SEATTLE -- '08 Notes is taking a brief reporting trip out to the Left Coast, so pardon the late posting today.

We love strange bedfellows. Have we said that already? The day before former Senator Fred Thompson announces his bid for the presidency, the mainstream media is already considering who might serve as a front-runner's vice president.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder points to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's introduction of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in which the former RNC chair said Giuliani "did almost everything that a conservative Republican would hope to get done in New York City." Jonathan Martin thinks it could happen, too.

Meanwhile, former Senator John Edwards will be introduced by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the clean-coal-loving, Canadian-prescription-drug-buying, gun-toting, hunting, fishing living embodiment of the Democrats' hopes for the Mountain West at a fundraiser in Missoula. Edwards "says out loud what I say every day here," Schweitzer told the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza.

Hillary Clinton has Govs. Martin O'Malley (MD), Mike Beebe (AR), Eliot Spitzer (NY) and Jon Corzine (NJ). Barack Obama has Rod Blagojevich (IL) and Tim Kaine (VA). Could Edwards add Schweitzer to his team?

Finally, if she's going to act so much the surrogate, why not just give Sen. Barack Obama's second spot away to Oprah Winfrey? Winfrey is going well beyond the purview of a normal fundraiser -- she hosts her $3 million soirée for Obama this Saturday (where "a few dozen VIPs will have special access to Winfrey," yes, Winfrey, not Obama). The Washington Post today also reports that the two camps are discussing more in-depth ways the gazillionaire media giant can help out Obama. "My value to him -- my support of him -- is probably worth more than any other check that I could write," she (modestly) told Larry King recently.

Also today, continuing the bipartisan cooperation around Senator Tim Johnson's (D-SD) return from a congenital arteriovenous malformation, Senator John Thune (R-SD) and Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-SD) each held open the doors of Johnson's office as the South Dakota's senior Senator returns to work today for the first time.

Republicans have had trouble starting a race against Thune because of his illness. In any other year, and with a strong opponent like Gov. Mike Rounds, Johnson would face a difficult, possibly uphill race. Johnson beat Thune by just over 500 votes in 2002, and beat Sen. Larry Pressler by 2% in 1996. Thune, of course, came back to beat Sen. Tom Daschle two years later.

It is unlikely that State Rep. Joel Dykstra or businessman Sam Kephart can give Johnson the race that Thune did, or Rounds would. But if State Public Utilities Commissioner Dusty Johnson jumps in the race, the Senator may need to get back to campaigning pretty soon.