Thompson Joins Race for 2008

Former governor and Bush cabinet member Tommy Thompson announced  for president yesterday, staking a claim to the territory to the right of the other GOP contenders. "I am the reliable conservative, my record shows that,"  said the one-time secretary of Health and Human Services and four-term governor of Wisconsin.

Thompson said he supports staying the Bush course in Iraq, committing to keep U.S. troops there as long as the Iraqi government wants them. And he envisions  a system there like the U.S.'s, allowing the country's 18 territories to elect local administrators and send representatives to the federal government. (More Iraq stories.)