Insider Fred's campaign is hitting further and further inside the Beltway by the day.

Mary Matalin is rumored to be taking up residence in the Fred Thompson campaign.

WASHINGTON - Over the past few weeks Tennessee Republican Fred Thompson has begun surrounding himself with advisers who served under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as he heads towards a likely presidential run.

Among those also expected to play a role: Mary Matalin, a former adviser in the current Bush administration, and Tim Griffin, an ex-aide at the Republican National Committee who as a U.S. attorney in Arkansas was involved in the controversy over the firings of federal prosecutors.

Matalin served as national voter contact director for the Reagan-Bush Campaign in 1984, senior adviser to the George HW Bush campaign in 1988, was chief of staff to the RNC from 1988 - 1992, was named deputy campaign manager for political operations in 1992 for Bush Sr. She most recently served in government as senior adviser Dick Cheney and his staff, was deposed by the Grand Jury in the Plame affair, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group. She spends her time honing her rhetorical skills as editor in chief of Threshold Editions, a Simon & Schuster puke funnel imprint for the likes of John Bolton, Glenn Beck, Lynne Cheney, L. Paul Bremer, and Ed Gilllespie. Fair, balanced, &c.

I'm sure she's "being called to service" once again, and isn't thinking at all about her career.

And, so you can track this on your insider cheat sheet, Tim Griffin is a Karl Rove protégé. Rove landed Griffin a prestigious job as US Attorney in Arkansas while partisan skullduggery was pro forma hiring practice at the DOJ. Membership has its privileges, as the saying goes.

Fast-track Fred is busily building those insider bonafides by the day.