A recent column suggesting that the neocon image machine was busy grooming former Tennessee U.S. Senator Fred Thompson as a citizen politician, who stands above the battle, reminiscent of Ronald Reagan, is moving forward briskly.

Despite all the huffing and puffing by Republican right propagandists about Hollywood and its left wing domination, neocons of the Karl Rove stripe have an affection for actors since it is easy to blur reality with image since imagery is so strongly defined within the acting profession while images that were displayed on movie and television screens can be more easily inculcated into the public mind.  

This is particularly true in the image driven fantasy world of Fox News, Clear Channel and a society of submissive Fox zombies and Rush Limbaugh dittoheads.  

Reagan was a cowboy television narrator on "Death Valley Days" and later the GOP image machine worked overtime to depict him as just the man to topple the Soviet Union and battle terrorists all over the globe.  While the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed, historical analysis has determined with each year of analysis that this demise was ultimately destined to occur.