, and whether global warming trumps issues such as the Iraq war and McCain's newfound support for the Bush tax cuts in the minds of liberal and moderate voters.

And Mr. McCain may face another problem. Concerned Women for America, a powerful conservative lobby, says some of ECI's top funders are also key backers of abortion providers in the U.S.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Updating my post from earlier this week, John McCain has still not found any news of note for his Spanish-language audience. The news sections on his Spanish-language Web site, launched just this week, have not been updated once since the launch. That is despite McCain making a major speech on judicial nominations and announcing he would address the National Council of La Raza's convention. In fact, the site doesn't even mention his honoring the Mexican Cinco de Mayo holiday, which was the occasion for announcing the site.

Of course, that could be because the site is paper-thin in Spanish. The Spanish links to McCain's speeches take viewers to English-language transcripts, and the links to news items go to the Republican National Committee's site.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

Sen. John McCain today announced his Spanish-language campaign Web site in honor of Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday commemorating an 1862 battle. But it appears news only happens in English — the most recent posting under his news section is from April 16. The English-language site, by contrast, has dozens of news items since April 16.

And while the video on the main screen showing McCain's biographical commercial has Spanish subtitles, clicking on the link "La historia de un gran heroe Americano que esta listo para ser nuestro lider" takes you to an English-language version instead.

The McCain campaign says the Spanish-language site will "feature regular updates in Spanish throughout the election."

One thing those who study Spanish-language advertising have concluded is that campaigns cannot simply take English-language ads and convert them to Spanish. The candidates must tailor their pitch. That's a technique President Bush and Republicans used to great advantage in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

The McCain campaign yesterday also announced he will attend the National Council of La Raza's annual convention in San Diego in July, and it will be a chance for him to continue his outreach to what could be a critical swing group for this year's election.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times

If he had anything like the campaign cash Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton have, John McCain could be on the airwaves right now making sure voters know he didn't mean to endorse a 100-year war in Iraq.

But he doesn't have the cash, which leaves the airwaves to the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org, which are running ads blasting him for what was an easily miscontrued remark he made in January when he answered a question about whether U.S. troops could be in Iraq 50 years.

"Make it 100," McCain responded. "As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that'd be fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day."

The DNC and MoveOn.org say that shows McCain wants 100 years of military engagement — and hint that could mean 100 years of war. McCain says it's a "falsification," and says he envisioned a troop deployment similar to South Korea, where the U.S. still has troops more than 50 years after the Korean war.

Without money, McCain is left to argue his case to reporters — and hope that the voters who are seeing the attack commercials are also reading his defense in the papers. It's probably not a good bet.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times