Yeah, the '08 GOP candidates are really doing everything in their power to avoid the stigma of Bush, aren't they?

George P. Bush, a nephew of President Bush who recently joined the Navy Reserve, has contributed to the prospective presidential campaign of Fred Thompson and signed an e-mail asking friends and associates to do the same, The Politico has learned.

"In a field of candidates without a clear favorite among our fellow Republicans, my sincere hope is that you consider joining us in this effort to encourage Fred to run," the e-mail says.

The involvement of a Bush family member highlights a stream of former Bush-Cheney aides and supporters who are signing on with Thompson...

Mary Matalin, the former counselor to Vice President Cheney, says she will be advising Thompson....

Advisers say the head of economic policy for Thompson's fledgling team will be Lawrence B. Lindsey, who was President Bush's first economic policy adviser and an architect of his tax cuts....

If the Republicans really thought Bush and the Bushies were political kryptonite, people like George P. and Cheney's old confidant Mary Matalin would be banished to the hinterlands, or at least kept way, way out of sight. But these guys know that Bush et al. are still widely admired on the right (the disaffection over the immigration bill will pass), and they also know that the press will ignore their ties to the Bushies as soon as it's general election season, because "breath of fresh air for the GOP" is a story the press would prefer to write, even if it's not true.