Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), described by ABC News as "Fred Thompson's top cheerleader on Capitol Hill," after Thompson's visit with GOP lawmakers today said that Thompson's entry into the race is "a matter of when -- not if."

ABC News reports:

Wamp offered his assessment that Thompson is going to jump into the presidential race after the Law & Order actor met at the Capitol Hill Club with 50 to 60 House Republicans.

Among the many questions that Thompson faced from the members of Congress he met with were ones about his divorce and his faith. Wamp told ABC News that Thompson said that he is in "excellent standing with everyone important in his life, including his first wife . . . and the man upstairs."

Multiple House Republicans who attended the hour-long Q&A session with Thompson gushed over him as someone who "checks all the boxes" in a way that the current crop of leading Republican contenders do not. [snip]

[S]everal House Republicans who attended today’s meeting seemed to think that he had the charisma, communication skills, and Reaganesque bearing to bring the country together and lead it in a time of war.

We should take Wamp's prediction with some caution, if only because Wamp isn't the most objective source on a Thompson candidacy. Nevertheless, it's been clear for a while that Thompson himself has been prepping for a run, as opposed to just considering it.

First, there was Thompson's interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday in March, which generated major buzz in the conservative blogosphere; next, the series of endorsements, most of them from Thompson's home state of Tennessee; then came Thompson's interview with Neil Cavuto disclosing his cancer, which he says is in remission. Thompson told Cavuto that he was announcing his cancer publicly because he wanted to see how it affected voters. That's one way to put it. Another way is that Thompson was doing the prerequisite "airing" of possible revelations that might hurt him on the campaign trail. And finally there was Saturday's Wall Street Journal op-ed in which Thompson embraced supply-side economics.

Add to this the relative despondency in conservative circles these days with the current crop of candidates and Wamp may be right that a Thompson candidacy isn't a matter of if but when.