Although the 2008 Presidential election is still far away, two Republicans have recently begun to make noises about bids at the GOP nomination. To begin, US News and World Report's Washington Whispers has news out of Foggy Bottom:

Political associates of Secretary of State Condi Rice are stirring the 2008 presidential pot on her behalf. While she takes the high road, they're pushing her name out there. "She definitely wants to be president," said one. But, the friend added, Rice isn't planning on quitting to run. "She wants to be drafted," he said.

Rice isn't the only Republican with friends spreading word of her name. An Arkansas Governor seems poised to make a bid for the White House, according to John Brummett of the Arkansas New Bureau (from Blue State Republican via Political Wire). And he's even from Hope*.

Mike Huckabee really is going to run for president, a person close to him told me matter-of-factly at an accidental lunch meeting the other day.

For the moment, Huckabee wouldn't be among the top 10 prospects mentioned if you asked a supposed national political expert to assess the likely field of Republican candidates for president in 2008.

You'd hear first about Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Bill Frist, George Allen, Chuck Hagel, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, George Pataki and Condoleezza Rice.

Huckabee might be next in line only because he's on a book tour and getting interviewed every time he turns around about losing a third of himself and running a marathon.

But even when he's mentioned, it tends to be condescendingly and incorrectly. Charles Cook, a leading political handicapper, wrote the other day that Huckabee would be a potential beneficiary if Santorum, the Pennsylvania senator who is the most polarizing right-winger in the prospective field, didn't run.

The number of Republicans running for President (or thinking about running for President) is growing by leaps and bounds. They could make the Democrats' gang of 10 from 2004 look like nothing.