Candidate or DA: Thompson Can't Be Both

NBC will pull “Law & Order” reruns featuring DA Arthur Branch if the man who portrays him runs for president, the New York Times reported today. The self-imposed ban on those 115 episodes in which Fred Thompson appears would avoid the obligation to give other candidates comparable air time to comply with federal equal-time regulations.

Similar suspensions took place during Reagan’s 1980 presidential run and Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign. NBC contacted the Romney and Giuliani campaigns to ask whether they’d make an issue of Thompson's appearances in this summer's reruns, the Washington Post reported. But it hasn't been an issue, since Thompson is still on the sidelines; odds are Jack McCoy will be the district attorney’s chair by the time he declares. (More Fred Thompson stories.)