TVSquad

Fred Thompson's plans to announce his candidacy for the 2008 presidential race once again brings up the question of "equal time" provisions that are in place to assure a single candidate is not given more airtime on television than anyone else.

Thompson, a Republican and former Tennessee senator, played DA Arthur Branch on NBC's Law and Order for five seasons. NBC, in keeping with the provisions, has stopped airing episodes that feature Thompson, but TNT, whose schedule overflows with Law and Order reruns, will keep airing the Thompson episodes.

While actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who plays D.A. Arthur Branch on Law and Order, has not officially announced whether or not he plans on running as a potential Republican presidential candidate, NBC prez Kevin Reilly says it is "highly unlikely" that Thomson will return for the series' 18th season.

There has been a lot of talk already as to how a Thompson campaign would affect past episodes of Law and Order, considering "equal time" rules and all that.

So does this mean he's actually going to run? Since I can't read Fred Thompson's mind, that's tough to say. But as Hollywood Reporter points out, the threat of a writers strike means many series will begin filming earlier than usual, which means Thompson will have to decide sooner rather than later if he's going to stay with the series.

The lackluster response to FOX News' Half Hour News Hour and the continued popularity of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have led many to conclude that liberals are funny, and conservatives are not.

I say that's a load of hogwash. It's not about being liberal, conservative, libertarian, or whatever else you happen to be. It's about being funny, or not being funny. To paraphrase something comic Doug Stanhope once told me during an interview: 'if you're good, and you're funny, you can find work.'

That's it. You want to be a stand up comic? Be funny. You want to make a funny TV show people will love? Then make a funny TV show people will love.

All that being said, here are three funny conservatives I admire, not because they're conservative, but because they make me laugh:

I'm neither liberal nor conservative: I belong to a small political party that believes every election should be decided by having the candidates wrestle a kangaroo, and that schools should teach neither creationism nor evolution, but rather a theory that states all of existence is resting on a giant Eggo waffle and that the end will come when we pop out of the toaster and are eaten by a family of pan-dimensional goats.

I ask you: where's my political comedy series?

The "liberal bias" of the media we hear so much about was called into question recently with a study released by Media Matters which claims that Sunday morning political shows such as Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and This Week  tend to have more conservative guests than liberal. Of course, some are arguing against the study. NBC argued that during Clinton's term in office there were also slightly more Republican guests on Meet the Press. The point, I suppose, is that it's not necessarily dictated by who's in office. Also, there's the question as to who's really conservative and who isn't, especially when it comes to centrists like John McCain and others. My advice? Tune into The McLaughlin Group, a show where everyone is equally a raving lunatic, no matter their political affiliation. Or, go to the zoo and watch spider monkeys fighting each other. It's pretty much the same either way.