** FILE ** Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., talks on the phone in the Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole's Capitol office, Dec. 15, 1994, before delivering the official Republican response from Dole's office to President Clinton's national address. As Thompson prepares for what some may see as the role of a lifetime, president of the United States of America, his image has been cultivated as much by Hollywood as by his time as a real-life senator in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, File)